Chapter 2: Jose's Rapids & Organic Kelp Beds
The next day we depart Blind Channel at 6.00AM. We have a long 60 nautical mile journey ahead of us to the south end of Queen Charlotte Strait. On our way out of Blind Channel, Sebastian takes the Avon and checks the crab trap we had set the previous evening - skunked. We now head into Johnstone Strait . Johnstone Strait is about a 65 nautical mile long strait that parallels the inside of Vancouver Island. This body of water has a reputation for having strong winds and adverse currents. Since it is July and the Pacific High is well established, it is likely the wind will be prevailing from the North - against us. I have chosen to transit while the current is ebbing to the north - with us. While the positive effect of the current should help our speed over bottom, the interaction between the opposing wind and current can kick up a nasty surface action called rip tides.
Despite the potential for a rough day, everything ends up fine. We run into some moderate rip tides 30 minutes out of Blind Channel, but conditions moderate rapidly and Magic Mike (our autopilot) does an excellent job of piloting Patience northward. We progress for about 40 nautical miles and then turn east to go through the Chatham Narrows (which Jose dubs - "Jose's Rapids & Organic Kelp Beds"). Another slight mis-calculation has us going through Chatham Narrows at something less than slack water. Everything turns out fine as Patience plows forward at about 3 knots against the current. While our non-slack transit through Chatham Narrow is uneventful, I would caution other mariners to try to only transit this passage at slack as there is potential for problems in this passage.
While continuing through Knight Inlet , Sebastian attempts to troll for salmon. We end up with no salmon and short another Buzz Bomb. Finally, with about two hours to sunset, we end up anchoring in a cove on the northwest corner of Village Island . We are accompanied by two or three other sailboats. The captain frets over the quality of our anchor set (there is a brisk wind from the north) while the crew whips up a fantastic chicken / pasta / bread / garlic / onion dinner. We devour the dinner while rocking out to Ace of Base. We finally close the evening with a VHF marine operator call to Amy back in Seattle. While we don't get a hold of Amy, we do get a hold of Ann her roommate. Ann makes us laugh by closing out the conversation with, "Breaker, Breaker, Over, Over and Out".
We wake late the next morning, and Sebastian and Callison head off in the Avon exploring. They return with the first edible seafood caught the entire trip - one huge male crab. While still full from the previous night's feast, we are uninhibited enough to cook a full-on breakfast - hashbrowns, french toast and yes, crab omelets. After the morning pork-fest, Jose and I circumnavigate Village Island while Sebastian and Callison explore an old deserted Indian village. I wonder if I will ever feel like eating again. The weather has unfortunately turned sour for the first time on the trip. We weigh anchor and head for Sullivan Bay . The trip to Sullivan Bay is uneventful, but wet. There is no wind so we motor the entire way. Sullivan Bay Resort is unusual because almost every single building is a floating boathouse - it is like a mini floating city. I head off in the rain for a few hours of fishing in what is supposed to be some of the best salmon fishing in the world. I come back empty handed and shy another Buzz-Bomb. The lost Buzz-Bomb count is now five. The crew settles down below in the Patience cabin and listens to a little AC/DC Back in Black while playing Hearts.
I have always been somewhat wowed by the thought of going to Sullivan Bay. It has always the place where cool boaters went when they went "North". My family never made it as far north as Sullivan Bay and thus the place has always held a bit of a mystique to me. Having finally reached Sullivan Bay I was a little disappointed. While the weather and my lack of luck at fishing were probably partially to blame, I didn't think the location had much to offer either in scenic beauty or facilities.
Given this, the next day we leave for Port Hardy . Port Hardy is the northernmost "civilization" on Vancouver Island. Weather remains the same - drizzle, fog and rain. We are now starting to get tired of the weather conditions as everything is rapidly becoming damp. We cross Queen Charlotte Strait without a hitch in visibility of approximately a mile. While docking a Port Hardy, we have our first chump sighting since Stewart Island - an asshole in an American sailboat from Fox Island. This chump starts off our relationship by reminding us that we need to save space for his dingy. As we moor carefully behind him (leaving adequate room for his dingy) he glares at us as if we need to leave fifty feet for his damn dingy (which isn't all that hot anyway). He makes a point of keeping his fat ass anchored to his flimsy deck and not helping us moor. Our friend finally achieves true chump status by telling Sebastian the dock is slippery after Sebastian had already fell on his butt while docking. Thanks pal.
There are some sketchy characters hanging out so we lock up the Patience and all belongings and head up for our first off-ship dining experience since Stewart Island. We are craving something cooked by anyone but ourselves. We quickly realize there is not a huge dining selection at Port Hardy, so we decide to have one of the few available choices - pizza. As it turns out, it appears that tomato sauce must have been being rationed in Port Hardy that weekend. Our pizza had no tomato sauce, and a glut of rather nasty tasting cheese. Suffice it to say that this establishment is never going to pose a serious threat to NorthLake Tavern in Seattle. Disappointed, disillusioned and still hungry we head to the nearby bar. We drown our sorrows in a few beers and a couple games of pool. Overall, Port Hardy looks like a fine place to provision, but not ideal for a first date. One good thing about Port Hardy is that it is the first place we can legally dispose of trash for free! While that may not seem like a big deal to the city slickers reading this story, it was a huge deal to us. We had not been at a moorage where we could dispose of trash without a fee since Westview, 10 days prior. As a result, trash (bagged of course) was beginning to take over the cabin of the Patience. We had converted our entire shower and much of our companionway to trash storage. Upon arrival at Port Hardy we gleefully grabbed our bags of garbage and toted them up to the dumpster.
