June 23: Day 20: From Princess Louisa to Dark Cove
The Long Way Out: Malibu Rapids to Dark Cove.
Today has been a somewhat longish “underway” day. We awoke at 6:30 am to ready ourselves and Lil’ Ollie for our transit through Malibu Rapids, which Greg had calculated to be around 7:59 am. When we were just about ready to leave our mooring, he decided to re-check to make sure and realized he had accidentally looked at June 22’s current predictions in Ports and Passes.
Malibu Rapids does not have its own standalone table in there; it has to be worked out relative to Point Atkinson, meaning a time offset needs to be applied. His recalculation revealed that slack tide was actually at 8:44 am, which gave us an extra 45 minutes to have breakfast and relax a bit before releasing the mooring buoy. Because it takes about half an hour to arrive at the rapids from our spot, we timed our departure for 8:14 am.
We were the only ones transiting the rapids this time. A powerboat had gone through about 10 minutes ahead of us; we heard her announcement on the VHF. Before you enter the rapids, it is always best practice to announce your presence in case someone is entering from the blind side. For instance:
“Sécurité, Sécurité, Sécurité. This is Lil’ Ollie, a 38’ sailboat exiting Princess Louisa through Malibu Rapids—any concerned traffic reply to channel one six.”
This run was exactly what we had hoped for—just like three years ago. The waters were completely calm as we went through, giving us plenty of time to take photos along the way. Thinking back to our entry a few days ago, we realized we had arrived too early. If that ever happens again, we will definitely wait it out until the rapids calm down. I asked Greg if he might have checked the wrong day last time, but because all the other boaters were transiting at the exact same time, he thinks he must have read the correct day. Is it possible they all read the wrong day? Either way, this transit was so much better and a great way to end our stay at Princess Louisa Inlet.
The trip down Jervis Inlet was beautifully calm. We motored on glassy water at first, and then finally, a bit of wind picked up and we hoisted the working jib. We had 3.5 knots of current against us, which caused the boat to wander a bit even with the autopilot engaged. I had to keep a close eye on our heading because the current kept pulling us off route. Eventually, as the flow began to subside, the autopilot brought us right back in line. We managed to hit 6 knots of speed over ground (SOG) at one point, but mostly we sailed at around 4.5 to 5 knots.
And the best part? No logs this time! Our path was completely clear.
On our way down Jervis, there was a bay off to the left before the final bend to the anchorage that we wanted to explore, so we veered over into Vancouver Bay. While we were checking it out, the wind shifted slightly. By the time we cleared the large bay, we noticed a thick blanket of smoke directly ahead in our path. We could smell it immediately, which made me a bit nervous since forest fire smoke really bothers my lungs. Thankfully, I have my puffers with me just in case I happen to experience a bit of asthma.
As we neared our final destination, the smoke fortunately began to clear. Upon checking the internet, we learned it was coming from an out-of-control forest fire near West Lake in the vicinity of Earl’s Cove.
Aside from the smoke, Artemus handled the long trip just fine. At one point while we were sailing, the boat must have smoothed out enough that he thought we had stopped, but he quickly discovered—nope, still moving! He did have a brief moment of drama with me, though. I lost my footing while putting his water bowl down and accidentally backed right up on top of him, likely stepping on his paws. He immediately shunned me and took off for the V-berth, refusing to come near me even though I apologized profusely and tried to explain it was an accident. He’s such a tender-foot little guy! It wasn't until later, when Greg approached him, that he finally came out. Once he was settled up in his usual spot where he usually lays while underway, I was finally able to win back his favor by serving him some of the canned salmon I’d had for lunch, which he happily lapped right up.
We arrived at Dark Cove around 3:45 pm, having travelled 29.9 nautical miles from the MacDonald Island mooring field... We found a spot across from Sydney Island (not to be confused with Sidney Island near Sidney). It was about 30 to 40 feet deep and quite rocky where we anchored, so Greg ran a stern tie to a fallen tree trunk lying on the shore. After we settled in, Greg noticed the distinct sound of our anchor and chain dragging, so we kept a very close eye on it. I was worried we might have to re-anchor in the dark, but fortunately, it held fine.
While we were settled, I went in for a quick swim. The gauge read 72°F when we arrived, but by the time I was ready to plunge, Greg checked it and it had dropped to 71°F. Let me tell you, it felt like a very cold 71°F! I didn't stay in long at all—just a quick swim away from the boat and right back. It was incredibly refreshing though, and I thoroughly enjoyed showering off with fresh water in the cockpit afterward.
We had dinner, watched an episode of The Resident, and headed to bed, deciding to leave the dinner dishes for the morning. I had already tackled the breakfast and lunch dishes earlier in the afternoon and was simply too tired to face the sink again. I suppose I'm not used to doing dishes by hand regularly at home since we have a dishwasher. Out here, you'd think there is less to do overall, but I guess I am just driven to a certain amount!
Even while away, I’m keeping the TOPS treasury records up to date in my spreadsheet so I can stay on top of the monthly reports.
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