We raised the anchor at 9.30 AM and motored well clear of the land, then raised all sail and turned ENE along Boundary Pass against a moderate SE wind. We were sailing well through the water but our COG was only 2.1 kt due to the adverse current. Several times the water was so roiled by the current that it seemed as though we were sailing in a river rather than a deep passage.
Steadily the effect of the current diminished as we had expected and we found ourselves having a splendid sail in a warm, sunny, and almost cloudless day. Canada with South Pender and Saturna islands was to our port, and the USA with Waldron, Sucia, and patos islands was to our starboard. During the passage between Saturna and Pender islands we ran the for about 20 minutes when we thought that the wind was dying.
Once we were in the Strait of Georgia we headed NW running as close to downwind as possible without allowing the headsail to be blanketed by the mainsail. A few hours we gybed, they gybed again when we had crossed the Strait of Georgia. Our speeds were over 5 kt, usually over 6 kt because of the assistance of the favorable current. Our final run past Lulu Island to Point Grey at the entrance to Vancouver was outstanding: several hours of 7+ knots on a starboard beam reach. The wind started to die down as we approached Pt. Grey and we started the engine 6 miles out, when our speed had dropped to 4.1 kt. The wind picked up again and between the engine and sails we reached Pt. Grey doing a full 8 kt.
We then dropped our sails and motored into the wind past English Bay looking for the entrance to False Creek. This proved more difficult than we had expected. The entrance was difficult enough to find but the search was made more challenging because we were forced to dodge a plethora of sail boats, Kayaks, and fishing boats. We eventually found the entrance followed another sail boat under the Burrard & Granville Bridges and dropped anchor
at about 8.15 PM, just after sunset, in 7 meters of water.
An hour later we had a fine meal in the cockpit under the sparkling lights of Vancouver, over a bottle of superb Condingup Vineyard Shiraz sent as a gift by Christine from her and her husband Jim's vineyard East of Espernance in Western Australia.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the Condingup Vineyard promotion!!!! I am impressed!
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