Homeward Bound

July 26, 2020. Coast Hotel Marina to Cadboro Bay. 17 NM

 

It was a summer morning like we haven’t really seen so far this year. There was a solid breeze from the northeast, which was pushing us on to the dock, but the sun was up, and it was warm. We were in no hurry, as we didn’t have far to go today, so we got up and went for a walk, exploring around the provincial legislature buildings and the museum. Victoria is a really beautiful city, and before 10:00 a.m., not much is going on downtown on a Sunday, so we had the place largely to ourselves.

Exploring around the parliament buildings

We headed back to the boat and got the water tanks filled and garbage unloaded by shortly after 10:00. It was a bit tricky getting off the dock, as there wasn’t a lot of room to clear the boats further out from us, and the wind was blowing us right back on. We managed, though, and headed out along the Inner Harbour traffic separation zone, until we cleared Victoria.

The wind was just about perfect, blowing 11 to 15 knots, and putting us on a beam reach to clear Clover Point. We raised the sails, turned off the engine, and enjoyed the first warm, sunny sailing day we’ve had since we left. There were no sailboats on the Victoria side of Clover Point, so we just kept going, across the larger traffic separation scheme for ships, and back out into the western entrance of the Juan de Fuca Strait.

The wind kept lifting us around the point, so we didn’t have to tack to make the turn, and we were soon moving happily along parallel to the southern end of Vancouver Island. As the wind died, we switched the jib for the genoa, and shook out the first reef in the mainsail, so that we were making about 5 knots under full sail in a light wind, close hauled.

A beautiful sail from Victoria

We sailed that way almost all the way to the Discovery Islands, before we tacked and headed back up towards Cadboro Bay. Another boat with fancy looking racing sails decided to race us, and tacked to come in right behind us. For a while we both raced along, with him initially gaining at first, but after a few adjustments to our main, we started to pull away again. Eventually he lost interest, and tacked away, but it was a fun few minutes. Sara is in her element when we are racing another boat, and she enjoyed making micro-adjustments to the sails to get every ounce of speed we could.

As we neared Cadboro Bay, we dropped the sails and started the motor. It was a remarkable scene that we came in to, with several classes of sailing school all over the place. There was a fleet of lasers, a fleet of optis, and a third fleet of 420s. In addition, there were crab pots throughout the bay. As we neared the head of the bay, we saw several anchored boats, so we worked our way to a likely spot amid all the chaos, and dropped the hook. As we did, John, Maria, Allison and Doug from Soulstar and Bare Necessity came over in their dinghy to say hi. They were two of the other boats anchored in the bay not far from us. We compared notes on our last couple of nights. They had stayed in Esquimalt harbour a second night, while we were in Victoria. We all discussed the crazy sail we had in below Race Rocks. Each of us had seen speed over ground records in that wind with the rapid current pushing us along.

Dinghy racing, with our boat as just another obstacle to clear

Once we were anchored, I tried to do a bit of hospital work, but even using LTE, the connection was very slow. So, I gave up and relaxed, having a short nap on the settee. Sara read in the cockpit. We had appetizers of chips and salsa around 1600, then dinner of ribs, salad and garlic bread at around 1800.

I went for a long paddleboard around the bay and explored some nooks and crannies, marvelling at the incredible houses that line the bay, with huge lawns and unbelievable views.

Some of the neighbours, bif and small, in Cadboro Bay

Now back on the boat, it is a warm night. For the first time since we got on the boat, we’ll leave some windows and hatches open to let the summer air in as we sleep.

Enjoying a beautiful evening in the cockpit

Soundtrack: Simon and Garfunkel, Homeward Bound