September Sailing Part 1 (1st-12th)

The last few weeks before I left on my trip were a whirlwind of projects, coming to the marina early before work and staying after until sunset most days to complete the necessary work for my sailing trip. It felt like every free hour I had was devoted to boat projects.

Even on Sep. 1 as my start time approached, I was epoxying the mount for my tiller autopilot as I hurriedly packed what I needed and threw it into my boat.

Finally, maybe an hour before sunset, I left the dock to spend my first ever night at anchor just outside the marina. Kait came with me and after a quick, windless sail, I set up the anchor and then we spent a couple hours organizing after dark. There wasn’t even space to step around all the stuff piled on the floor, but she helped me get it to a workable level of organization.

Sep. 2: I pulled up the anchor at 5am, navigated into the marina in the pitch black to drop Kait off at the dock, and started traveling to my first destination, Anacortes.

This was my first time boating at night, and I was glad to have my robust electrical system handling my navigation lights. It was about 30 minutes before daylight started fading in.

A bit beyond the mouth of the bay I saw what I thought was a small island with a lighthouse on it. Curious… and 2 big ships next to it… and 4 smaller big boats with blue lights on them, around that. One of them zoomed toward me and told me to change my course to starboard to respect the 1000 yard naval submarine escort zone. Wow! Oops!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I was immediately grateful that I had spent the time to get my tillerpilot installed and working. It’s so nice to set a course, let the boat drive itself, and have a chance to take care of the million small things that need to be done throughout the day.

In Anacortes I met up with my aunt who used to do a lot of sailing starting in the 80s, and often worked in the marine industry including being a (regional?) manager for West Marine. She drove me to get dinner and groceries too, it was nice catching up.

Sep. 3: I left in the morning (after sunrise!) to see how far into the San Juans I could get. Dreamy and smooth. I had plans to meet Atli on North Pender Island, in Canada, on the 4th, and at this point I wasn’t really sure how far I could go in a day, or whether it was realistic to get there in time. It was! I made it 30 nautical miles that day, using barely 1 gallon of gas. There was almost zero wind so it was mostly motoring. I detected a faint breeze at one point and excitedly hoisted my sails only to drift at maybe 1.5 knots across a small section of water before it died again.

I made it basically all the way through the San Juans without stopping… dropped my anchor in a sweet little cove on Stuart Island, just south of the border, and had a peaceful night.

Sep. 4: Another hour of motoring and I was pulling into the customs dock at Bedwell Harbor on South Pender Island. I climbed the ramp up to the building where they have the phones, answered the agent’s questions, gave her my Canadian passport number (!), and I was good to go.

A few hours later I picked up Atli at a marina near the ferry station — must have been funny to jump onto a sailboat with a backpack not knowing quite what to expect, and spending the next 5 days traveling in it. We sailed downwind and down-current to a marina in Ganges, Salt Spring Island.

The currents around here are definitely the main thing I have to plan my days around. There is just no point in going against the current if it can possibly be avoided. Upwind, that’s fine, I can tack. Or just motor, efficiently. This lesson was majorly reinforced on Sep. 6.

Ganges was nice! We went to a restaurant and various stores. Our boat neighbors were kinda cool. I got out the inflatable dinghy (thanks Caleb!) from the starboard lazarette where I had packed it, and we got it set up — time to try towing. (Totally not as bad as I expected.)

Sep. 5: After coffee/breakfast we left Ganges, having set the little bay between Tumbo & Cabbage Islands as our destination for some reason. This required us to go through Active Pass, which I like to call a super scary ferry area (fun to say out loud). Miner’s Bay on Mayne Island is halfway through the pass, and Mayne Island happens to be Atli’s favorite that she’s been to. So we stopped there and I can see why she likes it! They had a cool brewery, an acceptable grocery store, some good pizza, and just generally chill vibes. I guess they have a good campground that’s close to the ferry as well.

This was another low wind day so we motored all the way to Tumbo Island (other than an upwind sail out of the Ganges harbor). Used the dinghy for the first time to get to Cabbage Island. Since my boat is called Boatato, I’m calling the dinghy Jojo for now. We did a lap around the island and then noticed the signs that you’re really only supposed to go ashore to use the toilet or pay mooring ball fees, oops. It was pretty though.

Sep. 6: In the morning we took Jojo to Tumbo Island this time, where there is a legitimate hiking trail that went through a few different interesting areas.

