The Sunshine Coast of British Columbia is a region of the southern mainland on the eastern shore of the Strait of Georgia and northwest of Greater Vancouver. Desolation Sound is a deep-water sound at the northern end flanked by Cortes Island and West Redonda Island. This is an area with spectacular fjords, mountains, waterfalls, and wildlife. We had been thinking of making this trip for several years, especially after sailing the San Juan Islands in 2014 with our friends Dan & Donna. Dan put the “bug” in our ear.
This is the “Grey Lady”, our home for a couple of beautiful weeks. She is a Sabre 38 down east design with the latest technology, including the new pod propulsion drive train. We are anchored in the gorgeous Melanie Cove at Prideaux Haven. What a wonderful way to spend the evening.
Taking a dinghy ride in the afternoon is an absolute must. Especially when you find starfish, harbor seals, blue herons and bald eagles. Not to forget the beautiful scenery. Make certain to put on your CO2 inflatable life vests-the water is too cold to chance a slip overboard.
It seems that we go from one fantastic anchorage to another. In order to get into this Princess Louisa Inlet, it is necessary to time your arrival at slack current so that you can punch your bow through the narrow rapids at Malibu. And enter into a truly magnificent granite walled gorge rising to 7000 feet with numerous white waterfalls splashing on top of playful harbor seals. And LOOK where we found to moor for the night. No need for stereo this evening. Just wine, cheese, and waterfall on the back deck!
Off-in-the-dinghy! Twice daily, nature puts on a show of the tide changes with incredibly turbulent rapids. The difference in water levels between one side and the other sometimes exceeds 9 feet with 200 billion gallons of water flowing through Skookumchuck Narrows connecting Sechelt and Jervis Inlets. This is where you find the little village of Egmont. Here we are almost out of red wine. The wine store (actually the only store) closes in an hour. The current is over 8 knots and the horsepower on our dinghy is 8 horsepower. Oh, by-the-way it is also raining.
Returning back to the U.S., we cleared customs just outside of Roche Harbor at the north end of San Juan Island and we did it using the Custom & Border Patrol new computer App-all done “face-timing”on the back deck of our own boat. Then we were off to the east side to Friday Harbor-so very quaint. Melissa bought fresh smoked scallops, cups of fresh Dungeness crab, and a globs of locally smoked salmon that tasted more like butter. Then dinner ashore tonight at the Cask & Schooner Pub overlooking the harbor.
And of course while underway, you don’t want to disturb the local humpback whales. Interestingly, all male humpbacks sing the same song. But that song changes from year to year and somehow they all “get the word”. I recall (from yesteryear) this was always a tuff assignment for the guys in my Marine Corps rifle platoon. These are what-we-would-call “squared-away” whales!
Melissa’s got the helm and is standing by on her VHF channel 16 and 88 alpha while following our course on the Garmin GPS, fortunately equipped with AIS. Our galley is down and our berth is the large queen walk-around situated most forward in the V-berth. We had made the outside Pacific passage to Alaska in 2015 and we saw some very remote coves and inlets that were beautiful. But I don’t think we’ve ever seen such massive mountains nestled in such gorgeous water as here in Desolation Sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment