Sail Plan: Broughton Archipelago 2011

For our friends who may like to hop on, this is a really rough guestimate of where we'll be and ways to get there.  We're pretty sure we will be up to Port McNeill / Port Hardy area around August 9th and remain in that area until we start heading south again around the 27th.  Port McNeill & Port Hardy are the closest points to civilization to the Broughtons.  Flights are about $140 each way from Vancouver to Port Hardy.  It's about a four and a half, five hour drive from Nanaimo to Port McNeil.  We should be in cell phone / internet range most of the time, so drop us a line if you're thinking of coming up.  (The boat's full prior to the 9th, probably full prior to 15th)

Sail Plan:  Broughton Archipelago 2011
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
July 24	25	26	27	28	29	30
					Ladner	Vancouver
31	August 1	2	3	4	5	6
Garden Bay		Cortes_Bay	Campbell River	Octopus Provincial Park	Thurston Bay Marine Park	Shoal Bay Music Fest
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
		Port_McNeill	Broughton Archipelago	T'sasala Traditional Native Dance
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
	Broughton Archipelago		Shawl Bay Marina (who knows what day )			OrcaFest Port McNeill
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
	Broughton Archipelago					Port_McNeill
28	39	30	31	Sep 1	2	3
			Cortes_Bay
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Ladner
Locations accessible by transit			plane: bus:		ferry: car:

Daily Progress Sailing around Vancouver Island, August 2010

day 27 – Bamfield to Port San Juan – Thrasher Cove (Lo48°33.5N’L124°28.2’W)

The marine forecast warned us that the waves were 3 meters, but they had already reduced and would be diminishing for the rest of the morning until they died right down. We’ve done this size of wave before, and this time the skies would be much clearer. It could be a training mission of sorts. If it got too uncomfortable, we could always turn around. But the thing is, our next stop is Port Renfrew. We have friends who will be camping there this weekend. We would rather get there the day before everyone else does so that we can recover from our journey at sea before we rendezvous. So we’re not as knackered. Up came the anchor and off we went.

It was OK for a while, I was able to post blogs as we left the inlet, and even finished editing a video I made of our trip to Meares Island (which will be posted once the internet connection is stronger!). But the farther we got out into the chuck, the lumpier it got. We were not going with the current, we were cutting across it and smashing into some decent sized waves side-on. First I had to close the laptop and turn to face the horizon. Then I strapped on the electric-wristband-thingy. Then I felt like I needed to bundle up a bit, it got chilly. Then I needed to lie down, so with a small struggle I converted the table to a bed, and I got horizontal. Then I realized that the strength of the sea’s swell had overpowered by internal balancing system, and I was going to hurl. Thankfully, there was an empty cooler beside me that prevented me from needing to launch myself to the stairs at stern of the boat, while somehow not falling off and into the ocean. The cooler could just get a little scrub-down later, it’s all good. And then I felt a little better after that. (“Oh mighty sea, you may have won this battle, but you haven’t won the War!!”) Cap’n Adam, as always, had guts of steel and was not bothered by the swell at all.

Once we got to the end of Trevor Channel, and after we took a wide turn around Cape Beale, we rejoined the SE flow of the Pacific current, things were much calmer. We were still in some 2-3 meter waves which is nothing to sneeze at, but surfing with the current is much more tolerable than crashing through it. As we entered Juan de Fuca Strait we could see the mountains of Washington State off of our starboard side. We arrived at our destination accompanied by a sea lion who was surfing our wake and jumping out of the water to wave at us. He hung around until after we anchored, then went on his way. Port San Juan, the minimally protected large bay that Port Renfrew banks onto, has part of the West Coast Trail coursing around it. We anchored next to a spot where many hikers spend the night – Cap’n Adam counted 18 tents on the beach. Tonight we will sleep with waves rocking the boat as the Pacific influences this anchorage a bit more than we’re used to.

Vancouver Island Circumnavigation Schedule, 2010

Sail Plan:  Van. Isle. Circumnavigation 2010
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
July    25	26	27	28	29	30	31
						Garden Bay
August   1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Cortes_Bay			Broughton Archipelago		Port_Hardy	Bull Harbour
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Sea Otter Cove		Winter Harbour	Big Bunsby Marine Park	Zeballos	Tahsis Pillage In the Village
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Friendly Cove		Hot_Springs Cove			Tofino
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
	Broken Islands		Bamfield		Port Renfrew
29	30	31	Sep   1	2	3	4
		Sooke	Victoria	Scott_Point Saltspring	Ruxton Island
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Ladner
Locations accessible by transit			plane: bus:		ferry: car:

This is the anticipated schedule of arrival days going around Vancouver Island in a counter clockwise direction.  The icons are linked methods for our friends to reach us at the destinations along the way.
Additional details were posted on the March Thunder Blog.