SV Ultegra's Most Excellent Adventure: Juan de Fuca Straight and Beyond

We continued our journey down the west coast of Vancouver Island making our way from Tofino to the Broken Islands, which is a very popular kayaking destination. We saw a few boats and kayakers but not as many as anticipated. The kayaking in this area is fabulous offering many islets and coves to explore, sea urchins and starfish, rich bird life, seas and sea lions, along with the biggest mussels we have ever seen! (see picture below). The kayaking on this trip has definitely been one of the highlights for us.

We continued to experience more sightings of whales. The morning we left the Broken Island we saw two pods of humpbacks and later in the day a pod of killer whales. This sure helps to break up long stretches of sailing (or motoring.as the case may be). Our weather continued to be really nice with hit and miss winds.

The night before we reached Victoria we anchored and laughed when Dennis said "what is that noise?" and we realized it was a motor bike on a near by road. We have definitely been away for a while! As we approached the Victoria Harbour we recognized that we were ending the phase of our journey through the remote part of the BC coast. Over the past 2.5 months we have been blessed with beautiful scenery, extraordinary wild life and wonderful experiences.

Victoria was fun! We tied up in front of the Empress Hotel and had front row seats to their Dragon Boat Festival and all the local sights. I stayed on in Victoria while Dennis took the boat over to Port Angeles to do some work on the boat. My pals Maureen, Marilyn, Sandra and Susanne came over for the weekend and I also had great visits with Brian, Dawn and Maxine. I have such good friends!

I rejoined Dennis in Port Angeles and we headed off to Neah Bay to position for the trip around Cape Flattery. The weather cooperated and we headed off soon after. Alot of people that head down to San Francisco go straight through given there aren't alot of places to stop along the way and the stops that are there present challenging entrances given they have sand bars to cross. These are created when the water of the river meets up with the waves of the ocean. You have to carefully time your crossing to minimize the effects of the tide, current and waves. Dennis and I decided to harbour hop down the coast, as we wanted to visit some of the places and given there are just two of us on the boat going straight through would be exhausting. Given Dennis experience with navigation we were confident we could manage the bars and too date this has been the case;

We set off at 3:30 am in the dark from Neah Bay in order to meet the crossing at Gray's Harbour. The waters around Cape Flattery were like a washing machine and that combined with the dark left me feeling green! After a 20 hour sail we arrived and crossed the bar with no problem. Gray's Harbout along with each of the stops along the coast are big recreational and commercial fishing areas. Everyone is very generous in sharing their local knowledge about the crossings etc. which have been really helpful. I have a new appreciation for the fishing industry and lifestyle and how many people are fishing crazy!

We continued our trip venturing from Gray's Harbour, Washington to Astoria, Oregon in the Columbia River. The bar entering the Columbia River can be very treacherous so we gave ourselves lots of time to ensure we arrived at the right time. We set out at 8:45 p,m in pea soup fog, sailing through the night to arrive at 8:30 a.m. This was our first experience on the trip sailing in fog and given the cockpit enclosure, chart plotter, radar and auto-pilot it really was pretty easy to manage. I am getting onto the night sailing and am feeling pretty comfortable with it. Between Dennis planning and being blessed by the weather gods we had no problem getting across the bar. (I hope the video below works so you can see the evidence). Our greatest challenge was navigating through the hundreds of recreational fishing boats, as salmon season was underway

We were forewarned by commercial fishermen that a bad storm was approaching so we planned to spend the time in Astoria waiting for it to pass. What a storm! The wind was a constant 50 kts. with gusts to 70 kts! These were the strongest winds that I have ever experienced. Despite being securely tied up it was pretty rocky rolly and noisy! I tried to capture some pictures but they really don't show the extent of it. The extra time in Astoria has allowed up to enjoy the historic part of the city, their local bistros and craft beer, take in their farmers market and to meet some nice people. The people have been very friendly and helpful!

We were intending to head out today to Newport but I had to stay put to complete a proposal for potential work on my return. We are trying hard to pretend I am not going home but reality is starting to knock at our door. We will make every moment count!