At the end of our last post we had just completed our circumnavigation of Vancouver Island and were tied up at our home club in Victoria. It was very tempting to just pack up the boat and go home. We still had more than a month left of free time and although the lure of long hot showers, a big bed, lots of living space and other modern conveniences were waiting for us at home, we decided to keep cruising. We reprovisioned at our home club and set off again for the Gulf Islands in the hopes of a slower pace with no particular agenda other than some beach time rest and relaxation.
Boating friends visit while on the hook at Cabbage Island
On a friends mooring ball in Maple Bay
It soon became apparent that we still needed a plan for our Gulf Islands cruising vacation in order to have something to look forward to and to keep the kids entertained. First we committed to staying two nights at every anchorage. Second, we contacted everyone we knew in the local area who lived at the waters edge to arrange visits and social time. This included stops in Cowichan Bay and Maple Bay. Third we attended our sailing clubs summer rendezvous held at Port Browning. Finally we used our reciprocal privileges at the SaltSpring Island Sailing Club and Maple Bay Yacht Club to make going ashore a little easier.
Maddie exploring the “shipwrecks” in Port Browning
Social time on the dock for all ages at the CFSA Rendezvous
We finally returned to our slip at CFSA on Sunday 24 August, stayed onboard that night and promptly put our girls in daycare the next morning. This genius plan hatched by Chari allowed us to unpack and clean the boat without having the kids in the way.
Our route track taken directly from our OpenCPN plotter
Statistics 2019
Total number of days living onboard 95. Total distance traveled was 1135 nautical miles and daily average of 18 miles when we moved. The longest one day passages were Cascade Harbour to Winter Harbour – 66 nm, Refuge Cove to Shoal Bay 54 nm and Port Renfrew to Esquimalt 53 nm. We stayed at 18 different docks and 41 anchorages. We were at anchor 67 nights and tied to a dock for 28. Highest winds felt at anchor 30+ kts at Mansons Landing, underway we had winds of 25+ kts rounding Hesquiat Peninsula. We also navigated 11 different passes that had potential max currents of over 5kts.