SV Darwind

After a good deep sleep, we got up and discovered that it was a good thing the wind was blowing from the north all night. This was because when we turned on the depth sounder we were in 10 feet of water and sung out away from the drying flats. And it wasn’t even low tide. We must have been very lucky to have gotten through the night without even a bump, much less going high and dry at low tide. Needless to say, we got underway and away from the shallows pretty quick and were headed out on our short ho to Ketchikan by 7:30am, just late enough that customs should be open and awake. (It’s always better to talk to a hay agent rather than a grumpy one who just stayed got up) As we entered Tongass narrows and approached Ketchikan, I called customs again and did my first border check-in. everything went extremely smoothly, the guy I was talking too was really enthusiastic and not nearly so stiff-collar and impassive as I imagined. I had everything ready and the process was going very well...

Today was the border and Dixon entrance crossing day, and dad and I set out from the secure picturesque anchorage at Humpback bay at 4:00am. As usual the reason for the early departure was in part due to currents, but this time we were also worried about the forecast, which warned of 25 knot northwest winds by late afternoon, so we wanted to be tucked in somewhere well before that. When we set out and sailed past the massive superstructure and industry of Prince Rupert’s commercial docks, there was almost no wind, but in order to same a little bit of fuel, we raised the main, and for the first time in weeks, the genoa, which we poled out with the boathook. Mostly they just flopped around, but what little wind that there was was from astern, so even just the added windage helped take some strain off the engine, even if they were not actually adding any speed. We crossed the US Canada border into Alaska at 12:02 pm Canada time, after which I pulled down the red and whi...

After enjoying Wally’s hospitality at Hartley Bay, we left early the next morning at 5:00am to catch the current setting through Grenville channel. This narrow, straight channel running northwest for over 35 nautical miles has an interesting current that turns out to be a lifesaver for low powered boats passing through, and that is that instead of flowing either north or south wit the flood, which would make it impossible for any small boat to get through before the current changed, the channel floods from both ends, so if you can time it right, the flooding tide will carry you halfway up, where the ebb will then carry you out the rest of the way. Today we were motoring the pretty much the whole way, right up to the end where we left Grenville channel. That I not to say however that the day was without incident, for at one point in around 11:00, while dad and I were both in the cockpit, we heard an ominous splash, and as soon as we whirled around, I saw disaster waiting to happen. ...

After sending the night surprisingly well in the deep, calm waters of Kutze Inlet, dad and I woke up at the usual early morning time and were under way by 5:25am, after eating a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon. At least today it was only raining a little, with light intermittent drizzle as opposed to yesterday’s downpour, but nonetheless it took a huge effort of will to put all those layers of still-damp rain gear and head leave the warm confines of the cabin. Outside, we were once more impressed by the sheer mountainsides dropping into the water on either side, an effect that was heighted by the fact that we could actually see all the way to the top, unlike yesterday when the cliffs had ended in thick clouds seemingly just above the masthead. For a few hours of the morning we had this last reminder of staggering natural forces and beauty, then we left Graham reach and the channel widened out as the mountains either side became less steep and lost much of their majesty. During ...

Today, similarly to yesterday began with a motor in the flat calm of the early morning to a fuel/water/grocery stop at the little first nations town of Klemtu. This was a sleepy little town whose only economy is fishing and selling fuel to passing boats. Since the town dock was full, we sailed around outside the little bay to the fish pier/fuel dock where we tied up behind exactly the same two boats that are shown in a picture in the Waggoner’s cruising guide. Since we had some time to kill before the currents in Graham reach of Princess Royal channel, we walked into town and back, but didn’t stop at the big house across from the harbor. After our walk I returned to the boat to update my blog, while dad went looking for the grocery store, only to find it about 500 feet away on the pier! We ate lunch at the only restaurant in town, when we both had some big, greasy burgers before finally heading out into the rain once more. It was right about 11:00 when the tor...

Today we left the shelter of Kiltik cove and headed out into a transformed world. Where yesterday there had been driving whitecaps and steep chop, today the water was polished like a mirror, without even the slightest hint of a ripple to denote any kind of wind, we motored on with Ray steering, and the two of us intermittently relaxing in the sun or crouching under the shelter of the dodger as short bursts of rain, still with no wind, passed over.             The weather was generally fair throughout the morning, until we were about three miles from our midday fueling stop at Bella Bella. As we came around a bend in the channel and could see the tiny town center ahead, a heavy raincloud came down on us, forcing all the books, cushions, and sheets that were lying outside drying out to be hastily thrown below, and Foul weather gear to be re-applied layer by layer.        ...

Today was one of the best days in terms of both mileage made good, and in sailing. We left the Walker islands at 5:00am in order to catch the currents and wind just right, and as a result spent the first few minutes motoring, but as the sun rose the wind started to pick up, but from the east, exactly opposite of the west-southwest winds forecasted only that morning. Thus, it was warily that dad and I raised the #2 jib and full main, and killed the engine as we started to run off the wind at around 4 knots. By this time the engine was raised up and secured, and was not to touch the water for another 11 hours.             As we left Queen Charlotte strait and entered the sound, open to the Pacific Ocean, to the west, we started to feel a large ground swell running opposite of the east wind, which made for some interesting motion to say the least. Also as we entered the open water, the wind gradually picked up u...