The next morning I change the oil on Patience's diesel. Sebastian, Jose and Callison head to town to buy stores. When the crew returns we depart the public wharf and head for the nearby Esso floating wharf to fill our fuel and water tanks. Once this is done, we again turn the Patience's bowsprit northwards and head for our next destination - Bull Harbor , the highest latitude we will reach.
About an hour out of Port Hardy, we site a pod of about 15 killer whales headed southward through Goletas Channel . We slow down and engage the whales in a photo shoot. One monster with a crooked dorsal fin comes within about 100 feet of Patience. This is plenty close for me. We continue on. The sea is glass calm and the skies are still overcast. When we are about an hour out of Bull Harbor, it starts pouring rain and doesn't let up until the next morning. Even in the gloom and rain, the entrance to Bull Harbor is dramatic. We anchor near the middle of the harbor with about four other sailboats. The bottom is mud and the anchor catches first try. We end the evening listening to AC/DC and playing Hearts while it continues to pour rain outside.
The next morning there is no rain and all of the neighboring boats are gone. We have overslept and missed our rendezvous with slack tide at the Nawetti Bar . Today we face two challenges - the Nawetti Bar and rounding Cape Scott . Nawetti Bar is a bar that extends north from the very top of Vancouver Island. The wave and current action can create breaking waves on the bar. Cape Scott is the most northwest point on Vancouver Island. It is well known for bad weather and shipwrecks. With all of this in mind, we make a hurried departure and head out of Bull Harbor to determine if we can still make it across the bar. There is thankfully very little wind. We average two or three knots for several miles as we fight the current running over the bar. Had there been any wind, I am certain we would have had to go back to Bull Harbor and wait for slack tide. Our rounding of Cape Scott at 1.00 PM is actually quite anti-climatic. Shortly after rounding Cape Scott we jettison two Absolut bottles with messages in them. Unfortunately we have never hear back from anyone regarding either bottle.
Our next destination is Sea Otter Cove - a bay about 7 nautical miles southwest of Cape Scott. We are now heading back towards home. As noted in most of the cruising guides, the entrance to Sea Otter cover is intimidating to say the least. One's sense of intimidation is heightened by the fact that you can't see the actual channel until the last minute and the fact that the entire area is strewn with unmarked reefs that are surging in the ocean swell. A handful of gray hairs later, we are safely moored to one of the four "hurricane" buoys in Sea Otter Cove. These so-called hurricane buoys are primarily intended for commercial vessels and are said to extremely reliable - unlike many of the government operated buoys you find elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Based on our observation and experience, the crew of the Patience concurs with this assessment. Unlike the aforementioned Desolation Sound, Sea Otter Cove actually feels extremely desolate, remote and rugged. This feeling is only enhanced by the fact that we are the only boat in the entire bay and we can't raise the friendly VHF Marine Radio Operator. One of our favorite pastimes during the trip, besides Hearts, is to listen to VHF Channel 16, which is the hailing and emergency channel. We have all grown fond of a particular French-Canadian radio operator from Comox Coast Guard Radio. We have listened to his voice amplified via repeater stations as we have circled the island. Tonight we can hear him, but he cannot hear us as we try to raise someone to patch us in for a phone call. Sebastian and Callison cook up chicken fajitas and we retire at an early 10.45PM.
The next morning, the crew rises quite early and goes their separate ways - Jose for a much needed shower, Tim to climb nearby Mount Saint Patrick for a photo shoot (note Patience in the center of the photo) and Sebastian and Callison exploring in the Avon. After we all return, the Patience sadly departs Sea Otter cove bound for Winter Harbor . We end up giving Sea Otter Cove high marks in all evaluation categories - particularly the "desolate ambiance category". At Winter Harbor we are rendezvousing with my cousins, Willard and Christalini Polatski. Shortly after leaving Sea Otter Cove, it becomes apparent there is sailing to be had. We hoist the sails and shortly thereafter we are sailing along at 5 - 6 knots with about 20 knots of wind from the northwest. This is our first real ocean sailing of the trip. Our tack brings us offshore about 8 or 9 nautical miles. On our outbound tack we see what we believe is an Albatross. Described by the crew as a cross between a dirty seagull and a turkey, we are to this day unsure if those birds were actually Albatrosses. At any rate if they were, it is quite cool as I have read so much about them. We tack back to the east and sail to within about a mile of Winter Harbor and motor the rest of the way in. This has been our best day of sailing since the Straits of Georgia two weeks ago.
At Winter Harbor we meet my cousins Willard and Christalini. Winter Harbor is a small town on the northwest corner of Vancouver Island, accessible only by boat, seaplane or a two hour drive over a very long dirt road. Willard and Christalini have brought lots of food and beer to provision us for the next segment of the trip. They have also brought a replacement 8D battery for the one in Patience that has given out. That night we make pizza & pasta and party the night away with the entire crew. Willard and Christalini spend the night in their truck and are unlucky enough to wake in the middle of the night to the sounds of someone trying to break into the car next to them. This incident sets the tone for our overall assessment of Winter Harbor.
The next day, we replace the battery (humorously named "The Work-A-Holic"). This is not an easy task as anyone can attest who has replaced a couple hundred pound 8D battery in a cramped engine room. After getting the replacement battery installed and the old battery up to the truck, it is time for the crew switch. Jose and Callison will drive Willard and Christalini's truck back to Victoria, British Columbia. The rest of us will continue down the west coast of Vancouver Island. Winter Harbor, like many of the small towns/cities on this trip is fine a place to pick up crew or purchase basic provisions but is not a place that is overwhelmingly full of culture and requires a multiple day stay.

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