| Wed, 5 Sep 2001 00:03:00 -0000 (GMT) We're on the home stretch now, motoring out the Strait of Juan de Fuca for Neah Bay. We spent a day and a half in Port Angeles, clearing customs, picking up crew, and preparing for the run down the coast. We left David and Lynne in Pender Harbor, where they climbed on a Kenmore Air plane bound for Seattle (actually, Kenmore). David was ultimately headed home to Forest Grove via Amtrak, to see if the house is still there, and to begin his job search. We intended to anchor somewhere near Pender Harbor and proceed across to Nanaimo the next day (Friday), but the weather forecast suggested that Thursday afternoon and evening would be better than Friday (southeast gales and rain forecast for Friday). So we continued across to Nanaimo, getting a good sail out of it, and coming into Nanaimo in the near dark. (That was exciting---) We got the last available dock space in the boat basin, dodging various unlit dinghies and uncharted buoys on the way. The weather forecast turned out to be wrong, and Friday in Nanaimo was hot and only occasionally cloudy, but plenty of wind. We picked up the camera at the Laidlaw terminal (thank-you, Cambell River Airport Shuttle!) and got the Zodiac repaired. |
| Chapter 15 -- Pender Harbor to Neah Bay |
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| Saturday morning we headed south, bound for Victoria. The forecast was once again for a southeast gale, so we opted for the "inside" route, through the Gulf Islands. We expected wind in our face, but at least it would be moderated by the many islands. In fact, the wind turned out to be southwest, and we had a good sail (beam reach) most of the way. It was actually a gorgeous day, with boats able to sail both directions (the main routes being northwest-southeast or southeast-northwest). The colors were brilliant, not too much chop, plenty of wind, and lots of boats were out (it being Labor Day weekend). |
| We began the trip with a passage through Dodd Narrows, one of those places that can have 8 knots of current at the peak. We headed there about 20 minutes ahead of the slack water, so there would be a little bit of current pushing us through. We were accompanied by about 10 other boats. Right at the mouth of the narrows, there were two tugs, pulling a huge log boom through against the current. They were making almost no progress against the current. They were doing their best to keep the logs to one side, but it was really questionable in our minds whether there was enough room to get through, particularly with a steady stream of boats coming the other direction alongside the log boom and tugs. Craig finally called one of the tugs on the radio, and he assured us there was room. We shot through, still with 2-3 knots of current pushing us through. That was exciting, and hopefully I got some good pictures. |
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| Above: Our closest approach to the log boom. Below: Looking back at the parade of traffic past the log boom. |
| We anchored near Victoria at Cadboro Bay (site of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club), and felt as though we were intruding among the ultra-rich. Then on Sunday we crossed the straits to Port Angeles, on mill-pond smooth water. We had gone to the farmers market in Nanaimo on Friday, and stocked up on some wonderful fruits and vegetables (blueberries, zucchini, apricots, peaches...). I read with some horror in the information about US Customs that we would not be allowed to bring in anything "grown in Canadian soil." So lunch was a multi-vegetable casserole, followed by fruit salad. (The vegetable recipe came from a wonderful cookbook we found in Victoria, called "Cooks Afloat." It's keyed to northwest boating, with lots of limited-kitchen-space recipes for local fish, berries, and even seaweed. This particular recipe is called "vegetable rescue" and is intended for "vegetables that have lasted ten days without refrigeration, and don't look like they'll last much longer...") (We had actually met the authors of "Cooks Afloat" in Westview. They were doing a book tour, going from marina to marina, making appearances in bookstores. We just missed the free samples, but we did get our book autographed.) |
| As it turned out, customs was very low key (although it took about an hour filling out all the forms) and they didn't even ask us about fruits and vegetables. Sid Blachford came on Sunday (Julie elected not to join us down the coast), and on Monday Ian delivered Jesse, Allison and Alex -- friends of his who were interested in a bluewater, offshore experience. Jesse is the guy who helped us get Sequoia off the freighter from Shanghai last February. Regrettably, Ian is in "vacation deficit" so could not join us for this trip. Today we have little wind, so we're motoring toward Neah Bay. Possibly the wind will come up before we get there, and we can sail. Later (from Neah Bay) -- We did have a nice sail, including 15 minutes with a school of dolphins playing in our bow wave, and a close encounter with a Trident nuclear submarine. (Radio message: "sailboat 5 miles off my port bow, this is Submarine Two...") |
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