The relentless grind north proceeds. We departed shortly after 5 AM to start our 80 mile day north up the Strait of Georgia. This body of water is the northern section of the newly designated Salish Sea (the southern portion includes Puget Sound). It trends from NW to SE separating Vancouver Island from the mainland.
When the weather is poor this long section of relatively unobstructed water develops big seas. Today, it was pretty benign. The winds started out about 10 to 15 from the west then clocked around by the end of the day to 10 to 15 from the southeast. The timing of the wind change was about in line with the current change so there was never a case of wind opposing current to stack up waves. In fact, we had filtered sun most of the afternoon and the pilothouse warmed up to the upper 70’s. We had to open windows let some cooler air in.
It is a simple route. The entire 80 miles had only five way points. Two legs, 24 and 38 miles respectively constituted the lion’s share of the day. All in all, a pretty uneventful day. It was a blessing to drop the anchor and turn off the engine.
Gorge Harbor has a dramatic narrow entrance into a large oval shaped harbor. Unfortunately, the surrounding hills aren’t so large to keep out the forecasted winds of SE 15-25 this evening. A heavy anchor and lots of chain draped out will let us sleep easy despite the wind.
Today’s mileage – 80.2
Cumulative mileage – 199.3
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