Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Sea Otter Cove to North Harbour, Quatsino Sound. 24 NM.
0530 to 1030
A lot can happen when you start your day before 0500. We’ve been knocking off some big milestones over the last couple of days. First, though, to wrap up yesterday. Sea Treasure came into Sea Otter cover a couple of hours after we did, and picked up one of the big moorings there. We still haven’t really gotten a chance to talk to them, as it rained again all night last night, and neither of us felt inclined to leave our boats and head over for a chat.
Anyway, we had a great dinner of chicken skewers marinated in teriyaki sauce, with a roasted eggplant, tomato and feta salad, and some sautéed snap peas. I am not going to eat anywhere near as well when Sara leaves the boat.
The night was a lively one, to match the day. The wind blew into Sea Otter Cove from the South East, whistling through the rigging, as the rain fell. We fell asleep early, after our long day. Around midnight, the anchor alarm app on my phone sounded, as the wind changed 180 degrees from South East to North West, and the boat swung back around toward the entrance to the anchorage. I got up and checked to make sure the anchor hadn’t dislodged. I couldn’t get back to sleep with the noise of the wind and the waves, so moved to the aft berth and lay awake for a while. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep around 0200.
This morning, we had set an alarm for 0500, as we wanted to leave Sea Otter Cove before the tide fell too much. We had crossed some shallow patches of around 3 feet when we entered the day before, and didn’t want to be going out any shallower than we came in. We awoke even before the alarm went off, and had the boat moving by 0520. The anchor came up easily, even though the wind was blowing pretty hard, and we had to motor into it to put some slack in the chain.
I motored back out through the narrow entrance carefully, watching the shallow patches as we crossed back over them. I used my alternative chart app, Navionics, which showed the bottom in more detail than the chart plotter on the boat, and the lowest depth we saw on the way out was about 8 feet.
Fortunately, the big southeast rollers we had to surf on the way in had been replaced with waves from the northwest with the wind chnge. That made it easier to get out of the anchorage without huge drama. As we turned downwind and headed out to sea, the rollers built, eventually getting up to 6 to 8 feet. That wouldn’t be so bad, but they were very close together, about 5 seconds apart, which made the ride uncomfortable. Occasionally, a bigger set would come through, and the boat would roll wildly rail to rail. We could hear cans and dishes rattling in the cabin below. Neither of us felt like going down to check on things, though. We had avoided eating breakfast, anticipating a rough morning.
Rolly morning heading to Quatsino Sound
The wind pushed us from behind, building to over 20 knots. We pulled out the small jib, and slowed the engine. We were making almost 5.5. knots under jib alone, so we shut down the engine, and for the first time on this trip, we made way under sail alone! The sky was still dark with rainclouds, but breaks in the clouds started to form, and we began to see an occasional glimpse of the sun.
The wind varied up and down, but slowly trended down to less than 15 knots, and our speed fell to less than 4.0 knots. We switched the small jib for the genoa, and continued to make good progress downwind. Sara hand steered most of the way, and I took a few turns at the wheel as well. As we were picked up by wave after wave, constant attention had to be paid at the wheel, as the larger ones would try to slew the boat sideways, first one way, then the other. With a lot of action on the wheel, we managed to keep a course that kept us from jibing.
Coming into Quatsino Sound, with the sun starting to break through!
We saw a few fishermen out as we approached Quatsino sound, but otherwise, not much wildlife seemed to have joined us early in the morning. The wind dropped as we entered the sound, and we started the engine again, turning up towards North Harbour. As we came in, we decided to use the opportunity for me to practice anchoring on my own, since it won’t be long before Sara has to leave to go back to work and kids.
The anchor went down without a problem, and we settled back into the boat. We had a lovely late breakfast bagel and some bacon, then Sara went back to bed for a nap. The day started to clear up, and I took advantage of the warmth to do a few errands on the boat, resetting the composting toilet and cleaning up some of the mess from the rolly morning. Once that was done, I picked up my book and was just drifting off to sleep myself when Sara woke up. I went down for a ½ hour nap. Then I got up, and we continued to return the boat to some semblance of organization. We fired up the water maker, which is working better now with the new fan and switch, and ran that for a few hours.
Enjoying an opportunity to sit outside and dry out a bit
We then enjoyed the warming sunny day in the cockpit, chatting and planning, before we had an excellent pizza from IGA, with extra toppings left over from our dinner last night. Sea Treasure pulled into the anchorage a few hours after we had arrived, and for the first time, we can see signs of at least some of their kids on board. Having sailed with our own kids, we wonder how their crowd has handled the rough and dreary last few days. We know it would have been hard for us. They are across the anchorage, though, and the intermittent gusts are making it look like we won’t leave the boat tonight, so we may have to wait for another opportunity to chat with them.
North Harbour, with Sea Treasure across the bay
Now that we are in Quatsino sound, we have completed the crossing of the Nawhitti Bar, the rounding of the anxiety provoking Cape Scott, and have started our open ocean sailing down the West Coast of the Island. Unfortunately, Sara will be leaving the boat before I head back out into the open water, so next time I do that, I will be on my own. The sunny day has boosted both of our spirits, though, and our success so far has added to our optimism, so I am feeling more confident that I can continue on single-handed.
We still have a few more days in Quatsino sound before that becomes a reality, though, so we’ll see what happens before Sara leaves. It is sure good to be started on this part of the adventure!
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