Our next plan was to head toward Nanaimo, where Atli would take the ferry back home to mainland BC. I decided that instead of heading back the way we came, through Active Pass, what would instead be grand was if we rounded Saturna Island to the NE and then came back in through the east side of Pender Islands.

So… there’s a place called Rosenfeld Rock off the tip of Saturna and the currents evidently get pretty crazy there. It’s kind of a main meeting point for the incoming tide entering the Strait of Georgia. So there can be rapids, waves, whirlpools. I didn’t do my research so we basically sailed straight into all that and it got pretty chaotic for a minute there! I realized I was getting swept away from my course at a rate that I could not compete with. And sort of had to ride it out and then exit the long way around.

I generally miscalculated the route and timing of this day, and unfortunately we had to motor pretty hard into the current for 2-3 hours to make it around Saturna Island.

During this stretch we heard the most intense radio call I’ve heard so far. Mayday, mayday, mayday! A lady called in to report that their boat had run aground and the crew of 2 was “badly injured” and they needed assistance. As part of the correspondence, Victoria Coast Guard Radio asked for her location and she said “I’m having trouble reading the coordinates because I have too much blood in my eyes.” The radio system feels weirdly public for what is basically a 911 call. I hope they ended up OK. At least our day wasn’t as bad as all that!

Anyway, after a hectic day we wanted to stay at a proper marina and recharge so we went into Port Browning and had dinner at the pub there and went for a walk.

Sep. 7: Walked 15 minutes away to go to a bakery, get groceries, butane for the stove, stuff like that. Soon we were motoring out of the bay… and once turning off the engine, it didn’t come back on until it was time to find home for the night. Today was the opposite of yesterday: hours and hours of easy, downwind, with-the-current sailing, pleasant weather. We were making 5+ knots effortlessly wing-on-wing and letting the autopilot do all the work. Easy day. Made it to Ruxton Island.

After a couple of unsatisfactory locations, we ended up in Herring Bay and tied up to a private mooring ball. Called the number but got no response. It worked out ok. With butane in hand, we were able to use my stove for the first time and made some tofu veggie ramen which was a nice treat.

Sep. 8: Getting to Nanaimo! The main obstacle was Dodd Narrows, a narrow passage that can have currents of 7-8 knots at full flow. Best to wait for slack tide, so we planned the morning around that. Left Herring Bay and checked out Pirate’s Cove briefly before motoring to the near side of Dodd Narrows and dropping anchor for a while. When the current was low we drove through, and another hour into the bay by Nanaimo.

Atli told me about a fun place called the Dinghy Dock Pub which floats on the water and I was able to simply motor my boat there and tie up to the restaurant. Cool experience. Then after a stop at Poop Island (septic pump-out breakwater) and the fuel dock, landed in our spot in the main Nanaimo marina.

It’s always nice to go for a walk when you have access to land in the evening, because weirdly enough you’re traveling quite far on a sailboat but you can only ever take a few steps. And they are steps where you have to watch your head, balance, and hold onto things. We went to a dollar store and to a cafe called Vault which had amazing decorations, good food, and aloof staff. Then got margheritas at the little Mexican place on the dock before enjoying the evening from the boat.

Sept. 9: Breakfast at a place in a hotel that I don’t remember the name of, and another stop at Vault for better coffee than the breakfast place had. Atli’s ferry was at 11, so we said goodbye and she started walking there at 10, and I hurriedly got the boat ready since my checkout was at 11 as well.

This next bit of sailing was exciting! Going around the NW end of Gabriola, in a brisk upwind, in seas that were a bit more exposed to the Strait of Georgia which meant maybe 1-2ft swells, which feels big enough in my little boat. It had me right at the border of “I’ve got this under control” and “…do I, though?”.

Everything went fine though, my tacks worked out, I went downwind on the north side of Gabriola, I navigated the narrow islands near Silva Bay just fine, chose good timing to take down my sails to I could motor through some current and then drop anchor in the peaceful little bay just east of Gabriola Passage / Valdes Island. It was today that I realized I’ve come a long way from when I first started sailing. While there have been many moments of uncertainty and concern on this trip, nothing has crossed the line into feeling alarming or panic-inducing like I used to feel on my first solo outings. I’m still a novice with loads to learn, but I’m at least beginning to understand how to integrate the 100 relevant points of data and turn them into a safer and more enjoyable day of cruising.

Sept 10: Interesting thing about the little bay last night is that at high tide, the water overflows the far end of the rock wall enclosing it, so a bunch of current does come through at that time. Then when the level drops, it’s very still again.

