Hello and welcome back to our blog series detailing our 2 month sailboat trip, circumnavigating Vancouver Island! Here are some stats for this portion of our adventure.
Our path is the red line on the map.
Distance Traveled in this post: 176.7 nautical miles
Distance Traveled from Trip Start: 747.7 nautical miles
Time duration this blog post covers: 5 days
Amount of time motoring/sailing during this post: 25.8 hours
Total Amount of Fuel Used From Start of Trip: 75.9 gallons
In the last post spent a few days in Port McNeil preparing for our journey around Vancouver Island's Northern Cape. We reprovisioned, fueled up, filled up on water, and did laundry. After all of that we motored to Bull Harbour, which is a popular staging point for boats who are about to round Cape Scott, which is Vancouver Island's Northern tip.
We arrived in Bull Harbour after a marathon day of motoring from Port McNeil. If you recall, enroute to Bull Harbour we were dumbfounded to find that our chartplotter did not have any map data for the west side of Vancouver Island! That did not help our nerves for rounding Cape Scott, which is known for its rough weather and sea conditions.
The latest weather data showed a large low pressure (read: bad weather) system moving in, bringing heavy rain and wind for the next 4 days. By our calculations, we thought we could sneak past the cape and scoot into an anchorage before the storm hit.
Not wanting to spend the next four days stuck at a floating dock in Bull Harbour, we decided to chance it and attempt to round Cape Scott before the storm rolled in.
Leaving Bull Harbour at first light
Sunrise
At 4AM we shoved off in our bid to round the cape! Our first hurdle was the Nawahitti Bar, which sits almost immediately outside of Bull Harbour. The Nawahitti Bar and Tatnall Reef is an area that goes from deep water to very shallow, causing funky currents, standing waves, and confused seas... not to mention IT'S REALLY SHALLOW!
We carefully navigated the seaweed choked channel, which has depths as shallow as 16 feet. Thankfully it was a very calm morning allowing us to maneuver Maya through deeper channels.
Navigating the Tatnall Reef
The Nahwahitti Bar only lasted several miles, and after approx 90 minutes we had successfully navigated our way through the maze. With a sigh of relief, we continued on towards Cape Scott, motoring along at 5 knots.
After several hours we made it to the Northern tip of Vancouver Island.... Great Scott, Cape Scott! We had made it! To properly capture the moment we flew the drone and watched humpback whales- what a great moment that was. The winds were calm and sea generally settled. We had heard horror stories of Cape Scott and it looked like we slipped by without any issue.... or so we thought.
Cape Scott!
It was roughly an hour after we rounded Cape Scott that the wind started to pick up. Our original plan was to anchor in Sea Otter Cove, just south of Cape Scott.
However, based on the information we had been given, the anchorage was unprotected, which would have made for several rough days at anchor while the storm passed over us.
In light of this fact, we decided to continue past Sea Otter Cove, to Winter Harbour, an additional 6 hours south. As we past Sea Otter Cove, the storm front moved in and the winds began to pick up and before we knew it, we had winds of 30+ knots.
We took out a reefed jib sail, which helped stabilize the boat as she drove through the waves and after several hours of very uncomfortable sailing we turned and rounded the corner into Winter Harbour and dropped anchor. Our first taste of Vancouver Island's West side and the big blue Pacific was in a summer gale.
Excerpts from Cape Scott
Anchored in Winter Harbour
We spent the next two days at anchor recouping from our long passage from Bull Harbour. I can't tell you how comforting it is to complete trust in our anchor setup- that night the wind raged with big gusts while we slept comfortably at anchor.
After we a few days, the storm was still in full effect, we decided to move the boat up to another anchorage further up an inlet, which still offered protection from the open Pacific Ocean and its waves. We enjoyed several nights of peace and solitude in Jullian Cove- flying the drone as the last of the major storm front passed. I love this photo below as you really get sense of the environment we got to experience.
The last of the storm leaves
Now that the storm front had passed we could focus on our next challenge: Brooks Peninsula, which is a huge, rectangular land mass that sticks 10 miles out from Vancouver Island. Due to the shallow waters and currents surrounding the peninsula, Brooks has gained a reputation for rough sea conditions.
With a fair weather forecast we set out from our anchorage at 4AM and plotted our way around Brooks Peninsula, rounding Solander Island which sits just outside Brooks Peninsula. The weather held and sea conditions were favorable, making our trip an easy one, (just a longer one at 7 hours).
Excerpts from Rounding Brooks Peninsula and Columbia Cove
Solander Island
Once around Brooks Peninsula, we anchored in the first available place that offered refuge from the Pacific Swell.... Columbia Cove.
What was cool about Columbia Cove is the incredible, white sand beach it offered! We hiked over and enjoyed watching the sunset, knowing we had overcome two of the West Coast's biggest challenges: Brooks and Cape Scott.
The beach at Columbia Cove
The big Pacific behind us!
Ok, this post is starting to get lengthy so I will cut it about there. Be sure to stop by as the next blog post has fishing for salmon... and dodging more summer gales.
Thanks for stopping by and see you next time! Cheers!
