A very long day!

Thursday, July 4, 2024

Whew! We are safely at a dock in Cadboro Bay near Victoria, B.C. after motoring about 107 miles from Dodger Passage near Bamfield for not quite 13 hours straight! Walt and Martin rose at 5 am and had some trouble raising the anchor because of the huge ball of kelp and grass and other sea plants clinging to it. It took Walt some ten minutes to clear away the debris and get Braesail out of our anchorage. There was some fog, but nothing significant.

Karen and I stayed in bed as planned, but neither of slept.. Karen thought she hadn’t slept at all during the night, and I think I slept for a few restless hours. I was unable to sleep after Braesail was safely out of her anchorage because of the engine noise (the engine room is next to the aft cabin) and the rolling and bucking of the boat as she came around a point of land and encountered troubled seas. I finally crawled out of bed at about 7:30, visited the aft head, dressed, drank some water, and staggered to the main cabin and up the companionway stairs to the cockpit, where Walt and Martin were doing fine. I felt a bit queasy and had no appetite as the boat rolled about in the water. Soon Karen emerged from the forward cabin looking very sleepy and asked if anyone would like tea—I said that I would. Once I was sipping hot tea and adjusting to the rhythms of the waves, I began to feel better, though seriously sleep-deprived.

We motored east along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with good views of the Olympic Mountains (almost snow-free) to the south and of the wooded, hilly, crenelated shores of south Vancouver Island to the north. We could see the creamy summit of Mt. Baker to the east and of Mt. Rainier far to the southeast. We followed our watch schedule, with Martin and Karen being on duty for two hours and then Walt and I being on duty; those not on watch napped, read, worked on computer projects, prepared food, and did some galley clean-up as needed.

The sea surface smoothed as we traveled and glittered in the sunshine; we had almost no wind, and the current was against us until about 11 am, so we ran the engine quite hard. From then on, the current strengthened in our favor until Braesail raced along at 10, 11, and sometimes 12 mph. We zoomed past Race Rocks (where turbulent currents are common and to be avoided) and its lighthouse, then past Discovery Island and its current-tumbled surrounding waters and its lighthouse, and arrived in Cadboro Bay at about 6 pm. A kind boating couple pointed out the slip we’d been assigned and received our dock lines when we were ready to tie up—such help is always most welcome!

After we’d docked, Karen and Martin prepared a halibut dinner, we completed our evening tasks, and we tumbled into our beds somewhat early after a long and rather tiring but unexpectedly swift journey—how thankful we all were for our safe arrival at the Cadboro docks on a very summery evening!