We left Tofino in, you guessed it, rain and clouds. My sister in Ohio is melting back there while we are freezing out here!
As we came into the Barkley Sound area, raised our sails! We had a beautiful and mostly sunny sail through the famous Broken Group of islands. I got a bit of cell coverage and it was nice to text and send a picture of the Sound to some friends and family. It felt good to be in touch again. They are really fantastic and a place we want to go back and visit.
Bamfield is a funky village to say the least. My favorite sight was Cat Town where cute cat houses were built and the residents feed and care for the feral cat community. Lots of cats around, just fine with me. A well maintained boardwalk connects the community since there are no roads to west Bamfield. (just to east Bamfield). yep, I told you it was funky.
The weather looked sketchy to do our original plan for our next stop, Port Renfrew. Its a small anchorage with little to no protection from the south. After listening to the forecast (gale winds from the south) we decided to do a LONG 73 mile day to Sooke. We left in the morning when the tide was going out and it collided with the incomng swells. Biggest waves I have been in yet -10' very steep and breaking. They were on the nose and we were really pounding. We turned to get on our course and went broadside to them for a wave or so. Ut oh!!!! Jeff was below and just trying to hang on himself and everythng that was flying around down below. Tom and I were on deck. At that point I looked to the side and saw the biggest wall of water I've ever seen next to our boat. I think I could have reached out and touched it. The boat swung wildly over. Tom turned the boat back and we decided to not do that again. We could hear Jeff "advising" us from below. Funny, it sounded more like "WTF is going on out there????". We went further out and made the turn successfully. We then had a long day of following seas but nothing too bad.
We left early the next morning because the winds and currents were supposed to be strong. I can tell you that the forecasters in BC are equal to our WA ones.... It was a glassy, smooth ride to Victoria.
Victoria felt like coming back to civilization. Again, it was not crowded and we got a primo dock. We ate waffles and walked the town. Very touristy and fun. We were right in front of The Empress Hotel and Parliamant.
We flew our flags to be festive!
Leaving the harbor is always exciting as its crowded with planes, cruiseships, ferries etc...
We had the best sail of the entire trip all the way from Victoria to Friday Harbor today. Perfect wind and seas the whole way!!!! We cleared Customs and then had to dock in 20 gusting winds. We did fine (yeah, Jeff and Tom!) but we did see a few others crash and hit other boats. Ouch!
We are now sitting around the table getting ready for our new nightly ritual - watching Curb Your Enthusiasm shows that I downloaded prior to the trip on the advice of Jeff's daughter, Danielle's, advice. What a hoot!
Chris Miner comes to pick up Tom tomorrow morning and we say goodbye to our great friend and crewmate. We'll head south to Port Townsend and be home on Saturday, we think. Maybe we will just keep sailing....
Salpare does mean sail away!
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Location:Friday Harbor
Excellent adventure....
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