Summer came late to Seattle this year, or on time – as they saying goes, summer does not start until July 5th. We have been spoiled with beautiful weather in the months of May and June these past couple years, however “Juneuary” was in full force this year.
From Sidney BC we transited to Nanaimo BC, where we spent Canada Day in some glorious sunshine and had a delicious Italian dinner at La Stella Trattoria.
Nanaimo BC to Cortes Island BC, crossing the Strait of Georgia with Whiskey Gulf not active, was on our scale of Strait of Georgia transits, tolerable even without our upgraded Naiad stabilizers working properly. Sunshine and warmth never hurts, either.
Cortes Island BC to Blind Channel BC on 4th of July was a wet and soggy transit and day. This transit is stunning on a clear day. We didn’t let the liquid sunshine stop us from hiking to the cedar tree (first time in ten years of visiting Blind Channel), or enjoying fabulous meals at the restaurant. It’s always a treat to stop at Blind Channel on our way North and South.
Johnstone Strait can be intimidating, with the wind funneling between the mountain ranges on either side and the current patterns, it is to be treated with respect. A comfortable morning departure of 8:30am, we’ve done 4:30am in past years, the fog lifted giving way to beautiful sunshine and what we call FAC, glass, or martini water. You could have waterskied from Campbell River to Port McNeill.
Cape Caution and Slingsby Channel are to be treated with respect. Observations at West Sea Otter buoy should be taken into consideration, 1m preferable for a comfortable transit. An early morning crossing is typical, to get around Cape Caution before the seas and wind have time to build. But with this atypical summer, or let’s just say soggy El Nino pattern, the wind and seas have been calm and we departed late morning – which was probably our candiest Cape Caution crossing to date. FAC/glass/martini water with barely an ocean swell under beautiful blue skies. So far we’ve dodged the bullet of needing our faulty upgraded stabilizers!
