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Published On: Jun 21, 2005 12:05 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 21, 2005 12:05 PM
Winter Harbor to Esperanza Inlet
We spend a long day in high winds sailing down
the west coast of Vancouver Island. As it gets dark, we pull into Queen Cove for
the night.
The next day started late: 0830! We would try to
make Esperanza Inlet, 85 miles southeast. We left and motored for the first 4
hours because there wasn't enough wind.
We put the fishing pole down, and caught 4 large Coho. The first three got away (we had to fish with barbless hooks because those are the regulations). We finally landed a beauty, but it had started getting pretty rough (5 foot swells with 1 - 2 foot wind waves).
While Roma was trying to clean it, a wave hit us broadside and we all slid to the low side of the boat. Luckily, Roma didn't cut herself! We figure it is better to just put the fish you catch someplace cool until you get into calmer conditions (but we didn't figure that out until later!).
After that, we got the sails up and started sailing. All of a sudden, a whoosh and a splash announced the arrival of some dolphins! A small group of Dalls Porpoise played in our bow wake for 5 minutes. Everyone got to see them, but we forgot to take pictures!
We were passing the Brooks Peninsula and the forecast called for gale force winds. We had gotten our smaller jib out, but hadn't put it up yet. The wind was up to 28 knots when we decided to do the drill and change the jib. We were headed downwind, and did a decent job of getting the bigger sail down and putting the smaller one up. It took us a while though (probably an hour).
After all that work, we were running too far downwind to even keep the jib filled, so we ran under main alone. The main was reefed once (approximately - our furling main doesn't have specific reefing points) in 25 knots true wind, with gusts to 32.
When the wind picked up to a consistent 30 knots, we reefed the main again. We were running nearly dead downwind with 30 knots of true (about 25 knots apparent) with gusts to 36. Downwind is definitely the way to go!
The seas continued to build, and we had a fun time of it. The swell was up to 6 feet with wind waves of 3 - 4 feet. Occasionally a wave would break as it came up to us, and we would get one or both rails in the water (that's quite a feat for our boat - we don't normally get the rails wet!).
By 1800, we had made our way further inshore, and the winds had dropped to 20 knots. We shook out our reefs and poled out the jib to get better speed.
We came into Esperanza inlet at 2123. We had just enough light to get into the first decent anchorage: Queen Cove. We anchored at 2208. The mosquitos were huge (like Texas big). Steven was swatting them away from his head as he tried to get the boat put away for the night, and he means swatting: they hit his hand with a definite thud!
We put the fishing pole down, and caught 4 large Coho. The first three got away (we had to fish with barbless hooks because those are the regulations). We finally landed a beauty, but it had started getting pretty rough (5 foot swells with 1 - 2 foot wind waves).
While Roma was trying to clean it, a wave hit us broadside and we all slid to the low side of the boat. Luckily, Roma didn't cut herself! We figure it is better to just put the fish you catch someplace cool until you get into calmer conditions (but we didn't figure that out until later!).
After that, we got the sails up and started sailing. All of a sudden, a whoosh and a splash announced the arrival of some dolphins! A small group of Dalls Porpoise played in our bow wake for 5 minutes. Everyone got to see them, but we forgot to take pictures!
We were passing the Brooks Peninsula and the forecast called for gale force winds. We had gotten our smaller jib out, but hadn't put it up yet. The wind was up to 28 knots when we decided to do the drill and change the jib. We were headed downwind, and did a decent job of getting the bigger sail down and putting the smaller one up. It took us a while though (probably an hour).
After all that work, we were running too far downwind to even keep the jib filled, so we ran under main alone. The main was reefed once (approximately - our furling main doesn't have specific reefing points) in 25 knots true wind, with gusts to 32.
When the wind picked up to a consistent 30 knots, we reefed the main again. We were running nearly dead downwind with 30 knots of true (about 25 knots apparent) with gusts to 36. Downwind is definitely the way to go!
The seas continued to build, and we had a fun time of it. The swell was up to 6 feet with wind waves of 3 - 4 feet. Occasionally a wave would break as it came up to us, and we would get one or both rails in the water (that's quite a feat for our boat - we don't normally get the rails wet!).
By 1800, we had made our way further inshore, and the winds had dropped to 20 knots. We shook out our reefs and poled out the jib to get better speed.
We came into Esperanza inlet at 2123. We had just enough light to get into the first decent anchorage: Queen Cove. We anchored at 2208. The mosquitos were huge (like Texas big). Steven was swatting them away from his head as he tried to get the boat put away for the night, and he means swatting: they hit his hand with a definite thud!
Posted: Thu - July 22, 2004 at 12:07 AM