Sudden Exposure

Friday July 20th – Our schedule today had us leaving Vancouver headed to Howe Sound, just to the north east of us. Howe Sound is the closest semi remote destination for vessels leaving Vancouver and there is a huge vacation home community on Bowen Island. It’s an area we have always wanted to see but have never been in there. The Union Steamship Co. marina we wanted to check out was full, so we decided to find an anchorage.

The wind forecast didn’t look good especially given the fact that we would be exposed to the Strait of Georgia much of the way. It called for the wind dying down in the early afternoon, so we waited until about 1:00pm then left the dock, got fuel and headed out to English Bay. The seas just kept building as we made our way out to open water. Suddenly 4-5’ waves were stacked due to the wind against current. We secured the boat but a little too late. A couple large stainless-steel cups in the galley zipped off the counter denting the wood floor and sending water all over.

We slogged through it, taking lots of spray over the boat. The motion of the boat didn’t agree with Julie and Ava. They were feeling terrible, especially Ava got pretty sick.

We decided to anchor in Gambier Island’s, Port Graves. Even in the anchorage the wind was still blowing a steady 15 knots. After waiting a while to make sure the boat was secure, we took the dinghy to shore for a walk in the woods. A beautiful trail showed signs to Lost Lake but no telling how far it was. We kept going and going up the mountain until our “walk” turned into an unplanned hike. I got out my phone map to try and figure out how much further. It Looked quite a bit further, so we turned around (Skylar was not happy). Turns out the lake was about a 6-mile round trip ordeal. Our walk in the woods turned into a 4-mile hike, but it was fun!

The wind calmed down late in the evening for a restful night sleep. Only problem now is the wind forecast is about the same for tomorrow and we have to make our way up the Georgia Strait.