Today was our longest day, travel time and distance-wise. It was also a challenging one, as we crossed the Strait of Georgia, the largest open body of water we have to traverse on this trip. The good news was that we had a beautiful sunny day; however, we also had NW winds gusting over 20 knots and very choppy seas, which made for a very bouncy ride until we got into the lee of the eastern (mainland) shore. It was the roughest water that some of our clients had ever been in. Trusty Deception, being the heaviest boat with stabilizers, ploughed through relatively comfortably while some of the smaller 36 foot boats felt a bit like they were on a roller coaster ride!
But that was only one part of the trip. We started the day with a beautiful sunrise over Ganges Harbour, and a delightful cruise along Trincomali Channel with Salt Spring Island to our port and Galiano Island to starboard. The Gulf Islands are a prime cruising area and they were really showing off this morning! In the summer months the boat traffic can be quite dense, but we were privileged to have the channel almost to ourselves. We were headed north toward Princess Louisa and Desolation Sound, though, so that meant we had to leave the Gulf Islands behind, head out through Porlier Pass and into the sloppy seas.
After the waves (and our stomachs) settled down, we were more willing to take note of our naturalist’s updates. It was fascinating to watch two giant log rafts being towed by not-so-big tugs past the Thormanby Islands, complete with both birds and seals bumming a free, if slow, ride. We cruised into beautiful Pender Harbour and found our moorage at Fisherman’s Resort and Marina in Hospital Bay, a lovely marina with plenty of room for all our boats. We celebrated our successful crossing of the Strait of Georgia with a social hour aboard Deception (lots of yummy appetizers!) – a fine and fitting way to end a long but adventurous day!
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