Deep Bay – Riveted

Peril Strait Anchorages | Deep Bay and Half Tide Neck

Laura Domela — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 17:15:05 +0000

We left Sitka on Tuesday morning and once through Sergius Narrows we decided to stay in Deep Bay. We put out crab traps and made dinner and didn’t really take any photos. The weather looked like this:

Inside Deep Bay:

No thanks, I’d rather be in the boat:

We fished a bit and caught one black rockfish but no salmon, so we made rockfish tacos for dinner.

On Wednesday morning our crab traps collectively had 20 crabs in them! Twenty! But guess what? Nineteen of them were females and we had only one male keeper. One out of twenty!! Apparently this used to be a great crabbing spot earlier in the season. We took our one crab and headed out. Still pretty rainy and cloudy. We decided instead of Appleton Cove we’d go someplace new, and anchored at Half Tide Neck in Hoonah Sound. Cool spot! (We caught another black rockfish on the way from Deep Bay to Half Tide Neck. Still no salmon.)

We set the crab pots out again (come on, one more!) and then did a little exploring.

Half Tide Neck panorama:

For dinner tonight I made rockfish cakes. (Same method as crab cakes, but with rockfish…and a tiny bit of leftover salmon…and I added some diced jalapeno.)

They turned out great!

There’s a mooring ball at the Half Tide Neck anchorage, and a little cabin. At first I thought it might be a forest service cabin, but I think it must be private. Sweet location!

This morning the clouds had lifted a little and we decided we’d forego Appleton Cove and go all the way to Takatz Bay in Northern Chatham Strait. The conditions were forecast to be good in Chatham (15 knot winds and 3 foot seas), so we’d make some miles and go to another new (to us) spot. We saw a couple humpbacks, and some more Pacific White-Sided dolphins. Boy do those guys move fast!

Where Peril Strait meets Chatham Strait:

Nice to see some blue sky, finally!!

Once out in the strait the conditions were more like 20 knot winds with 3-4 foot seas, but whatever. It was bumpy, but it was sunny!

Thanks for the (not so) Fun Ride, Strait of Georgia

Laura Domela — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 00:35:39 +0000

Deep Bay, BC to Princess Cove on Wallace Island, BC

This morning in Deep Bay we woke up just after 4am and checked the weather. Nothing had changed since last night's forecast: 20-30kt winds. Back to sleep it is! But then around 7:30am when we checked again, things looked like they might have improved a bit, and we decided it couldn't hurt to poke our nose out and see if it was tolerable. We could always turn around. Again.

So out we went. At first it seemed like conditions might be a little better than yesterday. The wind was pretty strong, and the waves were right on the bow…maybe 3-4 feet. (Okay, maybe 5.)

But the forecasted conditions further south were supposed to be more chill (eventually), so we went a little further as we discussed what we thought of the present conditions. Eventually we decided it was probably just as bad as it was yesterday, but the longer we discussed it, the further we went.

We talked about whether we were doing that "get home" thing where you go even when you shouldn't. We decided we weren't doing that.

We talked about the wind forecasts and whether the wind direction was going to change or stay the same. Pretty soon, the conditions were definitely WORSE than they were yesterday, but we'd gotten kind of used to the blamming and slamming, and turning around in that didn't sound fun either.

We discussed whether we were continuing on just because we didn't want to turn around. We decided we weren't doing that.

The further we went, the longer it was going to take to get back to Deep Bay if we turned around. The further we went, the worse it got.

The fans that de-fog the windshield were going full blast but waves were crashing over the bow and water was splashing over and over onto the windows, so the constant spray of cold sea water running down the windows was chilling the glass and causing more condensation to form on the inside. It looked like this most of the time:

But then when there were a few less waves splashing the windows and the de-fogging fans did their job more successfully and the windows cleared up a little bit, we realized we didn't really WANT to see out those windows. (Waves that you see in front of you look WAY bigger than the same waves that you see out the side windows as they pass by you, FYI.)

