SV Ultegra's Most Excellent Adventure: Haida Gwaii/Gwaii Haanas National Park

We're back on line after being out of telephone or email access for a month. We have covered alot of area during this time. We made our crossing to Haida Gwaii on July 12 after a false start when the winds (30+ kts) in Loredo Sound caused us to delay a day. The trip across took 15 hours, winds varied and we sailed about 40 of the 80 miles distance. The weather gods continued to smile on us and we only had a couple days of rain during our stay which is very unusual.

We focused our time while in Haida Gwaii on the south island and the Gwaii Haanas National Park. Twenty years ago it was made a national park with joint governance between the Haida People and the Federal Government. Many of you will remember the logging protests on Moresby Island which led up to this. For some history and information check out http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/gwaiihaanas/natcul.aspx.

We spent 12 days touring around the islands. The highlights for us were kayaking the Dolomite/Burnaby Narrows at low tide to see all of the shell fish, star fish etc;and visiting 4 of the historic Haida Villages which hold significant spiritual value for the Haida people. We learning more about the Haida history and could feel the pride of the Haida watchman guides. The Haida believe in letting things return to nature so the totems and longhouses have not been preserved and so are in various stages of decay. We have included some photos below that we hope provide you with a sense of the beauty of the area

For those of you that are considering a trip to Gwaii Haanas here are some reflections from our trip.

Only 100 people are allowed in the park a day, including boats, tours & kayakers. As a result we saw very few people. It would be a great place to buddy boat.
Our weather as mentioned was nice. Saying that we love the cockpit enclosure which has allowed us to sail in shorts and to spend all of our time outside rather than down below.
This summer has been very dry and if we didn't have a water maker we would have struggled as there was no where to access water.
Unless you have better fortune that us, don't plan on relying on fresh fish and seafood that you catch. We were happy to have all the things in our freezer.
We had anticipated seeing more sea life that we did. Others had the same experience which many are attributing to the rising sea temperatures.
Being further north the days were notably longer, by approximately 2 hours, which was great.

We left Gwaii Haanas on July 25/15 and began our 130 mile journey to the north end of Vancouver Island. It took us 27 hours to arrive in Sea Otter Cove. We sailed more than half of the trip with following seas and 3-4 meter waves. The wind was on the back quarter so I felt abit green but not bad and Dennis was fine. The moon was covered with clouds so it was VERY dark and initially disorienting. But we got onto it. This was my first over night crossing on the open ocean, sailing solo shifts, so I feel really pleased to have accomplished this.