The Adventure Begins

September 04, 2011

Sea Reach set out on her great adventure on Sept. 04 with a crew of three; John and Geraldine Guilfoyle and Mel Stewart.  As we dropped our mooring lines and pulled out of her home port of Squamish Yacht Club, fellow club members on the dock that morning waved flags and blew their noise makers. What an unexpected and heart warming send off.  Fellow Bluewater Cruising Association members Francois and Carolyn came out on their dinghy and took shots of Sea Reach as we bade farewell to Howe Sound. We spent our first night less than 25 nm away at the Government dock in Snug Cove on Bowen Island.

September 05, 2011

Early next morning at 0630h we set sail for

Roche Harbor on San Juan Island a distance of 54 nm where we planned to clear customs and get our cruising licence for the U.S.  Motored at first with very light winds and crossed the mouth of English Bay hugging the coastline for the first few hours. Winds from the SE later in the morning allowed us to hoist the sails and take a heading for Georgeson Passage south of Active Pass.  Currents through the pass run at about half the speed of Active Pass through a small cut in the reef.  We had a fabulous sail for four hours as we crossed the Strait under blue skies and the warm September sun and slipped through the pass with the current in our favor. With careful navigation it is a great alternative to Active Pass as a way of entering into the Gulf Islands.  Once inside the Gulf Islands headed south down Pender Passage with the motor on again, In the Haro Strait encountered a massive Maersk container ship. These behemoths come steaming the Haro Strait at 15 k blowing their horn at regular intervals to warn everyone out of their lane.

We arrived at the customs dock in Roche Harbor at 1730h.

Roche Harbour is a delightful, quaint and well-kept harbor with resort facilities at the Marina place. Our clearance was facilitated by friendly customs officials well used to sailors clearing in and out. I had made a list of provisions onboard for John to take with him in case there were multiple questions re food items.  We had no fresh citrus on board and no raw meat products just in case. The officer had few questions and never boarded the vessel.  With cruising permit in hand we headed off in search of the local ice cream parlor.  Crew member Mel, has a passion for the stuff so it is a must at every port of call! Later that evening we had a wonderful meal at Mac Millan’s dockside restaurant. High five for our entry into the U.S..

September 06, 2011

Next morning we departed at 0930h allowing time for early morning showers. We made our way back into the Haro Strait. With lots of fishing vessels and a fog bank approaching we turned on our newly installed Raymarine radar.and AIS system.  The AIS is most helpful giving detailed information on vessel bearing and speed and closest point of approach. The radar picks up the vessels not using AIS which are usually smaller and slower moving.   Some tense moments due to the amount of traffic but no close encounters.  The fog lifted in the early afternoon with winds of 15 k coming in from the W down the Juan de Fuca Strait providing perfect conditions for our crossing to Port Angeles.  We had heard that BCA boat Tahnoo would be crossing from Victoria that day so hailed her on channel 16. She too was on her way. We had a wonderful beam reach all the way to Port Angeles. 

Port Angeles is a working harbor with plenty of guest moorage.  We Docked at 1705h and quickly discovered that fellow BCA boat Barboleta was also tied up. Half and hour later Tahnoo shows up. What a pleasant unplanned meeting of three of the seven boats that had been on the 2009 VICE trip together. Nice mini rendezvous as we discussed together route plans and weather information.

Bill shared his GRIB files with us and later we downloaded a 96 forecast.

There was a strong high coming down the coast from the NW with the leading edge about 100 miles offshore. Much further south a low was developing south of Cape Mendicino. All three vessels decided to head for the 126° -127° meridian to catch the high and avoid the low making its way up the coastline closer onshore.