(Read more about Duncanby Landing & view the photos.)
Another weather day? Sullivan Bay is scenic and quirky and charming and all, but the Grand Tour was ready and raring to roll this morning. Unfortunately, so were the waves on Queen Charlotte Strait. But a glimmer of hope in the marine forecast had all hands standing by for a departure should this winds swing in our favor. Would fortune smile on the Grand Tour?...
Crossing Queen Charlotte Sound is a badge of honor among most Northwest boaters. Hundreds if not thousands of vessels spend time in the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands each year. Many of those venture up into Desolation Sound as well. A still smaller percentage will venture up as far as the Broughton Islands, some as far North as Sullivan Bay.
But that's where the journey ends for many boaters, including many Grand Banks owners. Let's face it: crossing a stretch of open ocean rarely classifies as "pleasure boating" in most folk's opinion. Perhaps that's why the smiles were big and wide on the docks at Duncanby Landing, as Grand Tour participants tied up a bit wet but no worse for wear after a day on the high seas.
Less than half of the owners on the Grand Tour have ever made this crossing before. Today, they made it across seas that tossed enough to test one's mettle, but not so much as to make for a miserable trip. Small chop coming out of Sullivan Bay led to lumpier seas approaching the Strait. "Cape Caution of Bust" was the call as our sixteen boats rounded out of Wells Passage into Queen Charlotte Strait.
Although the ocean swells were high as we made out way out into the Sound, turning the corner found the group following a squall that blew down much of the chop for us. Behind us, though, the dark wall of another squall threatened, and a few shouts of perverted glee crackled over the radio as gusts topped 40 knots while water drenched anyone who lacked for cover.
It was clear as we passed Cape Caution that the worst was behind us, and in the wake of the wave and winds there was exhilaration and a sense of accomplishment, of knowing and mastering the sea in ways many of us never knew before.
But for some of us the best was yet to come. In fact, your intrepid writer was fortunate enough to be on the lead boat heading into Rivers Inlet and Duncanby Landing (with the unflappable Fran Morey at the helm of our GB42) when we stopped to take in a spectacular sea and sky. As we idled to get our bearings, someone, somewhere, must have said, "Cue the whale!"
And there, just forty yards off the starboard bow, a huge humpback whale spouted, arched her back, and raised her tail in a slow, majestic dive below the sea (no time to grab the camera, of course!)
As we stared in slack-jawed wonder, it seemed as if the sight was meant to mark the end of one phase of our journey and the beginning of another. Welcome to the real Inside Passage.
At dinner that night (this being the Grand Tour, what do we do to celebrate arrival at a new port? Eat!), owner Jeff Bland summed up the day with a poetic flourish that we hope other owners will continue:
"Sixteen boats through caution to the wind,
and without a notice to their next of kin
committed their resolve not to bend
for arrival at Duncanby without a boat to mend."
|
 |
> GRAND TOUR HOME
> ROUTE MAP
> LOG BLOG
- Day 1: Nanaimo
- Day 2: Pender Harbour
- Day 3: Prideaux Haven
- Day 4: Shoal Bay
- Day 5: Lagoon Cove
- Day 6: Sullivan Bay
- Day 7: Sullivan Bay
- Day 8: Sullivan Bay
- Day 9: Duncanby Landing
- Day 10: Shearwater
- Day 11: Khutze Inlet
- Day 12: Klewnuggit Inlet
- Day 13: Prince Rupert
- Day 14: Foggy Bay
- Day 15: Ketchikan
- Day 16: Ketchikan
- Day 17: Meyers Chuck
- Day 18: Santa Anna Inlet
- Day 19: Wrangell
- Day 20: Wrangell
> DESTINATIONS
> SPONSORS
Special Thanks to
our Top Sponsor 
Remote posting to the Log Blog powered by 
|
