July 5, 2013 - Quatsino Narrows

July 5, 2013 – A trip through Quatsino Narrows

It’s hard to believe when one wakes up in a quiet little bay with NO wind, that it is “blowing to beat 60” out in the ocean but apparently it is …. And we are here in Quatsino Sound, until it lets up.
 
... SEND FOOD …. We may be here for days !!  :-0 

Cam here!

This is why we are staying inside Quatsino Sound (see below).

 

Blue is “good”, red is “bad”.

As you can see virtually all of Vancouver Island is “bad” (until at least early next week). The following photo indicates winds up to 35kn (65km/hr.) with waves up to 4m (13ft). This is supposed to be fun so I don’t think we’re going upstage the World’s Deadliest Catch crew.

Remember what I said earlier; heavy-duty boat …. light-weight crew. 

So… we’ll just sit tight until things settle down and then make a dash around Brooks Peninsula (which is likely the toughest stretch of water we’ll encounter on the whole trip.

Back to Kim…..

 

Funny …. Red USED to be my favorite color.  NOT so much anymore …..  :-?

And “dash”? …. I don’t know if I would classify 8 knots as a DASH ….

Cam and I ran down to Port Alice in the tender in the am (about a 20 min ride) to pick up some provisions and possibly top up the fuel in the tender.  Not a lot in Port Alice …. We tied up to the dock at the “Port Alice Yacht Club” only to head up to the top of the ramp and find the door LOCKED.  Clearly Royal Van Yacht Club does not have reciprocity with Port Alice Yacht Club?!?  BUMMER ….. So close, yet so far …. No fuel and no provisions for us.  However, we WILL survive …. 

We headed back to Julian Cove and pulled up anchor to time our trip through Quatsino Narrows at high slack.   

Quatsino Narrows … swirly but other than that, a piece of cake.

 

Once through, we headed to Varney Bay but felt it was "a little too little" for the three of us, so we have found ourselves at Coal Harbor, at least for the afternoon.  (We may head back through the narrows at evening slack and head back into Julian Cove as it is blowing 15-20 knots here in Coal Harbor!!)

... Late afternoon and still in Coal Harbor but the wind has settled a little so we are anchored (separately) and here for the night! 

We went in to “town” to check out the facinating museum by the marina.  It is put together by a fellow named Joey who has done a remarkable job of documenting the history of the area (especially the RCAF) & collecting items - a chainsaw collection, the original and only,  Hornsby Crawler Tractor ( precursor to the CAT), an old vintage car and a firetruck  that he has restored, engines, tools, props - "stuff" he has collected over the years.  

Joey gave us a personal tour of his museum .... he is a very interesting fellow, and quite the character.

He has fabulous photos, stories and items  that he has collected, of past whaling activities in the area including a huge whale jaw bone on display. 

 

Headed back to the boats for a delish dinner of bbq’d turkey sausage & cabbage etc (NO CRAB !!) and then “True Lies” movie (can we EVER get enough of Jamie Lee Curtis doing her “pole dance” ??)  WITH popcorn, of course afterwhich everyone headed back to their own boats and off to bed.