Catching Up With Cambria the Inside Passage

Movin' On Up

Thursday, May 07, 2015TheCambrians

After spending eight very long days held up in Blunden Harbour, waiting for a series of lows, cold fronts and occluded fronts to move through the area, we finally got our chance to cross Queen Charlotte Sound and round Cape Caution on Sunday morning.

We were determined to make up some time, so on our first day we sailed 74 miles . . . well, we motor-sailed.  If you’ve ever travelled these waters by boat, you know how tiring it can be:  Keeping a constant eye out for floating debris (logs and kelp) wears you down, especially in overcast conditions.  So, by the time we reached Sea Otter Inlet along Hunter Island’s east coast, we both were more than ready for the day to be over.


Sea Otter Inlet is a special anchorage and it was tempting to take Monday off, but we were excited to reach Ocean Falls to see our friends, Rob and Corrina, who own and operate the lodge there.  And, if I’m to be perfectly honest, the thought of a long, hot shower was pretty motivating as well. 

We had our first real access to the internet in weeks and there were two things I needed to take care of right away: (1) order a gift for my mom for Mother’s Day and (2) make our reservation for Glacier Bay (something I should have done weeks ago).  In the end, gift cards won out over flowers, and we can’t get into the park until the fourth of July.  It was a little disappointing at first, but the later date actually takes a lot of pressure off – now if we run across a special anchorage on our way up, we have the time to enjoy it.

We have one more major boat job to take care of while we’re in Ocean Falls. David went to commission the watermaker a few weeks ago and discovered the high-pressure pump wasn’t working.  After running a few tests to verify the fact, he pulled the pump out yesterday with plans to rebuild it today. Hopefully it’ll go well.  If not, we’re back to sponge baths and dreaming about long, hot showers until we can get our hands on a new pump (which won’t be this season).


Tomorrow we’ll move down to Shearwater to top up the diesel tanks (the heater is killing us with fuel consumption!) and to buy some fresh food.  And then it’s back up the Inside Passage to Bishop Bay Hot Springs, where I’m sure we’ll spend some of that extra time we just received soaking in the pools.

From there on, it'll all be new to us.

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3 comments

  1. Congrats on making it through that "gateway"! So how did it go? We're interested in details of the crossing of the Strait and rounding of Cape Caution! We plan to do this trip later this season. Love your blog!

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    1. Thanks, Cathryn! We did have a decent crossing of Cape Caution. West Sea Otter was reporting 1.2 metres, and it was pretty calm. Usually we have a westerly swell (beam on) rolling us around and NW winds to fight, but it was blowing from the SE and that seemed to knock everything down this time. There was a Nordhaven that tried to make the rounding a couple of days before that (when WSO was reporting 2.4 metres) and they came back 3 hours later. Blunden Harbour offers great refuge; but if you're sailing, there are some anchorages closer to Vancouver Island that would give you a much better point of sail before setting off.

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    2. So glad you had a better journey! Thanks for the additional information.
      Cathryn and Bob on "Next To Me", 1981 40' Ocean Alexander (trawler), leaving Puget Sound late June

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