Sunday, September 23, 2012

Day 99-Ballet Bay to Conover Cove


With a good forecast (NW 10-15) for the Strait of Georgia, I set off this morning to check out Jedediah Island for possible anchorages.  If I couldn’t find something I liked, I’d continue to the Gulf Islands.

The trip to Jedediah was easy.  Basically smooth water, light winds, and good visibility.  I first checked out a little nook on the south end of the island.  It wasn’t charted well, but it would have been an awesome anchorage with a stern tie and in northerly weather.  I think southerly weather would work its way in…

After that I worked my way around to a few other spots but didn’t see anything that looked ideal.  The problem was the wind was forecast to shift from the northwest to the southeast overnight, so what was a good anchorage today could become a not so good anchorage sometime in the middle of the night.

Given the nice weather, I decided to just head across the Strait of Georgia and into the Gulf Islands.  Area Whiskey Golf, a joint US/Canadian naval torpedo test range, was active, so I took a longer course around it.  As I transited the area I heard the navy patrol boats calling a lot of other boaters who hadn’t known or bothered to check if the area was safe to transit.
Navy boat heading out to intercept a cruising boat in Whiskey Golf 
Tides have been quite small recently, so Dodd Narrows didn’t present a problem no matter when I went through.  As it was, I transited at the max flood for the day, about 3 knots.  No big deal and there were even sea kayakers going through at the same time.

I cruised another hour and a half down to Wallace Island, a wonderful provincial park that I’ve visited many times before.  Princess Cove, the northernmost anchorage, was surprisingly full and requires a stern tie so I headed down to see about dock space in Conover Cove.  Sure enough, after asking another boat to move forward a few feet, I had just enough space and settled in.

After reading a bit I set off to walk around the Island, which took a few hours.  Good exercise and nice trails.  On my way back I ran into Brian and Ann from Seven Please and chatted a bit.  Later on, I paddled out to their boat and had drinks with the two of them and Brian’s daughter, who had swapped places with Ann’s son.
The north tip of Wallace Island 
I need a car when I get back to Seattle, but I don't think this will be it...
Back on the dock I chatted with one of the neighboring boat owners.  He was awfully impressed that I’d taken such a little boat to Alaska.  It’s always funny when people ask how long I’ve been out for, where I’ve been, etc.  Normally they’re pretty shocked when I tell them.

62.5 nm today and 3,157.5 total

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