Montague Harbor to Nanaimo

Clear skies and winds less than 5 knots continue to keep us company as we hoist the anchor in what is a very empty early season Montague Harbour. As we were preparing for departure, Karen noticed a string of AIS targets making their way north in Trincomali channel. She recognized them as San Juan Sailing vessels, and we think this is the “yacht club” the Port of Nanaimo mentioned when telling us we would berthed be in the Inner Harbour “because of the yacht club” that would take up Mays Landing. Also on the AIS was the Slowboat flotilla. Seems like everyone is on the same schedule. We’ll adjust our plans to de-synchronize with them al!.

perfect day on the water

As we made our way from the anchorage, a Canada Customs RIB came along side to check our clearance number and ask a few questions. We had all the correct answers, so they bid us farewell and a safe journey, as we did them.

Back to the plan for today. We do not particularly like going through Dodd Narrows but it is the most direct route to Nanaimo. The narrows itself is not the problem, it is all the inexperienced boaters who congregate at slack water waiting to transit the narrows. My plan is to let the San Juan fleet run interference for us (they look like they will be there quite early) and we’ll line up behind them. Of course that may change.

As we approached Dodd Narrows we saw the congregation of vessels first on AIS and then by eye. Power boats hovering, sailing vessels sailing back and forth across the channel, all waiting for slack water. We had timed our arrival to go through the Narrows 30 minutes early with the current on our nose, but it looked like everyone else was waiting for the exact moment of slack.

One of the advantages of AIS is that you can look around the corner and see if there are any AIS targets approaching the Narrows from the north. Of interest are targets going less than 2 knots. These are often tugs with tows. Sure enough we saw, first on AIS and then later though the Narrows itself, a tug towing a large barge full of gravel.

As I was making my calculations to see exactly when we would arrive at Dodd and when the tug would arrive in the opposing direction, the tug Captain announced on the radio that he would be transiting the narrows in approximately 30 minutes and that there would be no room for passing traffic headed North.

That timing would be perfect for us and we transited the narrows right away following two slower sailboats.

As we passed the tug, we made his final announcement that he was nearing the entrance to the Narrows. That was shortly followed by: “We’re a flotilla of boats northbound, do you think we can make it?”. The tugboat Captain responded: “No”. We watched as the northbound targets on the AIS all made a 180. I find the tugboat Captains to be very professional. I always tell Karen I never worry about them; you can always work with them to arrange a safe passage.

We berthed in the Inner Harbour on H dock right under the Nanaimo Port Authority building. We usually stay out at Mays Landing, so it’s been a while since we came into the Inner Harbour. We found it was a very convenient spot to be. Best of all, it was just up the dock from Penny’s Palapa. We enjoy eating there and had great nachos with beer for Karen and a margarita for me.

oceanflyer tucked into Nanaimo