Sturt Bay to Prideaux Haven

Weather continues to be picture perfect, making planning and travels very easy.

Still not many other private pleasure craft around, even during our transit through the Copeland Islands just beyond Lund. A first in all our years. This narrow pass is often overcrowded with vessels going both directions, making for a bit of a challenge as you negotiate your way through mariners who are not necessarily well versed in the rules of the road.

We seldom stop at the very popular anchorage of Prideaux Haven because, in season, it is very, very crowded. However, as we are so early and not seeing much traffic, we made our way there and found only 4 boats at anchor, all well-distant from each other. We were able to anchor up in the northeast end where we have great islet and snowy mountain views to the NNW down Homfray Channel. A fifty-footer was in the “ideal” location, shown by the anchor symbol on the charts, but we were happy with our spot 100 yards NE.

only a few boats in prideaux haven this early in the season

our view down homfray channel

 The entrance to Prideaux Haven is a bit of a dogleg, but well charted. The trick is to follow the chart and not get fooled by the visuals of all the little islets and rocks or how close they seem. Go slow, but with enough speed so you have good rudder authority. Everyone seems to make it in and out just fine at any tide, but if it is your first visit, mind your charts through the entrance.

Later in the day, the Northwest Explorations Mother Goose fleet showed up, Captained by good friend Bill Douglass. We flew the drone out over the entrance so we could get a shot of all the goslings as they came into Prideaux Haven. After settling in, Bill and Cindy came over for happy hour and we had a great time catching up. We covered all the fun topics – GB 49’s, parents, kids, life and boating.

Mother goose enters prideaux haven

Their duties to the flotilla made this a short visit, but it we’ll catch up again in the fall if not sooner.

sunset in prideaux haven

Nanaimo to Sturt Bay

Time to move on today now that all the provisioning is done. Budget Car Rental offered a nice perk in that I could leave the car in the car park right at the Harbourmaster’s Office and give the keys to Harbour Air. In fact, I even could arrange to get the car next time at the downtown location rather than going all the way out to the airport. Those options make Nanaimo an extremely convenient provisioning stop.

We have a good forecast for crossing the Strait of Georgia. Whiskey Gulf is active so we have to take the less than direct route to avoid the military activity.

nice ride on the strait of georiga

The season is still early, so except for the San Juan Sailing and Slowboat flotillas ahead of us and Northwest Explorations Mother Goose behind, there are almost no recreational vessels to be seen. We had a great crossing, no complaints.

Sturt Bay and the Texada Boat Club (Texada Island) are not very well known. The Boat Club has become a favorite of ours just for that reason. We can always find space on the visitors’ dock, and the sign says that if the visitors dock is full, call them and there may be room on the permanent moorage docks if members are out cruising.

everywhere you look you see the hand of the hardworking boat club members

everything you need to know

Today, there is no one on the visitors dock besides us. It was like having your own private marina.

texada boat club

There is no power on the docks, but the locals are friendly and really appreciate visitors. Over the years they have continued to improve the docks, largely funded by visitor moorage.

Texada marina view from the shore side

inukshuk in the foregroud, Anchorage in Sturt Bay in the background

The town of Van Anda is a short walk away  with a great local museum, grocery store and a couple of restaurants. We enjoyed the Mary Mary Café and shopped at the Texada Market. You can find a lot of information about Van Anda online so you can plan your visit. See our post on June 29th, 2023 for more details.

https://www.oceanflyers.com/oceanflyers/scwhp94jcbgt5nhd8atg42z4xjfa8n?rq=sturt%20bay

Provisioning in Nanaimo, Day 2

We allowed ourselves two days in Nanaimo to provision so we did not feel rushed. Very nice plan. We were all set and had everything prepped and stowed aboard by mid-day after lunch at Delicados (yum). Now we can relax and do some planning for our travels across the Strait of Georgia tomorrow.

Karen gave Winchelsea Island Control [250-468-5080] a call to see if Whiskey Gulf would be active tomorrow. They said to call back in the morning because they do not set the schedule until later in the day. We have come to prefer phoning them rather than listening on the VHF radio until the loop talks about Whiskey Gulf. The people who answer the phone are always helpful and seem thrilled that you called.

We did laundry, tidied up the boat, put on water, planted the basil and did other boat chores for the rest of the day.

Dinner was at the Modern Cafe as almost all other choices within walking distance were closed on Tuesday. It’s been a while since we dined there, but the food and service were good, and it is within walking distance of the harbour.

We learned that Commercial Street was blocked for the filming of the second season of the HBO series “The Last of Us”.  Not much to see except for some prop cars and trucks. We really liked Season 1 and it will be fun to see “Nanaimo” turned into a post-apocalyptic spot when we watch Season 2 next year.

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

Ucluelet