Friday Harbor to Bellingham

Up at 5:30, a quick shower and cast off at 6:15. We used the “turning basin” adjacent to Dock D to get the bow pointed in the right direction and slipped out of Friday Harbor in the early light. Karen took the first watch and noted the rising sun in her eyes made it hard to see the electronic displays.

We traded watches in two hour intervals and the “off-duty” person used their time to finish up packing and cleaning the boat. It’s now 9:43 and we are 12 minutes out from the fuel docks at Bellingham. Karen reiterates that she does not want the trip to end. It was an indeed a great trip down the West Coast of Vancouver.  Pacific Northwest cruising never disappoints.

Prevost Harbor to Friday Harbor

We enjoyed a relaxed morning and started the process of packing in anticipation of the end of our cruise. Leaving Prevost Harbor, we took a run past Jones Island in hopes that the weather will be suitable for anchoring or maybe we can find a spot on the small dock.

The wind was up as we approached Jones Island, and we found there was just enough space open on the dock for Alaskan Dream. Jones is of our favorite walks in the San Juan Islands, and today the Southwest trail did not disappoint. We enjoyed great views of sailboats with their spinnakers deployed enjoying the favorable winds.

Of the hundreds of sailboats we see every year, these two actually were using their sails

With the wind out of Northwest, it would've been a great day to anchor in the South Cove but you need to be prepared to dinghy to the beach. As we made ready Alaskan Dream for departure, a large Bayliner made its way into the cove at Jones. When we told them, via the radio, that were we were getting ready to leave, they were thrilled at this new-found opportunity to tie up at the docks.

One of many great views from Jones Island

Karen had the helm to Friday Harbor as I made pork sandwiches with chutney for lunch. Karen wasn't happy about dodging all the traffic along the route, but as we have slip reservations in Friday Harbor, we were confident that we didn't need to “race the fleet” to get a berth. The harbormaster assigned us a side tie on the inside of breakwater Delta. That’s our favorite spot, as being on the inside, you get great protection from ferry wake.

We started to walk to town by dropping off trash and paid our moorage at the Marina Office. Karen and I did a little souvenir shopping for friends and family back home. Walking around town, we turned a corner and lo and behold we saw the Sea Shepherd store. Apparently this is now the US headquarters of the Sea Shepherd organization, and its leader Paul Watson calls Friday Harbor home when he is not out trying to stop whaling in the Southern Oceans. We always find their exploits on the TV to be something between amusing and miraculous in that most on board the vessel are not mariners. Nevertheless, they somehow manage to survive a never ending succession of calamities.

Beer and salmon dip were snacks before dinner, then chili and drop biscuits accompaied by great wine .Before sunset, we went for another walk around the docks and ran into the crew of Vintage, a 49 down-galley Grand Banks. We had met them earlier in the year at the Grand Banks rendezvous at Roche Harbor. They thought they recognized us, but were confused because we were not on our boat , OceanFlyer.  They invited us onboard and we talked for a while, catching up on each of our travels. The top of the evening was a little more packing and an early turn-in in anticipation of the 5:30 wake-up call. Tomorrow will be our last day of cruising for the summer.

Victoria to Prevost Harbor

We amended our trip routing and decided to first head for Limekiln Point in Haro Strait to see if we could spot any orca before we continued on to our destination of Satellite Cove on Stuart Island. In the past, we have spotted orca at Limekiln Point and it is a primary destination for the whale watching boats from both the U.S. and Canada. Our plan was to use our I-68 passes to clear customs while enroute. Failing that, Roche Harbor was on our route and would only require a small detour if we needed to present ourselves to U.S. Customs.

The sun was shining and the winds and seas calm, but Victoria Harbour was, as always, full of all manner of things that float. There was a plethora of small sport fishing boats with their lines in the water just outside the harbour, such that we could barely find a path to clear the congestion.

Traffic in Victoria Inner Harbour

Victoria is on of a very few International Seaplane Bases  

Homes that float in Victoria Harbour

As we headed across Haro Strait, we caught the adverse current and our speed dropped to 5 knots over the ground. Poor planning on our part! It seemed to take forever to make the crossing. As we entered U.S. waters, we called customs and used our I-68 passes to clear in. This efficient process saved us the hassle of going to Roche Harbor's Customs Docks on Labor Day.

Nice but slow crossing of Haro Strait into the current

On our way to Prevost Harbour, after being skunked at Limekiln Point, we made our course good for Turn Point Light to see if we could find any Orca there but, again,  not a single blow or animal was to be seen. There were lots of boats in Prevost Harbor and our favorite anchorage, Satellite Cove, was full. We made our way past all the anchored boats at dead slow and found a spot at the back of the line. This is a very popular anchorage, but even with all the boats that were there, we had plenty of room to swing on the hook.

