Wow I can’t believe it’s August already. We have sooooo much to do before we head south and because of that we have covered the coast at a faster pace than we wanted.
We left Ocean Falls and have made the following stops:
Fry Pan Bay was our staging point prior to our Cape Caution transit. Other than some fog in the morning this one gets the easy button with calm seas and light winds for the trip to Port McNeill.
Port McNeill to Cutter Cover seemed like the horsefly capital of the central coast. Damn those things leave a welt.
From Cutter Cove we headed for our Johnstone Strait passage. We left early afternoon hoping to catch the flood tide. Man did we call that one right! What a ride! With our boat doing 8 knots there were sections of the Strait that had a 4.5 to 5 knot current in our direction making our speed over ground 12 to 13 knots. OK maybe only a sailor can get excited about going 15 miles an hour, but we did. We had an amazing hour with dolphins along side the boat as well. I swear they were trying to splash me on purpose. We will try and post the video to our Facebook page.
From Johnstone Strait it was Chameleon Bay, Octopus Islands, Comox (plus one day waiting on weather), Nanaimo, Montague Harbour (met up with friends on S/V Azura Kai).
Port Browning (Blue Water Cruising Association rendezvous), Winter Cove and Canoe Cove.
We know we’re back in the Vancouver area because the pleasure boat traffic and all the antics that go along with it have increased exponentially. Over in Haida Gwaii the marine radio was so quiet that when a voice did come on it nearly startled you. Here the radio is going non-stop.
As a public service I would like to remind boaters that:
Channel 16 is for hailing and distress only
Radio checks are done on channel 83 A
Cussing some ignorant boater out on the radio will have no impact on their behavior and while it may make you feel better it is frowned upon and unnecessary
Marinas monitor channel 66 A
And please store your microphone correctly so it does not transmit when not required.
To those non-boaters reading this, you won’t understand, but anyone who has listened to a VHF marine radio in Vancouver waters will know all too well what I am saying.
I feel for the coast guard radio operators that have to deal with this constantly.