Okay…where's the next duck out spot? French Creek. There it is on the map…got it.

Alright…there it is, right over there…see all the masts?

"I feel like it's getting a little better. Do you feel like it's gotten a little better?"

"Ummmm, no, not really.Well, maybe."

Okay, what's the next duck out spot? Northwest Bay. Then Schooner Cove. Check!

We discussed whether these were the worst conditions we'd been in so far. The thing is, as your experience grows, your tolerance for conditions also grows. So if you're ever asking the question "Are these the worst conditions?" then the answer is probably "Yes."

By the time we neared Nanaimo, the conditions had improved significantly. We felt happy and calm and decided to go further while we could, so now we're anchored in Princess Cove on Wallace Island.

There were only two other boats in here (both sailboats) and we're all anchored in the middle (rather than anchored and stern-tied) since there's so much room.

We took the dinghy over to the dinghy dock and headed up to do some hiking. This is the dinghy dock:

Trail map of the island:

We took the trail over to Conover Cove and back…super pretty right along Houstoun Passage.

We explored this little rocky cove along the way:

Great textures in the rock:

After our hike we dinghied around a little to explore more of the island. It's gorgeous here! (Thanks for the recommendation, Sam!)

The sunset here was super pretty!

We cooked up a pot of soup and some garlic bread and we're relaxing now after a pretty eventful day (!!!!).

Here's today's track (59 nautical miles) from Deep Bay to Princess Cove on Wallace Island:

Whew!

Deep Bay – Vancouver Island, BC

Laura Domela — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:01:51 +0000

Another lesson on being flexible.

We left Comox this morning around 7:30am. The wind was supposed to pick up but it was not yet blowing much so we figured we'd go south a bit and see how it was once we got out from the protection of Denman Island, about 17 miles from Comox.

We started getting into some swells behind the island, and they weren't too bad until we got out near the Chrome Island lighthouse. The waves were a steep 4-5 ft and pretty close together. Between there and Nanaimo there aren't a lot of good duck out options, so after a few minutes of discussion (and a few "whoa"s), we opted to turn around and go back to Deep Bay and wait out the weather.

Here's us turning around. (Waves never look big in photos unless you're surfing while taking the photo):

It's nice and calm here in Deep Bay though:

We chatted with another couple of boaters about the conditions (they were on their way to Nanaimo from Comox as well, in a sailboat)…they had the same feeling. We all felt like we could have continued, but decided we didn't want to and didn't need to in those conditions. Sometimes it's just not worth all the jostling and banging around. It can be stressful, and with no great duck out options, you end up captive in whatever the wind and water deals up for you, and that can be unpleasant.

Here's our track today (19.5 miles total, including the turn around):

We learned about a fun new weather website though: Big Wave Dave! (www.bigwavedave.ca). The "Forecasts — Wind Predictions No. 1" is a great page to watch. We're looking at Comox, Columbia Beach, and Piper's Lagoon (north to south as listed…Piper's Lagoon is near/in Nanaimo). White is great, aqua is okay, yellow is less okay (today was yellow) and the varying shades of red are all bad.

We went up and had some halibut and chips for lunch at the cafe nearby and now we're just working for the afternoon here at the boat. We were psyched at first, thinking we were close to Fanny Bay Oysters, but it's about 6 miles up the road (or up the coast via dinghy). If we'd have known we were going to stop here for the night we could have tied up at the little dock nearby and walked over to shop before continuing on. They don't deliver — I checked, so next time that's what we'll do. Last time we were through this area (just over a year ago when we started thinking about buying a boat) we picked up some local oysters and local scallops there and they were so good!

How funny that we'll be returning from this trip to Alaska exactly a year from when we closed on our Nordic Tug. We've stayed over 250 nights in it (253 as of today) so that's over 8 months out of the last year that we've spent on board. (Not tired of it yet. Not one bit!)