Two Wild and Crazy Days

Where to start?  Sunday night, a gale blew up in the Straits of Georgia and winds were gusting 30 in the harbour (and more outside).  Nobody left the dock Monday and we were glad we were not intending to move on. It was quite a show on the docks as several boats attempted to dock and had so much trouble they either gave up and went elsewhere or took a long time to get alongside.  We had a near miss when a large vessel came within a foot of slamming into our stern when a gust of wind turned his boat sideways as he was moving stern first down the fairway.  Whew. I thought our vacation might be over but he finally made it.  Funny thing--the skipper never once emerged from his boat yesterday afternoon and the boat was gone before sunrise this AM. 

We were up at 4 this morning to check the wind and weather and decided to go for it. By agreement Monday evening, we made our decision with the skipper of another boat from the Seattle Yacht Club and we decided to cross if wind were forecasted to be 20 or less and if seas were no more than 4 feet.  We experienced 4 foot seas and just under 20 knots of wind.  Got lots of salt spray and waves over the bow--all the way up to the flying bridge--but we made it safely.  The other boat went into Garden Bay and we parted ways in the Malispina Straits and contined on another 50 miles to our planned destination of Cortes Bay in Southern Desolation Sound.

Seas were calmer in the Malispina Straits and we were all tied up at the SYC Outstation by noon.  It's a sunny, beautiful afternoon and the spot here is idyllic.  However, we have to show you what we encountered at the entrance to Cortes Bay.  OMG!!!!   We heard about it on the VHF as the Canadian Coast Guard in Comox was warning mariners to leave no wake in the vacinity.  NOTE:  THIS IS NOT US!! Talk about a bad day!  A 60 foot boat went aground on an outgoing tide so by the time we went out to see the drama unfolding, it was completely out of the water. We have seen pictures like this but we have never seen it happening live! 

We love Cortes Bay and will stay here tonight and tomorrow night before moving north.  

 
Photos:  
 

Below:  Snow capped peaks in the background as we entered Desolation Sound, approaching Cortes Island.  Can you believe Caption George Vancouver thought this place offered "nothing pleasing to the eye"???   Poor George.  He obviously had issues. 

Below:  Main Attraction (left) alongside at the SYC Outstation in Cortes Bay

Below:  OMG!!!!! 60 foot yacht high and dry on top of a rock at low tide near the entrance to Cortes Bay.

The tide is coming in now and Torben has taken the dinghy out to see what's happening with this unfortunate situation.  Hopefully, they can float the boat off at high tide around 6 PM  tonight.  The Coast Guard says that  it has quite a bit of hull damage so they have boats on site to pump out water if the bilges start flooding. 

To be continued.......