Logbook: Week 1 – Gulf Islands

Note: Logbook posts are high detail posts for our own records. Read at your own boredom risk.


We woke up early, without an alarm, despite the late bon voyage. After dropping off our marina key card in the safe, cleaning up after the party, garbage/recycle and topping up the water tanks we were off relatively early.

We motored to Discovery Island and then sailed all of the way to Princess Bay at Portland Island. After that long day we waited until the next day to be active.

Carol, his Mother and Roland took off to do a little hiking and a little crabbing (successfully) and Carol and I got a chance to sit at the gorgeous shell beach facing Brackman Island in the sun with a cold beer in the afternoon. Usually that beach is packed with campers but a mid-week mid-June visit apparently avoids them and we had it to ourselves.
 
After two nights at Portland we decided to head over to Russell Island based on a picture I had seen in a magazine somewhere. The East side was unattractive at a distance but the entire West side was sloped white (barnacle) rock or shell beaches. We arrived early in the day and promptly kayaked around the entire island. The West side was much prettier by kayak with stone cliffs hollowed out by the surf.
 
That night we watched the sun set from the shell beach on the SW corner of the island which meant the sun was setting down Fulford Harbor between the mountains. Lovely.


We hiked around the island that day which was nice but not spectacular. Great way to stretch our legs but I wouldn’t go there for the hiking.

Next we had a great upwind sail to Bedwell Harbour. This was also a big entrance for us because it was our first time sailing onto anchor. Bedwell is probably one of the easier places in existence for doing this. It’s large and mostly the same depth everywhere. We also had a good wind from behind us as we entered - perfect.

We revisited Poet’s Cove which Marcelle had been to for our wedding. We had a great time going to the spot we said our vows and then as an early 3 year anniversary gift Marcelle & Roland bought us dinner at the patio cafe. Great weather for a long patio meal.



Funny enough, despite more than a dozen visits to Bedwell we’ve managed to never go ashore at the marine park. We’ve been to Poet’s Cove, kayaked all over, even played disque golf at the great free course on the island, but never hiked up to the top of Mount Normal for the great view of the Gulf Islands. So, we did.





Next stop, we had a light air sail to Sidney BC to stay overnight at Port of Sidney and to drop off Marcelle and Roland and pick up our third set of guests from Colorado and start HEADING NORTH.

It took about 30 minutes to put together the log for a week. I’m not sure if I will continue this way or not. We’ll see…whatever is fun, right? :)
- Livia