Do I have enough space for it all.The boat. Getting ready to leave Squalicum harbor for my voyage north to Pt. Roberts
This is one of my favorite ports and moorage is reasonable as there is space available when the fishing fleet is out for the summer. Your right in the center of Vancouver with Granville Island minutes away all for $32 a night and a waterfront view.You see Pt. Roberts in the distance leaving Hales Pass and heading N. up the Strait of Georgia.
My trip started on thursday the 26th of August in Bellingham where I moor my sailboat,"Being There". Named after the movie Being There with Peter Sellers as Chauncy the Gardner. You'll have to see the movie to get it and I haven't quite figured out why I named the boat after the movie. Hopefully it will come to me in the near future.
Point Roberts was my first stop along the way to Vancouver. About a 30 mile jaunt around Portage Island. Then North through Hales Pass which enters into the southern end of Georgia Strait for a 25 mile sail to Pt. Roberts. A U.S. landlocked point which takes 2 border crossings to enter. Fun!
Strong winds on the nose as I was leaving Squalicum Harbor friday morning which looked to be a great day of sailing till I rounded Portage Island to only have the winds diminish as I exited Hales Pass and entered the straits for a motoring trip north to Pt. Roberts.
Point Roberts is a great stop for those that don't get out of the country often. It's populace is roughly 80% Canadian. So you can dip your toes into the culture while still being in the U.S. The languages are similar with just a few differences like our North "American" prehistoric word for "what". Did "Huh" come to mind. I tend to like there softer version, "Eh". About is actually pronounced A-boot in Canadian and if you go as far as the British version it's "around"which doesn't sound anything like the American or Canadian version. Whats up with that.
One of the greatest hardships you'll run into being from the states and visiting Canada is locating a place to buy beer unlike here where every convenience store carries it along with non-fat milk,on sale.So plan ahead especially on sundays.
It was a 6AM start which I thought was going to be a uneventful passage along the mainland coast to Vancouver.Above a buyer waiting for Gillnetters returning with there catch. This is a record year for sockeye on the Frazier going as far back as 1913.
Leaving the protection of the Pt. Roberts heading towards Roberts bank the seas began to build which is pretty normal as the winds were from the NW and this was the end of the run for them on Georgia Straits. It was pretty much the seas on the nose motoring north. Knowing I always had a escape plan by doing a aboot face and running with the weather for a comfortable ride back to the lower Gulf Islands or Point Roberts.Not till rounding the north corner of Roberts Bank could I sail closed haul towards Vancouver. The direct way. I also could of done a few tacks to but everything was abit of a struggle with the weather and being solo. Besides the sails weren't up.
I was pondering turning around a couple of times as conditions were not getting any better and I knew as the day progressed the winds were suppose to pick up more. The conditions would of made a fast and pleasant sail south but that wasn't in the picture either as I kept inching along till I was past the 1/2 way point and I could see Pt. Grey on the horizon. The entrance to Vancouver. The carrot on the end of the stick.
This got to be the routine, motoring, and I elected to keep the sails down which made for reduced headway bucking and broncoing it with the 8 horse Honda. I continued this way across Sturgeon Bank 1/4 turning occasionally to a breaking wave to keep from getting drenched.
Some large white caps appeared to the east as I was putting along and I couldn't quite figure out what was causing them as I was unaware that my course had deviated east on to Sturgeon Bank. It could be a tide rip with opposing currents making all the white caps or just worsening conditions. But as I got closer I could see my drift had put me inside of the N. Frazier jetty and that's why the breaking waves. Hitting the jetty which wasn't visible from afar. So once I got inside the red buoys along the jetty it was a motoring tack as I zig-zagged up the channel as I couldn't make any headway nose on with the waves. The green can finally showed up on starboard and not to soon as I rounded it with plenty of sea room and not to end up on the rocks.
Sailing windward finally and under control with a steady motion but with little headway and just the main up keeping me offshore.
Looking over the stearn I see a line streaming back from the propeller.... Crab line!.... No. I kept a close eye out I thought as it's in the middle of crab and sockeye season. Well what next. The motor is stuck down like a crab pot or anchor is hanging on it. I know!... I'll grab the streaming line from the propeller with the boat hook. Huh! That line looks awful familiar....... White with a fleck of blue..... My own! A Genoa sheet had fallen out of the bag perched up on the bow and trailed below to impede my progress. I guess I'll have to eat crow on this one. It was my own undoing. Not the fisherman's or fishers to be current with the times.
So out over the stern I go in this tumultuous mess. Squeezing myself through the stern rail and hanging out over the seas, gripping with my knees as I unraveled the prop.
Up to 5 or 6 knots now motor sailing and dodging the breaking wave, life is good.
Around Pt.Grey I go. Under the bridge entering
False Creek with a check through customs and I got my day in.
The customs dock was empty as I pulled up. It was the usual call in and go through the motions of checking through by phone, interrupted by, Please stay on board and I'll send some officers down to check you through. So I whiled away sometime and cleaned up the disheveled mess to make it presentable to the agents....
I always get checked out for some reason..... Suspicious about a sailor with a 35 year history of sailing to Canada. Maybe it's the low income trailer sailor syndrome with not enough money to leave and they don't have room for one more on the dole. There always asking how much cash I got and credit cards to. I get the same thing when I drove my 1980 Accord on a BC ski trip.
They only sent 3 officers down to check me through.....slow day......The first two were to check my 25' boat out. I don't know why two. It's crowded enough with just one inside. The other officer came a little later to watch me as they were checking the boat out thinking I was going to make a run for it and get lost in the system. So we talked abit, the officer and I and he could finally see they were there for nothing. So off they went as I passed the test again for the beginning of my trip in Canada.
The suspect.
