2013 Summer Cruise Part 2

July 24

The good weather continues in Vancouver, so we spend the morning giving Spirit a good fresh water wash down.  After getting a map we headed out on foot to the corner of Burrard and Hastings Streets, looking for a food truck featured on “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” on the Food Network.  We found the truck, “Fresh, Local & Wild” right where it was supposed to be and ordered both the seafood poutine and the chicken fried oyster sandwich.  The tuck had a little table on the back deck, so we sat there and watched the action.  The food was good, but definitely food truck style, nothing fancy.

Returning to the boat Patrick made another Costco run before just relaxing in the sunshine.  We fixed chicken Caesar salads for dinner, eating on the flybridge.

 

July 25

We departed Quayside Marina at 0740 under sunny skies and calm winds.  As we headed out Burrard Inlet the seas increased, due to the winds further north, although we had only 0-10 knots off wind, the seas caused a lot of pitching and the salt spray wiped out the washing from the day before.  The seas finally calmed down as we entered Welcome Passage and passed by Smuggler Cove.  Entering Pender Harbor under sunny skies, with no wind we anchored in Gerrans Bay, even though there was lots of room in Garden Bay.  After launching the tender we cruised around the harbor looking for boats we knew, but the marinas all had empty space and we found no one.

We fired up the barbeque and had grilled steak and a kale salad for dinner and then took another cruise in the tender until dusk. We stowed the tender back on deck so we could get an early departure in the morning before the winds picked up.

 

July 26

We departed Gerrans Bay at 0730, but the winds beat us.  Malaspina Strait was windy and rough, with winds as high as 27 knots.  We put even more salt on Spirit as we slogged north against the ebb tide.  The seas and wind finally calmed down after 4 hours in the lee of Harwood Island.  The wind and waves increased as we rounded the southwest tip of Cortes Island, with the wind opposing the tide.  More spray and salt for about thirty minutes, and then we were in the lee of Marina Island.  By 1445 we were anchored in 50 feet of water in Gorge Harbor.  The wind is gusting out of the northwest to 29 knots and it is at least 10 degrees cooler than yesterday.  Sunny weather this time of year typically has these brisk northwest winds, especially in the afternoon.

July 27

In order to make high slack water at Yuculta Rapids and Gillard Passage we pulled the anchor at 0500.  The wind was down to 10 knots so it was easy.  We had an easy cruise to Dent Island Lodge, arriving at 0900 and initially docking in a temporary slip across the dock from the Boeing corporate yacht “Daedalus”.  Shortly after we arrived a helo landed just astern of us on the dock to pick up clients for sightseeing.  We then spent the morning cleaning the salt off the boat and moving to another slip at low slack in the afternoon.  Dinner this evening will be at the Rapids Grill, with the Tapas menu prepared in front of us by the chef.

Spirit looks tiny at the end of the dock across from Daedalus