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Here is a description of our 2007 trip North to Canada's Jervis inlet and is an indication of things you can do in your boat! This was written for another site however proved so popular we thought we'd reformat it and show it here. Enjoy reading about the day by day activities of vacationing on a sailboat! |
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Day 1, July 4. We hauled what was left of the needed supplies to Destiny our Beneteau Oceanis 400, settled and watched the Everett fireworks from our cockpit and spent the night aboard. | ||
 Diane and I |
 Taryn, our daughter and last child willing to sail with us! |
 Destiny our Beneteau Oceanis 400 |
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July 5 we left early on the 5th to make slack tide at Deception pass. We arrived at Deception about an hour early and opted to go through since it was ebb and would flush us through. We motored in calm seas through the San Juan Islands and into the Southern Gulf Islands. Our first port of Call was Poets Cove where we checked into customs and then dropped hook in Bedwell Harbor for the night. | ||
 Crossing Boundry Pass! No wind. Bummer! |
 Haven't even dropped the dinghy yet! |
 Bedwell Harbor Lots of space for our anchor! |
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July 6 we left Bedwell Harbor with Nanimo in our sites. As all good captains are, I was completely prepared for the tides and currents. All we need to know was slack tide for Dodd Narrows. That way we could transit safely and be off to Nanimo. I whipped out the old tried and true method of calculating currents. Called my mom on the cell and begged her to look it up on the internet for me. Yeah, I forgot to get the Canadian tides and current book. Doh! For those of you who aren't aware, Dodd Narrows is a very hazardous place to enter if you are not prepared. In fact the locals literally line the narrows with lawn chairs, sit and watch unsavvy boaters attempt the passing! A bit intimidating! Well, we watched a smaller sloop struggle through the flood and opted to wait. We radio'ed "Footloose" a power boat that entered before us and found the head currents to be about 2 knots. We went for it and succesfully navigated Dodd Narrows for the first time! We arrived at Nanimo early. Beautiful little town. We'd heard there were problems with bums and it was apparent. I even found a bum in the garbage dumpster sleeping! Eeek! We restocked fuel and water and had dinner at a very nice Mexican restaurant on the docks. | ||
 Aproaching Dodd Narrows from the South! You first! :) |
 Nanimo Here we come! |
 Great dockside restraunt and Destiny! |
| July 8 We woke up to 22Kts of wind coming directly from where we needed to go. Across the Straights of Georgia! We had currents going against the wind to make the crossing even more interesting! Tall steep waves with a very short period is what we had to contend with! Destiny handled it beautifully! Diane tolerated it. Taryn slept through it! We motored the distance with some jib flying to keep the bow down and powering through the waves. We entered Malispina Straights and the wind completely died! We motored to Agamemnon channel where the wind turned completely around allowing us a beautiful 4kt run all the way to Egmont! Both marinas were full when we arrived so we took a spot on the brand new two day old public dock! Very nice! We stocked up on goodies at the little store that just seemed to have everything! We dropped the dinghy off the davits and made a run to Skookumchuck rapids! We were told these are the fasted running natural salt water rapids in the world! How cool is that?! Taryn took the dinghy and played in the harbor while I made friends with fellow boaters | ||
 Had to back down this just to leave Nanimo! |
 Finally some canvas! We are headed into those mountains! |
 Egmont! Destiny is on the right! |
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July 9 Leaving Egmont was very exciting for me! All we had left was 4 reaches and a total of about 35 nautical miles to reach Malibu Rapids! There are no protected anchorages until after entering the rapids so making Malibu at or before slack was very important! There was a perfect run all the way of about 5 kts true wind. Since we needed to get there we could not take advantage of the breeze. Too slow. So, again, the iron lung pushed us along. The scenery is fantastic! Literally driving your boat into the mountains! Snow covered tops, 100+ foot pines, rock cliffs, and mountains! We spied a tour boat studying the cliffs. We moved in close and realized the tour was of ancient pictographs on cliffs! So . . . we looked too! Fantastic! We took photos and then moved on! We arrived at Malibu Rapids an hour before slack! Perfect! Malibu is the site of the Young Life Camp I went to as a kid. As we circled outside of the rapids we took many