Go toward the light and turn left and you can go to Hawaii.
Another stunning trip into the hinterlands of wild British Columbia. We’re sitting at a Starbucks with their lovely wifi having paid for a night in the Port of Sydney Marina. We made it to Oak Harbor on Vancouver Island in record time. We left Tacoma Saturday around 10:00am and by Sunday afternoon we were in Port Townsend. With fair weather it seemed a shame to waste the moment so we headed across the strait. We’d had great wind all the way from Port Madison, so naturally once we were in the strait the wind died on us. We knew it was too good to be true. Through a combination of motoring and motor-sailing, we arrived in Canada around midnight. Entering a new port at night is always a thrill. I don’t recommend it, but it happens.
We’ll do more thorough posts later when we have better internet, but for now we can report that we were waved out of the U.S. by finback whales, the first time we’ve seen those. Then I can report that there is nothing more thrilling than orcas breaching in the distance, then surfacing by the boat in the light of the moon, even if the boat is under motorsail at the time. I like sailing at night. There is something remarkably peaceful about it.
Mike rediscovered his interest in leper colonies and he’ll post more about that later. We had a great anchorage off D’arcy Island until the wind kicked up. So we sailed up to Sydney Spit. It was just too cold and windy to stay long so today finds us at the Sydney Marina. Time for showers and to stock up on groceries. Nothing too exciting to report but I can say for sure that I’ve never slept this much in my life. Sleep. Read. Eat. Sleep. Then sleep some more.
Downloading photos takes too long by wifi, so we’ll wait for those. But stay tuned because we’ll be adding a Product Reviews section (no one asked what we think of these things but that never stopped us before) and adding to the Cheap Tricks section in the future.
Meanwhile, we need to see more whales! And could the sun please make an appearance?
Hi Melissa,
Hey… we will be sailing out of Sydney this weekend maybe we’ll see each other somewhere in the Gulf Islands! Since our boat is in New Zealand we are chartering a 38 ft BCC “Twist”. It would be fun to meet up somewhere…?
Take care
Cath, Bill and the crew (friends Joel and Cole)
Sorry it’s not a BCC… it is a 38 ft C&C!
OOOOH! If only we’d had interned access for a little longer I would have seen your reply and we could have met up! That’s just a darn shame. I hope you guys had a fabulous time. You arrived just in time for decent weather.
So looking forward to your net update!
Ooh, leper colonies?! I’m intrigued. It looks gorgeous up there, and I can’t wait to hear about your adventures.
Beautiful! And you are talking about cold..what is that?!
Isn’t it amazing how much you sleep on a boat? Tate and are already big sleepers, but even more so on a boat. I wonder how we’ll ever make headway, lol.
Looking forward to whale and leper reports.
Also I LOVE product reviews, please enlighten us.
What a great trip!
SHOOT! I thought at first you were in Sydney, Australia. Missed the BC completely when I read the blurb on my inbox…….wondered how Moonrise had made it that far…..I trust by now you have found the sun and will come back home bright-eyed, bushy-tailed (have wondered for decades how a human is “bushy-tailed) and tanned!
Sounds like ya’ll are having a great time, and we look forward to seeing pictures and hearing more! Whales breaching in the moonlight …. sounds amazing! I know we’ll be nervous the first time (and many others) that we sail overnight, but we also can’t wait. It’s gotta be a great experience!