As we spent an extra day in Sidney provisioning and catching up with friends, we opted not to stop at our typical next destination – Port of Nanaimo. We thoroughly enjoy the marine store and restaurant Stella Trattoria, but we didn’t feel the need to be in port another day in a row. So we picked a favorite midway destination of ours – Jedediah Island.
Our first visit to Jedediah Island wasn’t a planned visit, and we didn’t even know the island existed. We were in our first boat, an Ed Monk designed 42′ Performance Trawler, with a favorable wind forecast. Halfway from Nanaimo to south end of Texada the wind picked up and Strait of Georgia bared her teeth. One of two bridals holding our skiff broke, of course it was the bow bridal, holding our skiff by one davit against the outboard swinging in the seas. To make it more complicated we were towing our 21′ Shamrock. As we tipped back and forth at idle to lower the skiff and set to tow two boats, we looked on Navionics for a tuck in destination at the bottom of Texada to lick our wounds protected by the gnarly seas. That destination was Jedediah Island.
Jedediah Island is a popular spot, with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, stern tie, and hikes on shore. Boaters will spend multiple days here, but this it typically a one night layover and stern tie practice for us. We always enjoy gunkholing in our fish boat, looking for the goats and sheep that can be spotted on the cliffs nibbling on grass. It always amazes us the unexpected places we spot them.
We have been fortunate in our last handful of South Strait of Georgia crossings for Whiskey Gulf to be not active. It appeared our luck had run out as WG was active and we had to divert our course slightly to transit around the active military torpedo zone to our destination of Jedediah Island. Not too big of a headache as we exited the Gulf Islands through Porlier Pass with the current running with us at 6.9kts, giving us a favorable line with the seas.
Our crossing of the North section of Strait of Georgia couldn’t have been much more candy. A little slop until we approached the North end of Texada, then the seas flattened out, the the wind non-existent with a flood tide at our backs. Portia kept Tessa company on the flybridge helm most of the cruise.
We enjoyed our outstation at Cortes Bay in Desolation Sound, especially the fresh lettuce and kale from the Pea Patch. Only four other boats were at the dock and the weather continued to be spectacular for mid June. Tom got to work sanding the starboard quarter of the cockpit caprail that had failed, as Tessa supervised and enjoyed the beautiful weather with Portia.
