2023 IG Goes to Canada

Slack tide at Malibu Rapids was predicted to be at 10:47 this morning. Our plan was to get to the rapids about an hour early and if it was not running too swift, we’d transit through. Tide would be going out prior to slack, so we’d be going with the current if we were early.
Good-bye beautiful place! It’s about a 45 minute voyage to the rapids from the dock, because the whole inlet is a “No Wash” zone (that’s Canadian for “No Wake”, eh?). Several other boats had our same idea, because there were eight boats that left from the dock, mooring balls, and anchor at about 9:30 in a spread-out parade to the rapids.

On Wednesday morning we headed out at about 10:15 for our long 52 mile day. It seems weird to start so late for a long voyage, but it all had to so with the timing of slack tide at Malibu Rapids, which is 47 miles away. Even at this, we were leaving a bit early, just to give ourselves some room for adjustments. Slack tide was estimated to be at 4:40pm, so we were shooting at going through the rapids at 4:30. Fortunately, tide would be going in, so if we were early, we’d be going with the tide. If we were late, we’d be going against it, but the low tide this evening was only about a four foot change, so the water wouldn’t be flowing super fast against us even if we were late.
Good-bye cute John Henry’s! Maybe we’ll be back, since we don’t know where we’re going after Princess Louisa.

Tuesday the weather was calmer, thank goodness. We waited until about 11:00 to leave our little sheltered bay to move on to Pender Harbour. I had made a reservation on-line at John Henry’s Marina, and official check-in wasn’t until 1:00, so we took our time leaving here this morning. So long, Smuggler’s Cove!

Remember yesterday I mentioned something about a Military Active Range called Whiskey Gulf (or maybe it’s Golf?🧐)? That’s military talk for WG. Here is the scoop on that. It is a torpedo test range. We don’t want to dodge any torpedos, and Island Girl certainly isn’t nibble enough for that kind of dancing! So the plan that I learned from a fellow smart Bayliner person, is to take the green route across the Strait, so that you just barely have to turn to get around the one corner. We’d be starting from the south end of Gabriola Island and heading for Smugglers Cove. To get to Smugglers from Nanaimo (the orange route) requires a big go-around route. As it turned out, it was Sunday and there was no chatter on the radio about Whiskey Gulf being active, so we could have gone straight across. But who knows that in advance? Our plan worked fine.

Saturday morning we headed out around 10:30. I had us take a leisurely morning because I wanted to time our transit through the Gabriola Pass near slack tide. We’ve never been there so I don’t know how narrow or swift it can be, so I like to be cautious. It is near our destination, about 28 miles or maybe 3.5 hours away from here, and we won’t have far to go after that. The breeze had come up again from the southeast but didn’t seem as bad as yesterday. At least most of our voyage would be going with the wind once we got out of Long Harbour.

On Wednesday morning, we got underway by 8:30 to get out of Fisherman’s Bay and it’s channel with positive water. We thought Rick said last night that we should leave at 10:00am, and I said maybe 9:00 since tide would be going out. Then at 8:15 he texted me to see if we were up, that we probably should get ready to go. 😳 Well I was up, and Kenny was awake. He quick got up, got dressed, we loaded Stuart, he went upstairs, started the engines, and we were untied and on our way by 8:35! Maybe Rick thought it would take us longer? Nope – We be like Speedy Gonzales rocket blasters! 🚀 Time to make some coffee!! ☕️. Til next time Lopez Island! Thanks for the fun time!!