Tag Archives: Georgia Strait

July 1 – Nanaimo to Telegraph Harbour

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b.c. ferry georgia strait

As we left Nanaimo Harbour and came out from behind Newcastle Island, we rolled for a while in a 1-2 foot chop coming in from Georgia Strait. We could see this B. C. ferry making its way to Nanaimo, with the snow-capped mountains of the mainland in the background.

After our 11-hour trip from Desolation Sound to Nanaimo, we decided to stay a second day at Nanaimo. It was a good time to take care of some maintenance around the boat and to rest. We took a long walk along the Nanaimo Harbour Walkway in the morning before it got too hot. The heat wave was continuing, and it was in the high 80s or low 90s again today. Not much wind in Port of Nanaimo either, and it didn’t get below 60 overnight. The boat was hot.

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June 29 – Refuge Cove to Nanaimo

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leaving desolation sound

We left Desolation Sound behind under the clouds and headed south on a very calm Georgia Strait. You can still see the raindrops on our cabin sides, left over from last night’s persistent rain.

This morning’s marine weather forecast for Georgia Strait was “wind light.” That’s all. There was no mention of wind direction or velocity. We can’t remember ever hearing such a short forecast. It was cloudy with fog in places and Phoenix was still soaked from last night’s rain. But it was calm in Refuge Cove and the rain had stopped, so we decided it was time to head south.

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June 21 – Nanaimo to Pender Harbour

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Pender Harbor Northwest

Garden Bay in Pender Harbour, mainland B. C., looking Northwest. The anchorage was very comfortable and the evening was delightful.

It was calm and overcast with a light drizzle this morning. The forecast for Georgia Strait called for light winds rising to southeast 10-15 later in the morning. We really don’t like to try to cross Georgia Strait in any kind of southeast wind. We have had consistently rough passages crossing Georgia Strait in southeast wind, especially when the wind opposes the current at any point during the crossing. However, we had been in Nanaimo LONG ENOUGH, so we decided to head out toward our Pender Harbour destination and see what the conditions were like.

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June 20 – Still In Nanaimo

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Admiral_of_the_Fleet

One of the colorful statues in the Maffeo Sutton Park along Nanaimo’s Harbourfront Walkway is “Admiral Of The Fleet,” a tribute to ‘Black Frank,’ a prominent Nanaimo community leader, who helped launch the Nanaimo Bathtub Race. A colorful pirate costume was worn to promote the bathtub event.

We ended up staying another day in Nanaimo due to weather. It was rainy, foggy and windy. Not a good time to try to cross Georgia Strait—a 35 mile trip with about 15 miles in open water—and known to be nasty when the wind kicks up. It was a good day to work on inside things…and NOT have to work on the engine! We did some reading, organized some of our supplies, and caught our breath from dealing with the engine issues.

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Anacortes to Nanaimo

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phoenix at port of nanaimo

Phoenix tied up on the docks at the Port of Nanaimo.

We arrived in Nanaimo yesterday (Sunday) and are staying here today as well. We’re tied up at Port of Nanaimo, our choice of a place to tie up where Jim can do some work on our engine. We started out across Georgia Strait in the late morning yesterday, thinking we would take advantage of a brief weather window. But after a half hour or so, we noticed that our engine was running a little hot. We decided it would be better to get to a dock and check things out before we made a 15-mile crossing of a large body of water.

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