photos! The memories just came flooding in! How cool! Here I was about to enter the EXACT rapids I saw as a kid! I watch other boaters pass through the rapids 26 years before and decided I'd do it too some day! That was TODAY! We watched another smaller sailboat go through half an hour early without problems so we promptly announce over channel 16 VHF our intentions and went for it! I couldn't help but wonder if there was some kid watching us making a lifetime desire for himself! I also wondered how we looked! Some nice looking sloop named Destiny with an idiot at the helm with the BIGGEST STUPID GRIN on his face! Must have been a good site! At last! I'd done it with my beautiful bride of 15+ years, my daughter, and my own boat! With a bathroom on board I might add! Upon entering Princes Lousa Inlet you are immediately floored by the beauty! The area has Peaks of over a mile high, depths of 2000 feet, and waterfalls EVERYWHERE! You have to arrive in spring or very early summer to see the number of falls we saw! Guess they dry up later in the year. We'd read it was best to grab a bouy behind McDonald Island and to NOT go directly to the falls. You may get there and find no space! So we did just that. We were the second boat to grab one of five bouys. WOW! We were here! We pomptly jumped in the dinghy and headed off to Chatterbox falls about a mile away. Chatterbox is the largest of MANY waterfalls in this inlet and is at the very end of the inlet! Beautiful! A dream finally coming true! We docked the dinghy amongst many cruising yachts and headed up the trail to the base of the falls. we had the trail to ourselves until we reached the base of the falls. There in this heavenly place at the apex of the realization of my dream,we found no less than about 8 teeenage girls in bikinis taking photos of each other! The survival instinct in me immediately kicked in. I put the lens cap on my camera and lowered it until the young ladies were done. They spied us an quickly scurried off to their next destination. WHAT WAS I THINKING???? I teased Diane a bit and managed to get through it all without any noticeable bruises! :) That evening Diane and I shared a bottle of wine to celebrate the realization of a dream! Taryn ate ice cream! | ||
 Ancient pictographs! Can you find them? |
 MALIBU! |
 Chatterbox Falls! . . and yes, IT WAS WORTH THE TRIP! |
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July 10,11,12 We were in Gods country! So we stayed! We decided to stay on our mooring bouy and simply enjoy! We kayaked! We stared at the scenery! We played in the Dinghy, We hung in the hammock. We dinghy'd to Malibu the Young Life camp, took a tour of the place, ate ice cream, and took some photos! We read books, listened to music, picniked under the waterfalls, and took many more photos! WOW! | ||
 Chatterbox from a distance! Check out that mile high cliff!!! |
 The dock at Chatterbox Falls |
 Destiny on a bouy behind MacDonald Island and Taryn in the Hammock |
 Taryn and I Kayaking |
 Can you say OYSTER? Yep! All oysters! |
 Taryn caught a yacht! |
 Destiny and ONE VERY BIG ROCK! |
 WOW! Destiny is 56' high! This is the same rock as before! |
 Just another of MANY waterfalls here! Beautiful! |
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July 13 This day was a bit tough. It was not easy to leave. It felt as though we were ending our vacation. We left the bouy and motored down to Chatterbox. I wanted a photo of Destiny in front of the falls and also a photo infront of the cliffs! I realized the diffuculty of expressing the grandure of the area with a simple photo. Think about this: Destiny is 40' long. The Kayaks on the bow are almost 16' long or almost as long as the average lake ski boat. Destiny's maximum height including freeboard,mast, and antennas is 56 ' high or a 5 story building at 11 feet per level. She's not small.Check the photos of her next to the cliff! No photographic tricks here. No zoom lense to bring things in. If Destiny turns to starboard she'd hit the cliffs! These mountains are over a mile high and the water in this inlet is 1500 plus feet deep! AWESOME! To say the least! We had absolutely beautful weather to top it off! 90+ degrees and local areas set record high temps! And we had to leave. :( Well we did it with a bang! As we motored back towards the rapids we were very early for the ebb tide We slowed to a crawl to allow another sailboat pass us. Figured we follow him through the rapids! Well, he pulled off behind McDonald Island. We assumed he was grabbing a bouy and we were on our own through the rapids. We motored on. We arrived at the rapids 1.5 hours early only to find two sailboats now following us! Probably to watch us! We could see the rapids and they were still RAPID! No slack here! Not for another hour and a half! My crew egged me on! Lets DO IT! Well, the depths were fine, the current would push us . . . . all we had to do was stay in