We had a delightful summer cruise \u2013 another 1500-something mile journey along the British Columbia coast. Each year we gain more comfort with living on the boat, and each year we wish to go further than the summer weather window allows us to go.<\/p>\n
The thing about cruising the BC central coast is that it is cold and grey. Anytime you go inland, it tends to be sunny and warm \u2013 but along the outer passage it\u2019s just plain cold. We felt like we spent the summer \u201coverwintering\u201d along the BC Central Coast after we had \u201csummer\u201d in Hawaii during the winter months. Usual garb includes stocking caps and wool socks.<\/p>\n
Despite the weather, we really enjoyed looking at mountains, trees, whales and water for 3 months. Some notable events of this cruise:<\/p>\n
We got as far north as Hartley Bay, which is just off Wright Sound at the mouth of Douglass Channel. Wright Sound was a wonderful place \u2013 full of breaching frisky whales.<\/p>\n
Van has pulled in some very large and yummy fish. Tally was something like 8 salmon (including 2 sockeye), 2 ling cod (one weighed about 15 lbs) and of course Rockfish. We had delightful seafood dinners nearly all summer long.<\/p>\n
I ran aground on the mud flat at the head of Kynoch inlet in Fiord lands. No harm done, we floated off 2.5 hours later as the tide came in. I never ran aground before, but now I am a real skipper. We both had a good laugh about it after we had the kedge anchor set.<\/p>\n
We gained some good experience in some heavy weather, proving once again that Rainshadow is a tough boat that handles a fresh breeze with ease. And every time we took green water over the bow, we appreciated the windscreen and fully enclosed cockpit. My, those exposed aft cockpit boaters look miserable at times.<\/p>\n
But we also had a lot of light wind days. We flew a spinnaker for the first time \u2013 and now we are sold on the importance of light air sails. It was a used spinnaker that we picked up at the last minute before departing. Funny thing about the sail \u2013 it is marked with CN 32. Could this mean \u201cCamper Nicholson 32?\u201d The Nic 38 and Nic 32 share the same mast, maybe this spinnaker was originally used on a Nic 32?<\/p>\n
Though we wished we could return down the west coast of Vancouver Island like we did last year, the weather started deteriorating in late August so we thought it prudent to take the more protected route home. We had some nice sailing days on the way home \u2013 which is better than we can say about last year\u2019s trip around the west coast!<\/p>\n
Many more daily memories available at svrainshadow.tumblr.com \u2013 but here are some photo memories.
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