West Coast Vancouver Island

I am storm staid on the wrong side of Estavan Point. It has been pouring continuously for the last fourteen hours. Last I checked it was blowing 35 knots off Estevan Point. So no point hoisting the anchor today.
Here are some shots taken on Queen Charlotte Strait, a week ago.

No Fog and can you believe how calm it is.

And a couple of pictures of Port Hardy, a place I have grown quite fond of.

Finally it was off around the West Coast of Vancouver Island.
I poked in and out of the fog for a while. Then did a little lackluster sailing down Goletas Channel to Bull Harbour. This is the jumping off spot for people heading to Haida Gwaii or going around Vancouver Island. There has been a lot written about Nawhitti Bar and how the shallows, current and incoming swell all combine to create a shitstorm if you do not cross at the right time. Therefore I perused the literature and double and triple checked my calculations. They must have been accurate because I hardly noticed when I crossed the bar.

These orcas were hanging around the shallows. There were ten of them.

Rounding Cape Scott was also very anticlimatic. There wasn't much of a view of the lighthouse. It seemed to be hidden in the trees. The ocean was flat calm with a low westerly swell.

Cape Scott

Cape Scott Light House

Ten miles further along is Sea Otter Cove the first anchorage on the west coast. Alas there were a few sea otters around. I had to share the anchorage with two other motor boats.

Next day another day of calm and I motored to Winter Cove a sleepy little community up an inlet. This was an opportunity to get diesel and water.

Winter Cove

The next day I was going to go fifteen miles to an anchorage North of the Brooks peninsula. The sea was flat calm so I motored around this potential trouble spot. On the other side a north wind came up and I was able to sail the last fifteen miles into the Bunsby Islands. This was the nicest anchorage of the trip so far.

Brooks Peninsula

Solander Island

Common Murres

Sooty Shearwater

Another two days brought me to Bodega Cove. It is bombproof and it is here that I am waiting out the various shit weather that is happening on the outside. I might move eight miles closer to the open ocean if it looks promising to go around Estevan Point tomorrow. I will decide after the 1600 weather report. The other nice thing about this anchorage is that the weather comes in clear as a bell. I record it on my phone and bookmark the relevant sections. It is so much nicer than listening for half an hour trying to write stuff down and sometimes missing and having to listen for another 20 or 30 minutes.
Yikes the rain just stopped!