It’s been a gorgeous summer so far, our first spent here on the West Coast. This week, it’s a sweltering 32 degrees each day. We’ve given up on the apartment for the week. It gets too stuffy, and the balcony is in the full sun in the afternoons, so there’s no escaping the heat. Instead, we’re taking refuge on the boat, where there’s a bit of a breeze, and we can hang out in the engine room if the heat gets too much. The engine room is 10 degrees cooler there than anywhere else on the boat.
We’ve really gotten a taste of summer cruising on the coast, and we love it! We completed our first trip across the infamous Georgia Straight, and it went well. We managed Porlier Pass without incident and anchored in Montague Harbour, Ganges and found a quiet anchorage in Lyall Harbour.
While we were in the Gulf Islands, we connected with Matt’s uncle, who was visiting from the US. It was great to catch up and spend time with his friends on their chartered sailboat. We hadn’t seen each other since 2019, due to COVID travel restrictions. We rafted the boats together, enjoyed a delicious fresh seafood dinner, and met some lovely people who live in Ganges.
We found Lyall Harbour near Saturna Island to be a really quiet haven. It’s a large anchorage, and there is a public ferry dock, but there were only a handful of other boats, and the ferry only came three times during the day, so minimal disturbance. We had the most amazing westward view from Lyall, and saw the most spectacular sunset.
We finally got around to having our naming ceremony for Eudora also. We’d planned it for springtime, but were unable to go through with it then. It was nice to have the ceremony, calling on the favors of Neptune and Aeolus, to bless us with good seas and winds on our voyages.
The Gulf Islands trip had a little bit of everything – rafting with another boat, navigating a busy harbor, and lots of anchoring practice. All in all a successful trip!
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