We arrived in Sidney, BC on December 19th just ahead of yet another weather system. Our trip up from Oak Harbour was great. Getting out of Oak Harbour was a bit tense - wind against tide made for a slow bumpy ride out of the harbour. At times it felt like we had come to a complete stand still. Once we turned the corner we had the wind behind us and made good time to Cornet Bay. We stayed at the marine park for the night and then timed our passage through Deception Pass at slack tide the next day. It was very easy as the weather and tides were in our favour. We had a great sail across Rosario Strait and entered the San Juan Islands through Lopez Pass.
We had read up on possible anchorages and as we were making such good time we ended up in Blind Bay on the north shore of Shaw Island. It was a very nice protected bay - this was our first night at anchor. The weather forecast for the next few days didn't sound promising. We made plan A, B and C but stuck with our original plan to go to Reid Harbour on Stuart Island. The day was beautiful, sunshine and just enough wind to sail slowly up San Jaun Passage. Reiis a lovely bay and fairly well protected. Good thing because it really blew. We were on a floating dock and couldn't even row to shore for most of the day. Ended up spending two nights there and then did the short hop to Sidney.
Oh another docking challenge as the wind had picked up and was blowing us against the customs dock. When we built the house, we were told that if our relationship could stand that stress, we were good forever. Try docking a sailboat. That is the test of a relationship. We can't be too hard on ourselves as it is very new to both of us and we only done it a half dozen times. The drag was that we couldn't stay at the customs dock over night so that meant having to move off the dock and into another slip. This time is was getting off the dock that was the challenge - our docking worked just as we planned.
Unfortunately it is not a very sheltered spot and boy did it blow last night. As we are planning to leave the boat for a few days and head to Vancouver for Christmas we are going to see if we can get a more protected spot - especially after reading the forecast - more gale warnings!!
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday!
We had read up on possible anchorages and as we were making such good time we ended up in Blind Bay on the north shore of Shaw Island. It was a very nice protected bay - this was our first night at anchor. The weather forecast for the next few days didn't sound promising. We made plan A, B and C but stuck with our original plan to go to Reid Harbour on Stuart Island. The day was beautiful, sunshine and just enough wind to sail slowly up San Jaun Passage. Reiis a lovely bay and fairly well protected. Good thing because it really blew. We were on a floating dock and couldn't even row to shore for most of the day. Ended up spending two nights there and then did the short hop to Sidney.
Oh another docking challenge as the wind had picked up and was blowing us against the customs dock. When we built the house, we were told that if our relationship could stand that stress, we were good forever. Try docking a sailboat. That is the test of a relationship. We can't be too hard on ourselves as it is very new to both of us and we only done it a half dozen times. The drag was that we couldn't stay at the customs dock over night so that meant having to move off the dock and into another slip. This time is was getting off the dock that was the challenge - our docking worked just as we planned.
Unfortunately it is not a very sheltered spot and boy did it blow last night. As we are planning to leave the boat for a few days and head to Vancouver for Christmas we are going to see if we can get a more protected spot - especially after reading the forecast - more gale warnings!!
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday!