STRAIT OF GEORGIA

So much for the accuracy of the marine weather forecasters. We checked the NOAA forecast, the

Environment Canada forecast, Windytv and Big Wave Dave (a local windsurfing site) — all said the 5-10 knot overnight winds would diminish to “light and variable” by morning and continue to abate throughout the day with a partly cloudy sky. We woke up to steady rain and a northwest wind at least 10 knots. Since it was supposed to diminish, we left Nanaimo Harbour around 8:15 to cross the Strait of Georgia. The US/Canada Torpedo Test Range, Whiskey Golf, was inactive today, so we were able to make a straight line across to strait toward our goal - Pender Harbour. Immediately out of Nanaimo the water started getting a bit lumpy and the seas increased until we were going into a very confused sea with waves in the 3-4 ft. range. It wasn’t bad enough to turn around, but we were rockin’ and rollin’ a bit. The crossing took about three hours and the waves started to drop after about two hours. The last hour saw 2-3 ft. waves until we got behind a couple of islands which smoothed things out.

We got into Pender Harbour and anchored in Garden Bay around 1 PM. Looking for a more detailed cruising guide to Desolation Sound and the Broughton Islands, we took the dinghy into shore and walked over to John Henry’s Store to check out their selection. We didn’t really find what we wanted, but picked up another book anyway.

The weather had improved by this time, although it remained cool, breezy and cloudy. We tried sitting up on deck to read, but it was just too cold so moved back inside where it is very pleasant out of the wind. We did have a few visitors, though - so would you call them Canadian Canada Geese?

We’ll crank up the barbecue tonight. We’ve spent so many nights in marinas so far (very atypical for us - we almost always anchor out) we haven’t barbecued much - they don’t let you do that when so many other boats are close by.

The plan for tomorrow is to cruise up the Jarvis Inlet about 40 miles to Princess Louisa Inlet. We’ll have to get an early start in order to time the tidal flows through Malibu Rapids at the entrance to the inlet. It is a narrow, “S” shaped channel which can have flows up to 9 knots, so we want to get there in between the ebb tide and the flood tide when the water has the least movement.