Desolation Sound Flotilla - October 7, 2010 - Bargain Bay to Telegraph Harbour

The forecast indicated a change in the weather for today, but we woke to a beautiful sunrise and clear skies with wisps of clouds. We had a bit of a conundrum today, as our planned route was to cross the Strait of Georgia south of Texada and Lasqueti Islands over to Nanaimo, go through Dodd Narrows and down to Telegraph Harbour at Thetis Island. The high water slack at Dodd Narrows wasn’t until mid-afternoon, but crossing the Strait was better in the morning before the wind came up. The crossing was a bit sloppy, anyway, but each boat picked the heading that worked best for it in those conditions. As soon as we were in the lee of Vancouver Island, the waves died down and we were cruising comfortably along the shore north of Nanaimo.

We had gotten a push from the current as we crossed the Strait, and were way too much ahead of slack at Dodd Narrows. So we slowly cruised around Newcastle Island, a marine park on the edge of Nanaimo’s harbor, then we cruised around the harbor itself, then went over and poked our noses into the bays at the north end of Gabriola Island, and ultimately had to hover outside the entrance to Dodd while waiting for it to stop churning. (Deception did try to take an early run at it, but the current was still running too fast to safely transit, so she backed off, thus providing a good example of why one needs to wait for slack.) Sometimes, patience is the name of the game. Finally, the rapids smoothed out, and after calling a securite, Deception made it most of the way through only to meet a tug and log tow which had neither called nor responded to the securite. Deception hurriedly radioed the rest of the fleet to hold up and wait for the tug and tow to exit the Narrows before coming through. The good news was by that time, the current was a non-issue and everyone made a smooth transit. Sometimes you just can’t plan everything exactly as you’d like.

Once through Dodd Narrows, we didn’t have far to cruise down Stuart Channel to Telegraph Harbour, a cove formed by Thetis and Kuper Islands. Now we are back in the Gulf Islands. We were welcomed to the charming Telegraph Harbour Marina by the owner, and soon were busy putting water on the boats (Egmont had been the last place we had access to water besides what is available through Deception Water and Power). It felt good to finally settle comfortably into our berths after a long day.