the clearly marked channel shaped like an "S". Don't slam into the rocks, don't drift into the sand bars, and you're fine! So . . . . We did it! Knowing the importance of hull speed for steerage I entered at 6 knots speed over water! Sheesh! it was like driving the dinghy in a river! We steered hard to starboard to avoid the rocks to port, and prompty steered hard to port after the turn to avoid the shallows to starboard! S.O.G. of 12kts! Fastest we've ever gone in Destiny! What a rush! Seemed like for ever and yet we were through in seconds! After exiting the rapids we were hailed by none other than "Footloose" the power boat we spoke to at Dodd Narrows a week ago! He wanted to let us know we were a bit early for entering the rapids! I think we figured that out! He also wanted to know what it was like! I explained that it was not for the faint of heart that there was no way he could pass yet. He was to enter the inlet we had just left and the currents were just to swift. As we relaxed and looked back at Malibu and the rapids we saw the other two sailboats, like sheep, simply followed us through! What a site to see a sailboat moving THAT FAST! WOW! I bet both captains were swearing at me for going first and their crew swearing at them for following me! Heh! Heh! heh! Never blindly follow antoher boat! It may be me! :) Now off to Pender Harbor! we sailed, motored, and just enjoyed the trip to Pender Harbor! Great place! Love it! Pleanty of provisions, dock space and great people! We even had pizza delivered right to the dock! How cool! | ||
 Forever etched in my mind!! |
 Yeah, I know. But I collect these type of pictures! Weird huh?!?! |
 Destiny amongst fishing boats. |
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July 14 We woke up to a muggy warm but beautiful day in Pender Harbor. Today we were to cross the straights again. The wind, of course, clocked around and was AGAIN on our bow. No all day spinaker run today! Thunder storms were predicted but the straights looked perfect! While we fueled up it dumped rain heavily for about ten minutes. We motored out into the straights. We saw dark clouds over the shore on the opposite side. Since the wind was coming from the South now, we opted to beat across to the other side and then motor if necessary to Silva Bay. About half way across we heard the faint rumblings of thunder! Then . . . all of the sudden skies over the shoreline were we were headed turned BLACK! We were then treated to a fantastic thunder and lightning show! Long bolts of lightning with multiple strikes where every where! Needless to say we turned tail and ran the other direction! Winds got as bit blustery for a while but it quickly subsided as we left the strom cell behind! The cell appeared to head directly over Pender Harbor from where we came from! Oh well! When we arrived at Silva Bay, we found it to be extremely well protected, beautiful, but busy. we dropped anchor in the center of the harbor and went to shore! Nice place! Great provisions, and very busy! Sea planes, boats from Vancouver, and many of us Americans! Best surprise of all was when a large power boat was looking for a place to anchor in this already full harbor. He actually came by us while I was in the hammock and asked if he could anchor just off our bow! WOW! Never had someone ask before! They usually just do it! Unfortunatley we were leaving in the early AM so he would have had to move so we could pull our own anchor up thus he decided to find another "Perfect" spot to anchor. | ||
 Destiny at the fuel dock in Pender Harbor. |
 How about this in your backyard? |
 Fantastic garage! |
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July 15 Another perfect day! WOW! Gotta love it! We left Silva Bay and headed for Gabriola passage for slack tide! Yet another rapid to go through! We successfully and in a rather anti-climatic fashion passed through. Off to Thetis Island and Telegraph Harbor! Here we arrived and dropped anchor next to a 47' and a 57' Beneteau! We were the little guy! Oh well! | ||
 Need I say more?? |
 Airplanes. It is that busy here! |
 Silva Bay. Busy but beautiful. |
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July 16 We stayed at Telegraph Harbor two nights. This day we went to the little store to see if our "Flaggy Thinghy" was hung. The one we left about a year ago. We were disappointed to see they had not taken the time to hang it. OH well. We hopped the local ferry over to Chemainus, a very nice town with some awesome murals to look at on about 30 of the buildings there! Very cool! We did the usual lunch and site seeing things and returned via ferry back to Thetis Island and then by dinghy back to Destiny. | ||
 Telegraph Harbor |
 Like it says. |
 Taryn and I with one of many cool murals. |