Turn Point Light, a great place to visit by foot from Prevost Harbor

We relaxed on the flybridge with a beer as we watched kayakers and boaters in their dinghies pass by. We even saw a yellow and white Citabria land on the grass strip at the head of the harbor. Dinner was salmon quiche, and given that we had finished all the regular episodes of LOST in Victoria, we watched some of the bonus highlights of the show that were included on the DVD. It was a peaceful night.

Victoria, Lay Day

Today is our day to explore Victoria, except first Bob has to remove the dinged up dinghy prop so we can install a replacement we had arrangedto pick up at West Marine. He also needed to repair the macerator pump that was inoperative. It took a long and smelly time until he found a small seed lodged in one of the duckbill valves. Once that was removed, everything worked as designed.

We took a taxi to West Marine, but something dropped through the cracks and the special order prop was not there. Oh well, we tried. We walked around Victoria checking out some of the native art galleries but were not impressed. The Scottish pub Bard and Banker was our lunch stop. They have a great selection of beer and even better beer battered fish and yams fries. Victoria is a great place to explore and we entertained ourselves with the various shops along the way. Bob managed to find a nice Storm Tech jacket at the company store, so he was happy.

Dinner was a cute little bistro called Bon Rouge which featured an outdoor covered “garden” for dining that was heated, warm and comfy. We were able to get the last table outside and had a lovely dinner followed by a good walk. I could not resist getting one more piece of fudge. The wind was calm today and we hope it will stay that way for our departure tomorrow back to the States.

Bamfield to Victoria

With a very long day facing us, we got up at 5am, skipped our showers and breakfast and castoff the lines from the dock at Bamfield. It’s still dark, but as were retracing our steps and the shoreline being well marked with lights on the buildings and docks, I felt we would have no problem navigating our exit. As we made the turn to the West, we picked up some large ocean swells but visibility was good and we were all alone as we made our way to Cape Beale.

Sunrise tries to lift the cloud cover

We employed our standard two hours, on two hours off watch schedule as we counted the lighthouses to Victoria. There are five in 75 miles of coastline: Cape Beale, Pachena Point, Carmanah Point, Sheringham Point and Race Rocks.

After we rounded Cape Beale and turned southwest, our passage became calm and smooth in the light morning air. As afternoon approached, as is so often the case, the winds began to pick up and Race Rocks was reporting them from the Northwest at 25 knots. So the ride was pretty good. As we started to approach Race Rocks, the current kicked in and our speed increased and that was good. It made the end of the trip seem to go by a little faster. As we made the turn toward Victoria, it was as if the entire world had joined us. There were pleasure craft, tour boats, small and large fishing vessels, the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship and a handful of large cargo ships.

Ok, we know we are in Victoria

It seemed like to took forever until we got inside the outer harbour of Victoria and even then it was teaming with boats, kayakers and frequent seaplane operations. We got to the Inner Harbour Mark and called the Harbour Authority and were assigned a starboard, bow-in berth on Dock C which you enter on the southeast end of Dock D. It was quite windy but at least it came from the direction that blew onto the docks. Given the tight quarters, it was a preferred direction compared to being blown into other boats. Two nice folks came out to help with our lines as we nestled to the dock just in front of Little Trooper and his buddy who was rafted to him. It was boat central! Across the docks was a very unattractive live-aboard tug in a sickly shade of pink.

We hooked up to shore power and chilled with a beer on the flybridge in celebration of our long trip. As the sun dropped lower in the horizon, we had to put up the windshield covers to make the salon comfortable. We were near the locked entrance to the street and the garbage cans were close at hand, which was great. Our trip to Victoria took about 12 hours and we enjoyed a dinner of chili and fresh baked cornbread on the boat.

Seaplane tries to beat the last light of the day

After dinner we took a chilly stroll around the docks and also along Wharf Street toward the Empress Hotel. There was a Blues Bash going on with music performances all day and night. There was a row of vendors set up outside the venue, and Karen found some killer cappuccino fudge. She was in chocolate heaven! While Karen is the chocoholic, I managed to find a vendor serving caramel soft serve ice cream. Yummy! Sometime being back in civilization has its rewards. One more episode of LOST was enjoyed by the crew of Alaskan Dream before we tucked in for a well-deserved rest.

Alaskan Dream tucked into her berth at Victoria