SEA WEASEL rounding the Northeast corner of Bowen Island. Brrrr!
The idea was innocent enough; go for a quick over-nighter on the boat and work on a few repair projects. On my way out I got a phone call from David asking if I wanted to do some sailing the next day. While I was planning on going back home the next day I agreed. Dave would take a Water Taxi over the next morning and meet me at Snug Cove and from there we would head over to Gibsons.
My trip single handing went off without incident and upon reaching Snug Cove settled in for a relaxing night aboard. The only hitch was when I almost froze to death because I had not turned up the heater to the appropriate level.
The next morning I enjoyed a pot of coffee and a ichiban and watched a Pile-driver move into place. The Union Steamship Marina is putting in a new floating office with laundry and the rest of the facilities. This seams a bit of a odd move considering they already exist a few hundred feet up a ramp at the existing building.
The new floating marina office at Snug Cove. Hopefully there will be more showers.
I got a call from David saying that the Water Taxi had left early without them despite him having a reservation. And they say customer service is dead. Dave would have to wait 2 hours for the next one. Not wanting to sit around Granville Island Dave took the bus up to Horseshoe Bay so he could take the Bowen Island Ferry. When he got there at 1pm he discovered he was going to have to wait until 2:30pm. This was getting nutty. I motored over and picked him up. We then sailed over to Gibsons in bright sunny skies and enjoyed a evening in scenic Gibsons.
At 10pm we got the great idea to go find a crab pot I had left at Plumper Cove 6 months before and could only be retrieved at low tide. It was a extremely low tide and a full moon. Of course it was gone so we returned and settled in to watch Master and Commander.
The next day we awoke to howling winds, freezing rain and snow and dismal forecastes. We wondered around Gibsons for a bit waiting to see if anything changed. There was the possibility of leaving the boat there and heading back to Vancouver on the ferry. In the end we opted to go for it. The forecast for the Strait of Georgia was a Easterly with 25-35 knots and 5' seas. It was supposed to switch to a Northwesterly and increase in intensity. The rest of the weekend looked even worse with the temperature dropping to a high of -1 C!
We decided that we should take the inside route. The wind was a about15-20 knots outflowing in Howe Sound. We set of motoring North and it was miserable the freezing rain and snow was blasting us and it was painful to look into the wind. Visibility was less than one mile with a low cloud covering everything. We made decent speed motoring around the North end of Keats Island and midway across the top of Bowen. The as we got closer to the edge of Bowen it was possible to set sails and reach around the island. We were in too rough shape to be beating our way under sail.
Getting out from under the shadow of Gambier the wind hit us at full force. We bore away under the genoa alone and flew downwind to Point Atkinson in record time. At the point we were not sure whether we would find the wind still blasting out of the east. When we got there the Gods smiled on us and it was now a Northwesterly. We rocketed back to False Creek. Despite being soaking wet and utterly miserable it was actually kind of fun. Dave fired up some hot chocolate that soothed my icy hands.
We made the trip home in about 4.5 hours which is not bad for having gone the inside route. We were sopping wet, freezing cold, and hungry but what an adventure.
Snowboarding goggles were an awesome idea. Also the foam life jackets provided good insulation.
Dave enjoying the weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment