The lightning storm brought with it some unsettled weather the following day.  We left Bedwell at 11am for a short 7.18 nautical mile trip to Portland Island.  Once out of the harbor the wind was blowing 20 knots creating a lumpy ride but our boat sure did handle it well. 

Portland Island was first settled by Hawaiian immigrants in the 1880’s.  So it was fitting to make this one of our stops.  Our boat name “Kama Hele” is a Hawaiian word for “The Traveler”.

We anchored in Princess bay on the south end of the island.  We surfed through the tight entrance and anchored in choppy water.  Every time we stop anywhere Skylar instantly begs to start fishing.  At every location he always seems to pull some kind of fish out of the water.  Today it was a nice flounder!  Julie was food deprived (this is not a good thing) so she started a great salmon lunch that we BBQ’d on the back of the boat.

Portland Island is one of our favorite stop in the Gulf Islands.  There is not much there as the whole thing is a provincial park.  There is a small dinghy dock and lots of trails on the island. When we were here a few years ago it was sea glass heaven.  We found tons of it here and today was no exception!

We boarded the dinghy for the trip to shore to do some hiking.  We had a nice hike along a trail above the shore then took the path down to a beach.  We had the bright idea to keep following the beach back to the dinghy to maximize our sea glass hunting.   We figured there would be a way back up to the trail somewhere along the way.  It always looked like just around the next corner would be our answer.  Eventually we could go no further.  Our only option was to scale this super steep trail or more accurately a cliff.  Skylar made it up, then Julie.  It was my job to get myself and Ava up.  No way Ava was going to make it on her own so I had to carry her as far as I could then it got too steep.  I was able to push her over this log so she could sit there while Julie grabbed her and pulled her up the rest of the way.  It was not fun actually really scary trying to get her up there.  So glad that was over when we made it to the top safely.

After that near death experience we thought our trials were over.  Climbing back in the dinghy we still had to get back to the boat in the rough water.  The dinghy carried us safely to the boat but getting off the dinghy and on to the big boat is another story.  As we approached the boat Julie tried to grab on but we were getting thrown all over.  I told her to bail out and as she did she sat back down on what she thought was the seat but was actually a metal bar next to the seat.  She broke her butt!  Not really, but she severely injured her tail bone.  A huge black bruise formed and she is in a lot of pain.  Sorry no photo.

Trip Log 154.57 nautical miles

After clearing customs in Bedwell Harbor we decided to stay the following day as well.  We needed to do some laundry and the kids wanted to swim in the pool.  The provincial park on South Pender island in Bedwell harbor is very large and has lots of hiking trails.

We all climbed in the dinghy to take a ride up the bay and through Pender Canal.  This small canal is what separates North and South Pender Islands.  It is very narrow and the current runs strong at times more like a river.  We explored the other side then cranked it up for the cold and windy ride back.  Ava rode in the bow like a dog with its head out the window of a car.  She loved every second and never complained for a minute.

Then it was off to the beach for some sea glass hunting and hiking.  One of the things we love to do is collect sea glass.  Its a great family activity at the beach.  We had a great hike and a fun time exploring the beaches.

The kids played in the pool while the laundry finished up.  Around 7pm the thunder started in.  At first it was a ways off then it started getting closer.  Finally it felt like it was on top of us. It was the most vivid lightning and loudest thunder any of us had ever seen!  Kind of spooky while on the water in a boat but really fun at the same time.

Julie and I had a lot of discussion the previous night about our next destination.  Do we leave early and head out across the Straight of Juan De Fuca or take the more protected waters through the Swinomish channel?  The straight is defiantly the quicker route to Canada but it comes with some risk.  If crossing the straight the routine in the summer is to get an extremely early start to hopefully avoid the wind.  Later in the day the sun heats the air over the land and the air rises.  The cool air off the pacific starts to funnel in and replace the rising land air.  In the straight this can create steep waves that are close together especially where the current opposes the wind.  Optimally our jumping off point would be a little closer to the straight than Seattle as we probably had a good 3-4 hours of run time just to get to the straight.

The marine forecast called for wind 10-15kts rising to 15-25 in the afternoon with areas of fog early.  Fog is stressful, but if there is fog you usually don’t have wind.  (We once went from Seattle to Port Townsend and never saw land or more than a few hundred feet in front of our boat for that matter.  That was stressful!)  After checking the forecast again in the morning we decided to cross the straight but not leave super early.  We wanted to give time for the fog to burn off but hopefully not enough time for the wind to start kicking up.  As a bonus we would also be able to ride the ebbing tide out through Admiralty Inlet giving us a couple knots.

Leaving Bell Harbor at 8:10am required a radio call to the Coast Guard for our escort out.  As the machine gun rounded the corner to pick us up Julie and the kids still slept in their beds.  They followed us out for a good ½ mile or so then raced off back to the destroyer.  We passed 3 docked cruise ships on our way out.  It’s amazing how big and especially tall these ships are when you are looing at them from a small boat.  Good news is there was no fog in Seattle!

After an hour or so I had an idea and grabbed the iPad.  Searching for “Port Townsend live web cam” I was relieved to find it gave me the result I wanted.  A live camera on top of a tower reviled no fog in the area!  My fog anxiety diminished.

As we cruised through Admiralty Inlet I had the radar and chart plotter on.  Suddenly a large object appeared on the radar behind us.  Glancing back reviled a huge military ship bearing down on us.  What an awesome and somewhat scary sight.  As it passed I noticed another destroyer coming up as well.  The guns are huge on that thing!  I wanted to stay close but not too close.  Seeing these ships reminds me how lucky we are to live in this county.  Thank God for all our military men and women who risk their lives for our freedom.

As Admiralty Inlet poured into the straight the seas got a little lumpy but not at all bad.  We had a fairly smooth run past Smith Island and through Cattle Pass.  The only question now is where are we going to stop for the night?  We decided to keep going up to Jones Island.  This is one of our favorite stops in the San Juans.  The whole island is a state park with lots of semi tame deer on the island.  The north cove has a small dock and some mooring buoys.  As we entered the cove we could see it was very full.  Unfortunately the dock was packed and another boat anchored in there would have been too tight.  We made the decision to tough it out another 1hour 20min to Bedwell Harbor in Canada.  Bedwell is a port of entry for Canada and is a nice place to stay.  With the goal of doing most of our cruising in the Gulf Islands this trip it seemed like the right choice.

At 4:07PM we pulled up to the customs dock, almost 8 hours after we left Seattle.  Entry into Canada is super easy, just dock the boat at the designated dock, walk up the ramp, pick up the phone, answer a few questions, then dump all your apples in the garbage!  The kids love apples so we had quite a few to donate.

We left the customs dock and motored over to our slip for the night a few hundred yards away at Poets Cove.  We enjoyed a nice dinner in their restaurant after 73.55 nautical miles traveled that day.

Trip Log – 147.39 nautical miles