            Today was the first day of dad and I sailing up through the more hairy sections of northern British Columbia, and was a pretty uneventful day, at least in the first three quarters, near the end things started to get a bit more interesting.             We left Sointula late around 11:00am, and were delayed when at the last minute as we were exiting the breakwaters mom and Carmen started waving their arms and calling for us to come back because they had left the key to the bike lock of some borrowed bikes on board. What followed was a very interesting fly-by where we swung by the fuel dock at the end of the pier, where dad reached out and passed the key to Carmen. This in itself was not so bad, but we had to maneuver around the 60-foot fishing boat already tied up and ended up clearing the overhanging stern with only inches to spare.  ...

Today, we were originally going to do a short inside hop around into the Broughton Archipelago, maybe stopping off at lagoon cove, where we had a great experience with Northern Passage in 2012, but instead, since we were feeling so good about Johnstone Strait after yesterday’s sail, we decided to just sail straight up all the way to Sointula.             The sail started fine, we got underway half an hour after Tarani , and once we were in Johnstone we raised the main and #2 Jib and killed the engine in about 10-15 knots of wind from the NW. We sailed, doing long tacks across the straight, for a few hours, during which I got extremely angry and frustrated with Ron, who was working perfectly two days ago, but now suddenly refused to work. After much cursing and a few accidental tacks, I gave it up and just sailed on, but not before becoming snappy and irritable, which in tern translated to mom, and spoiling th...

Port Harvey, where we pulled into after the passage up Johnstone turned out to be an amazing place, and perfect for after a hard, cold, wet, if very fun (at least for me) slog as we had just had. The first thing we noticed as the location, which was unlike everywhere we had been so far, maybe with the exception of Cordero Lodge, the communities had all been of the upper end of society and we always stuck out like a sore thumb among the immaculate yachts and large summer homes of the very rich. Port Harvey on the other hand, tucked way up at the head of a sheltered inlet is another story altogether. Logging and fishing seemed to be the main purposes of the few scattered buildings, and there was even an apartment building built out of an old barge just across from the marina.             The marina itself is probably one of the nicest we have been to so far, with just over a thousand feet of dock space and very...

Today was a very telling day. It was the first day that we really sailed in really heavy weather and got to see how the boat stood up to it. This of course would be very important to know if I have any chance at all of someday sailing her around the world, and I wasn’t too worried about the boat, I had done enough research and read enough accounts of Pearson Tritons going through hell and back unscathed (one Pearson Triton was double circumnavigated), my only concern was how the mom would react to possibly a very wet, wild ride. It was also to be a major turning point for me both as a sailor and as a person.             All these questions would be answered early in the morning as we picked up the anchor at 4:00am, after a night spent in the cockpit fretting over how we were holding and the proximity of the rock, and headed down Sunderland Channel under power, and with only a 10 knot headwind and small chop, we began to g...

Today was a long day, but unlike the passage from Blaine, it was actually a very short mileage. We had spent the night at Cordero lodge, making it the second time in the voyage we had stayed in one place for more than one night, the first being Port Townsend, and I don’t know if that counts as it was only a weather stop. However, as sailors, we can never just have a normal day, so we woke up the next morning at 4:00am and were off the dock by 4:30, making it the earliest start of the voyage so far.             This early start was due to the need to push through Green Point Rapids at slack before ebb. After running the rapids with at exactly slack and popping out the other side having not seen a single ripple, we suddenly found ourselves with about six hours to kill before slack at Whirlpool rapids on the way to Forward Harbor, our eventual destination. Since it had been such an early morning, we opted to go ...

While at anchor in Bickley Bay, we listened to the weather on the radio and found that the westerly system that forced us up through Yaculta and Dent rapids in the first place had increased into a full gale, with winds over 40 knots blowing down Johnstone strait on Wednesday and Thursday, and winds over 25 up till then. As we really don’t have to be in Port McNeil until Friday to meet up with dad, we decided to dink around in the sheltered channels and islands for a few days before we committed to the strait.             So, after a long night's sleep, we woke up around 8:00 or 9:00, and the first thing we saw was a grizzly on the shore, poking along the beach, eating mussels or clams. After a while the bear wandered back into the woods and we got started with the day, making breakfast at port for the first time in a very long time, and generally just lazing around for most of the day. At one point it was so hot, what wit...

Today, Friday June 3 rd , is the one-week and 271.3 nautical mile mark for the voyage of the Darwind , and despite being a Friday, it turned out to be a pretty good day. The major event was the passage of Yaculta and Dent rapids, which can run over 10 knots at full flood and can create whirlpools dozens of feet across. However, if you time it just right so that you can pass through at slack tide, they become benign and relatively safe.             To make sure we arrived at the rapids well before slack and also to fill up our fuel, we left Bliss early in the morning and had some intermittent wind to Refuge Cove, a few miles north in Desolation Sound, where we arrived a bit early and so waited around and rested at the fuel dock for a few minuets before topping off the tanks and getting a few provisions for the next week. We also got one more five gallon jerry jug of gas, as there isn’t any gas in this area and...