Strange Things Done.....: Finally

Thursday, 6 June - We had to get up early to take advantage of the weather forecast, so we were up at 0530 and underway at 0600 out of Hartley Bay. We had to make our way south from there to get into the "Outside - Inside Passage"" of Principe Channel. So far we had been travelling the very long and fairly narrow passes and channels of the Inside Passage toward Prince Rupert and Alaska. But now we were going closer to the very large and notorious body of water known as Hecate Strait. It has been called the 5th worst body of water in the world for rough and treacherous conditions, and we were about to cross it to get to Haida Gwaii. I'm not sure what the other 4 bodies are, but I'd guess that the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn, Gulf of Alaska would be 3 of them. So we had about 15 miles to go, to reach Principe Channel, with a large island (Banks Island) creating the channel from the east side of Hecate Strait. We motorsailed in light airs to the entrance to Principe, and the wind started to build. Soon we were having a very fine downwind sail in quite boisterous conditions (20 - 25 knots with building seas - we were sailing at 7-8 knots and surfing at 10). By 1000 we were passing the inlet we'd planned to go to, and continued with very exhilharating sailing, with the wind still increasing. We sailed another 25 miles and as the wind started to reach gale force, we ducked under a small headland, doused our sails, and went into a quiet little bay etched into Banks Island, called Colby Bay. Our anchor held well, and we had good protection from the gales outside - although it was quite cool, and we had to keep the heater going. The sailing had tired us out a bit, so we just relaxed and read our books, and had an early evening.
The following morning we continued outside the cove and found the wind had eased a bit, but was still moderate southerly, allowing us another great sail for the 20 miles remaining to go to the north end of Banks Island. Here we anchored in a very small inlet called Larsen Harbour. There is no real harbour here - just an inlet cut into the rocky shore, with huge kelp beds surrounding it. Although it is a bit interesting finding the way in around the various rocks and kelp beds, by carefully weaving around them, we found a quiet spot to anchor....and the kelp helps to keep the swell down, and the anchorage protected. This was our waiting spot for a weather window to cross Hecate Strait. Our friends in the Nordic Tug, "Some Lucky", pulled in and anchored a short distance away. It was still early afternoon, so I had time to troubleshoot a recurring electrical problem. After dinner, Ray re-taught me how to play cribbage and euchre, before we retired.
Saturday was a lay day in Larsen Harbour, as we waited for the weather to subside a bit. Outside, in Hecate Strait, winds were strong southerly with 4-5 metre seas. When we got up it was low tide, and 3 wolves crossed the bottom of the inlet. Large flocks of geese were milling about, as well. We put out our crab traps, and had a visit with Peter and Joanne on " Some Lucky", before heading out in the dinghy to catch dinner with a fishing line. We managed to catch a nice rock cod for dinner, and also had Peter and Joanne back to our boat for appies. The weather forecast was favourable for crossing Hecate Strait the following day....so we all had an early night.
At 0415 my alarm got us up on Sunday morning, and we raised the anchor and were underway at 0500, picking our way back out through the kelp and the rocks. Both "Some Lucky" and a 40 foot Valiant sailboat who'd arrived the previous day, were also outbound for the crossing. As promised, the winds were light (supposed to be southerly but were actually from the east - but that actually was better for us). We were able to sail with a motor assist, in very quiet seas - just a bit of swell left over from the previous several days' blow. The Valiant 40, "Berkana", was not using his sails, and we ended up passing him halfway across. The trip from the top of Banks Island to Sandspit on Haida Gwaii is just over 60 miles, so it's important to have a good weather window with a trip of that length (if you only average 5 knots, it would be a 12 hour day). But we managed to average 6.5 knots, and as we approached our destination, the wind cooperated by becoming Northwest 10, and pushed us in, in a very calm sea. We arrived at the village of Sandspit at 1430, tied up to a nicely maintained, and half-empty marina. Having been several days since our soak in the hot springs at Bishop Bay, we needed showers, so walked a kilometre down the road to an RV park for a shower. After supper, I took Sophie (the dog from "Some Lucky") for a walk and some fetching games, while Ray and Peter did some guitar stuff with their G-strings. As you can see from this posting, there is also available wi-fi.