This was another quite easy day of downwind sailing, the main differences from the last one being that I didn’t have Atli’s good company, and I was out in the Strait of Georgia so the ride was a lot more dynamic due to all the swells. Saw my first whales, humpbacks I believe, at least 2.

I made it to Whaler Bay on Galiano Island which is just north of Active Pass. Took the dinghy in and walked to a few stores recommended by the guidebook. I quite enjoyed that walk actually. Very nice hardware store with decent prices for the islands, and a lovely little grocery store as well. There’s a trail next to the road so you don’t have to walk on the road.

The anchorage wasn’t totally protected so there were little baby swells coming in and due to whatever combination of current, wind, and maybe just spite, Boatato insisted on sitting 90 degrees to them so that my boat was rocking violently side to side and kept waking me up. I realized this might be a good time to use a stern anchor to keep me facing the waves more head-on, so I tried doing that and it worked to some extent. I didn’t place it quite right because it was the middle of the night and I was grumpy.

Sep. 11: My anchors were covered in loads of seaweed when I pulled them up… weird.

My southward direction from Nanaimo has been an effort to get back to Friday Harbor by the 13th to meet Kait for a few days of cruising with her on board. So today’s route was back through Active Pass (super scary ferry area) and eventually to Rum Island, a tiny island very close to the CA/US border. I wanted to go there, Boatato wanted to go there, the current halfheartedly wanted me to go there at least at first… but the wind absolutely did not want me to go there. At least there was wind! But I fought it for every nautical mile of progress as you can see from the track of the day. Yeah, I could have taken down sails and motored, that would have been the easy way, but I had time and I came out there to practice sailing in the first place. So I fought it for as long as I could, until the wind finally whimpered out and the current wasn’t cooperating either. Right at that point I noticed a whale-watching boat was stopped nearby, and managed to see a couple of orcas for a while.

30-40 minutes of motoring and I was at Rum Island.

I anchored and took Jojo to shore to do a lap around the island, which was a highlight for me so far. It has a beautiful camping area and there was a guy staying there who had been out on his rowboat for a week and a half.

Sep. 12: I woke up to some misty fog for the first time, which gave everything an ethereal vibe. I loved the aesthetic, and I motored off thinking: hey, that wall of fog in the distance will certainly lift by the time I get there and not pose any navigational or stress-related difficulties, right? I was in the clear for a while and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise. The foghorns of various ships bellowed from inside the shrouds of mist before taking shape and breaking free into clear water. Then, suddenly I was inside of it and visibility seemed to be no more than 50-100 feet. I was out of the main shipping lanes but didn’t know when the ferry service was starting. So, I quickly found an anchorage where I could wait out the fog for a while. Before too long, it was lifting, and I realized it was slack tide and I needed to make it through Speiden Channel before the current was against me. I motored through there as fast as I could, and having reached a turning point where I was going downstream, set sail and again worked upwind to reach Friday Harbor, with better luck this time.

Customs were a little stressful in part because I hated the dock where I had to anchor — like I said, Boatato rocks like hell with the slightest bit of beam-on wave action, and it was doing that against the dock. I’m trying to fix the lines and move the boat to make room in case others come and meanwhile customs guy is calling me back asking why in the world I used the iPad on the dock to check in instead of having the app on my phone (well, when you put a big sign on the iPad box saying “use this iPad to check in to customs” I assumed it was a valid option to use it!) so I’m scrambling to fix the lines with one hand while the guy is waiting for me to return to the iPad for a video call. All of that complete, I navigate to slip H-1 to find it already occupied, dock in H-3 instead, and apparently the marina told both of us to use that spot but they thought that my neighbor was told H-3. Anyway, I got a slice of pizza in town, some groceries, and ordered Pad Ke Mao at 10/10 spice level which unfortunately made the whole restaurant cough but did seem to impress the waitstaff when I finished it. Communicated with Kait about her arrival tomorrow. And, finally, started writing this entire report that you’ve just finished reading. Now to add photos, hit publish, and crash for the night, hopefully before 1am [edit: 2:38 and almost done…]. Lots to do tomorrow.

Stay tuned for part 2! Really not sure where this is going! Thanks for reading if you made it this far and let me know if you have any suggestions for where I should go next.

(BTW, shoutout to gpx.studio for making a great GPS track editing tool! Donated 5 Euros.)