Logbook: Leaving Johnstone Strait and resting in Alert Bay

Motoring = Suck. Well, that first day of motoring might have been fun with the kickin current helping us along but the second day was just painful, as a long day of motoring usually is. I think that if you are going to explore Desolation and the Broughtons as your primary playground you are better off with a nice comfy trawler.

Ah well, enough complaining about our high class problems. Let’s just say that although I think motoring through the passes was a reasonable choice we are going to stick to areas where we don’t have to do that for the next while.

We spent a few nights in Alert Bay. We had some paperwork to get in the mail and that combined with a closed post office on Canada Day (duh) and our tiredness levels (how can two days of motoring possibly be so exhausting?) we spent two nights in Alert Bay. I hate to make this the “complaining” post but after two guidebooks described the picturesque nature of Alert Bay we were a little underwhelmed.

 

Alert Bay is OK. We were able to take on water, mail stuff and get some produce. They are building a boardwalk which is nice and there are some gorgeous resident eagles that soar over the main street. We see a lot of eagles but these were very close. We didn’t see the museum which we’ve been told is very good. The people were very helpful in pointing us in the right direction for getting our errands done and the restaurant Pass’N Time has a nice view of the harbor. Otherwise, it’s your average struggling coastal town trying to make tourism work. For those who have grown up on this coast or spent a lot of time here, it’s not particularly interesting or particularly picturesque. YMMV.

We had a fun time playing “real cruiser” and fitting 10 gallons of water (in 2 collapsible jugs) plus 2 bags of groceries in the kayak.

We left mid-day to catch the slack at the pass right by Alert Bay and entered Queen Charlotte Strait. From there we had a rock’n’roll upwind sail tacking our way to the Polkinghorne Islands. It was very fun, just shy of the edge of our current comfort zone, and the only thing we broke was the sunbrella stitching on a section of the genoa which we already knew was rotting off and was just waiting for the right gust to pull loose…we found plenty of gusts. A very, very good day.

- Livia (writing from the Polkinghorne Islands)