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July 17 We left Telegraph Harbor and set a waypoint for Bedwell Harbor. This was to be our last harbor in Canada. The weather was changing. Low clouds were in store for us and even a bit of rain and fog. After motoring some distance the wind finally cooperated! Out came the sails! Full main and jib! Woo hoo! 5 knots made good and we were moving nicely! This lasted all of ten minutes when the wind simply died. Back to motoring. We arrived back in Bedwell Harbor and dropped anchor. This place is very picturesque! You literally feel like you are in a post card when anchored there! We took the dinghy to Port Browning and made the walk to the grocery store for supplies! After returning we hung out and then called it a day! | ||
 British Columbia Ferries! |
 Poets Cove. |
 Just relaxing. Bedwell Harbor. |
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July 18 Bedwell Harbor and it rained all day! How nice after so much sunshine and heat! It was quite refreshing and we spent the day playing scrabble, reading and just watching the fog role in! | ||
 Fog rolling in!. |
 Getting foggier. |
 Taryn Playing on the laptop. ALL DAY |
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July 19 We pulled hook in a wall of fog and headed for Friday Harbor! We crossed Boundry Pass in full on fog using two GPS's and radar! As we neared San Juan channel the fog lifted to about 100 feet and we had a nice ride into Friday Harbor! We cleared customs and filled the last 40 open slip in the marina!Lucky us! Firday Harbor is the busiest harbor in the San Juan Islands. At the dock was a bit like a circus! We watched yachts coming and going, kids playing, drunk boaters, and generally had a good time. The thing that stood out was two young girls came back to there boat in a dinghy. They were closely followed by a harbor seal. As they exited the dinghy the harbor seal was watching them intently. They then reach back into the dinghy and grabbed a crab they had aquired somewhere. Again the Harbor seal was watching intently! The girls finally noticed the harbor seal that everyone around was watching and made a big deal to there parents! They however did not share their crab! In disgust, the harbor seal grunted and splashed the cockpit of the boat the girls were in! Very entertaining! As the girls screamed, the seal dove and swam away! Everyone around had a great laugh! We later shopped, had dinner, reprovisioned and dropped off garbage. we visited the whale museum and generally goofed off! Firday Harbor is a great place but the dock was a bit to busy for our tastes. Maybe next time we'll anchor out. | ||
 Enough electronics? |
 Friday Harbor. |
 Destiny and Trouble. ( "Trouble" is the dinghy ) |
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July 20 We headed out for Oak habor via Deception Pass. We had a leasurely crossing of Rosario Straight and an uneventful passing of Deception Pass. Beyond Swinomish Slough we noticed two sailboats outside of the clearly marked channels. We attempted to hail them via vhf several times to no avail. They were sailing in an area that at high tide was 12 feet deep and at low tide was completely dry. Oh well! We motored into a perfect 18kt wind and had a great beam reach all the way to Oak Harbor! Here we dropped hook in the same 18kt wind and took the dinghy to the public dock. We tied it off there and walked to the local Mexican resauraunt for dinner. The dinner table was in the window over looking the harbor. We could stare at our own boat off in the distance and see our dinghy tied at the dock! How cool! We ordered and the wind came up. As I watched the dinghy, it slowly worked itself loose from the bow tie and was only held to the dock via stern tie. Polypropolene floats and is a great painter but it sucks to tie a knot in! I had to leave the restaraunt and save the dinghy! Later that evening we clocked a gust at 30kts! Wow! We were safely anchored but Destiny likes to weathervain in the wind! Back and forth. Back and forth. I dropped a 5 gallon bucket off the stern of destiny and tied it to the sternpit. This dramatically slowed the swinging. Nice. I may have to look into getting a riding sail. | ||
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July 21 Its the final leg of our trip and we are off to our home port of Everett! An uneventfull run from Oak Harbor had us arriving in Everett just at noon! Whew! What a trip! We all agreed it was good to be home but we could have stayed about another week! We retreived our faithfull German Shepard, Sasha, from my brothers house and finally were complete at home! This particular trip will go down in my books as one of the best we've had! And we've had some good ones!! | ||
Some interesting nautical challenges!
Deception Pass Twice!
Dodd Narrows
Crossing Georgia Straights TWICE!
Malibu Rapids TWICE!
Gabriola Pass
If anyone has any comments or questions please feel free to contact us!
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Captain Scott
S/V Destiny
| cellular phones |
