Heading home
20 Jul - Pinkerton to Dodger channel
The day dawned a little overcast but still warm. We left our piece of paradise in the Pinkertons around 09:00 and after heading up to Eagle Empress(?) channel on a very leisurely broad reach we headed back out in the swell on a close hauled tack fest in increasing wind, ending with 15 to 17 knots on choppy seas. We pulled into Dodger channel easily enough though and found ourselves well sheltered anchored in 15 feet. We put out lots of chain though - just in case :)
Once settled in we got the dinghy out and went for a putter around the wild islands that surround Dodger channel. The lack of vegetation on the ocean facing sides told a tale of the storms that these islands must stand up to facing out to the pacific but today things were fairly placid. There were some incredible sea caves carved out of the craggy coastline however once in the lea of the islands, there were beautiful white sand beaches to visit and a number of kayak groups camped on the islands.
Back on the boat we prepped for our planned long day tomorrow back down the Juan de Fuca straight. We strapped the dinghy on the front and tied down everything else that might shake loose before a final visit to a secluded beach and an early night
21 July - Berkely sound to Becher Bay.
Based on what we could deduce from the weather forecasts, and knowing that Race Passage could now be a real pig, we had decided that today we should push on down and try and get close to Race Passage for an early run with wind and tide in the right direction the next morning. This meant we now faced the longest day we had ever had so far on the water with just the two of us, a run of about 75 Nm. With an average speed expected to be around 5 knots we were looking at 15 - 16 hours minimum and so we got up at 04:30 and were on the way by 05:00. As we left Dodger channel we were hopeful that we may not hit fog but as soon as we were out on the coast, the fog descended and we spent the next 8 hours in thick fog, with less than 1/4 mile visibility. We went on watch hour on hour off, with the off watch partner sleeping in the cockpit catching up on the early start.
After dodging a few fishing boats as we left Berkely sound we had very little traffic until we got down around Port Renfrew at which point we started playing dodgems again with lots of little boats with no AIS and almost no radar signature. We were glad therefore after Port Renfrew when we finally started seeing the south side of the Juan de Fuca straight and, after another hour, we emerged from the fog. Having had to motor all the way so far we were also pleased that the wind started to freshen from dead astern so we rolled out the Genoa and were merrily coasting along for a little while. The wind speed didn't stop incrasing though and we were soon racing along at 7 knots with a sprightly 16 - 18 knots from behind. As the wind started gusting over 20 knots, although BeTrue was behaving herself we thought it was time to reef. In the time it took us to reef the wind was now gusting to 25 knots so we ended up taking in 2 reefs. The wind speed kept increasing though! soon we were flying along at 7 knots , double reefed with constant winds of 24 -26 knots and gusitng higher. As the wind speed kept increasing we decided the prudent thing to do was to take another reef on the Genny. With all three reefs in, we were still doing 7 - 8 knots in winds that were now permentley in the high 20's and gusting well into the 30's. We were at this point overtaken by another boat,SV Fairtides, that had a slutter rigged jib and main still up - they must have been doing in excess of 9 knots in these blustery conditions and fairly choppy seas.
As we approached the headlands leading to Sooke, we watched as SV Fairtides got into quite some difficulties, almost broaching in a couple of gusts. With increasing trepidation, we headed on with our minimal sail. Thankfully Be True was handling this weather totally in her stride. Our biggest worry was whether we would be able to pull into Becher bay or we would just get hurled out through Race Passage.
With the wind now regularly over 30 knots and with a peak gust we saw of 37 knots we hung on and rode the roller coaster all the way to Becher Bay. Cutting in past the headland the confused sea did not let up until we were right in the back of the bay. With Fairtides having taken the spot we had planned to go in behind Wolf island, we decided to go with what we knew and went back to the spot we had anchored in on our first night out, knowing the holding was good. We dropped the hook in 15 feet of water and let out a good 150 foot of chain but thankfully the anchor bit well and we had good protection from the ocean swell coming into the bay. The wind was still howling though and we were regularly seeing 15 - 20 knots of wind on our bow. The anchor was sold and so we settled down soon for the evening giving ourselves a well earned tot of rum. As we looked across we noticed that SV fiartides actually moved from their initial anchorage, presumably as it did not have enough protection, and they moved up close to where we were. Later in the evening a fishing boat came in and anchored behind us. The next time we looked though it had dragged right across the bay. We presume that the crew eventually noticed however as it dissappeared up the other arm of Becher bay, hopefully to find somewhere safe.
22 July -Race Passage and home
Having worked out that we had to be through Race passage by 08:00 or risk suffering a battering with wind over current we again woke early, this time at 05:30 and got ready to leave around 06:00. Freeing the anchor required a bit of effort and when it finally came up we had brought up a whole seabed garden with and good six inches of earth and lots of weed. At least we knew why we didn't move now!
Leaving Becher Bay we again descended into fog and with 18 -20 knots of wind, a lumpy sea and fog we motored through the passage, very thankful to be through and in clear water when we got to the far side. Although things calmed down, we still had a consistent 15 knots of wind blowing on our stern and so again put out the Genoa and cut the engine, cruising along in the patchy fog for the next couple of hours. There were six cargo ships anchored off around Victoria and so we planned our course to avoid these but the course did take us across the sea lanes. With the fog blowing in and out we got occasional glimpses of these leviathans but rarely did we get more than 20 minutes visibility without the fog coming back in. As we left the turning area on the sea lanes, thinking that there was no traffic to worry about, we looked round and suddenly noticed a huge cargo ship bearing down on us at speed at the same moment it blew its fog horn for the first time! Somewhat startled we adjusted course to make sure that this ship had plenty of space (still less than 1/4 mile) to go past us. As she left us behind we had the eary sensation of seeing a 700 foot ship disappear into fog in a matter of seconds not more than 1/2 a mile from us. We could still hear her mournful fog horn though and steered between this noise, and the trial island fog horn to safely get into Cadborough bay. The fog blew in and out all the way home though and even as we docked, with Heidi parking us beautifully back home., the flog blew in again cutting us off from the outside world for one last time. We were home though after a very adventurous two weeks. We now have far more faith in our new boat and know that she can take us whereever we want to go. The only question remains… can we cope!