What I did on my Summer Vacation 2013

Haida Heritage Center in Skidegate

Each year I say that this will be my last trip up the British Columbia coast.  And each year I discover new reasons to return.  This year, the reason was a visit to Haida Gwaii.

Haida Gwaii is the original name for the Queen Charlotte Islands, a collection of three relatively large islands and myriad smaller ones located approximately 100 miles west of the north coast of British Columbia.  The islands were originally settled by the Haida First Nations about 12000 years ago, and the remnants of their settlements are still visible today: slowly decaying totem poles, and moss-covered pits where longhouses once stood.

Sk'ang Gwaii on Anthony Island

 Rather than single hand this trip, I decided to take on crew.  Maryann and Mary, two other members from the South Sound Women Sailing Group signed up to do the northbound leg with me, while Joyce and Mike, two other fellow sailors signed on to bring the boat back south.

Because Mary could only take one month off, Maryann and I sailed from Port Hadlock Port McNeill, on the NE coast of Vancouver Island in June.  From McNeill Marynn returned to Olympia while I flew to Shanghai to meet my sister for a two-week tour of China (more on that later). In early July I returned to McNeill, where Mary and Maryann joined me to sail across Queen Charlotte Sound and up the East Coast of Haida Gwaii.  From there, Mary and Maryann would fly back to Olympia, and Mike and Joyce would help me bring the boat back down the east coast of Moresby Island and on down the West Coast of Vancouver Island.   That was the plan.

Prepping the boat in Hadlock

Because Haida Gwaii is so remote, I put a lot of thought into preparations.  I emptied and sorted all lockers, added a halyard for an inner foresail, and bought spares for anything I could think of.   I carted bags and boxes of grains, rice, canned goods and paper goods onto the boat, knowing that the provisions along the inside passage would be both scarce and expensive.  I lashed 2 jerry cans of diesel onto the shrouds to extend our range, and had the valves adjusted on the engine.  I took extraneous gear off the boat to make more room for crew and their gear. The plan was made…now all we needed to do was execute.

Sonrisa on Jedediah Island

Underway with dinghy in tow

We pulled away from Port Hadlock on June 2.  The one piece of equipment for which I had no backup was the autopilot, which gave up the ghost in the Strait of Juan de Fuca 6 hours later.  The only backup I had was the wind vane, an amazing invention that will steer the boat by the wind as long as the sails are up.  So, when we were sailing, we could let go of the tiller – otherwise, the two of us shared the steering all the way to Port McNeill.  In the meantime, when we had Internet, I researched replacement options and had a new autopilot sent to Mary to bring with her in July.

Lacy Falls in the Broughtons

The trip to McNeill was otherwise uneventful.  I have made this voyage many times and it was lovely to revisit favorite anchorages, and to discover yet new ones.  Because we had ample time on this leg, I had time to shakedown a few of the boat systems and do a few last minute adjustments.  We had lovely weather – warm and mostly dry – and the boat (minus the autopilot) gave us no trouble.

The trip to China was a fascinating diversion, worthy of a blog in itself.  My sister is a teacher in Fairfax County, VA, and had heard about another teacher, Chinese by birth, who led an annual tour to China that always got rave reviews.  Last fall, she asked me if I would be interested in going with her to share the experience and the room.  It sounded like a great opportunity and, as my summer plans took shape, I realized I could find a way to do it all by mooring the boat in McNeill.   In two weeks, we visited Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou (birth village of our guide), Nanjing, Xi’an (site of the terra cotta warriors) and Beijing. We climbed the Great Wall, ate stir fry, visited the museum to the victims of the Rape of Nanking, ate stir fry, learned the many benefits of green tea, ate stir fry, watched silk worm cocoons being unwound, ate stir fry, tried to count the ten thousand warriors, ate stir fry, 

rode a bike around the top of a Ming dynasty city wall…and ate more stir fry.  Roni and I had a lot of fun sharing a room, pictures and observations.  We’re already taking about the next trip together.

Then I was back to Port McNeill, where I slept for 18 hours straight after the long flight from Beijing.  Mary and Maryann arrived the next day with the autopilot and took off to tour McNeill while I installed it.  After a day to provision and unpack, we took off.  After two nights heading to the north end of Vancouver Island, we set out to cross Queen Charlotte Sound with a forecast of southerly winds.  Unfortunately, the southerlies followed a few days of northerlies, and the seas were steep and confused.  Just a few hours out, my two crew were both suffering from ‘mal de mer,’   By early afternoon, 5 hours into an expected 24 hour crossing, when it became clear that they would not be able to stand a night watch, I turned on the engine and headed for the mainland coast to wait for better conditions.  Enroute, the new autopilot failed as the ram unscrewed itself from the housing. 

Morning calms

By the time we arrived at our anchorage, the seas and the seasickness had subsided, and the next day we did a short leg north on the mainland.  Two days later we made a second attempt, when the seas were so calm that we had to motor virtually all the way across Hecate Strait, arriving in Rose Harbor just 24 hours later.  

Multi-colored batstars in Burnaby Narrows

From Rose Harbor, we began working our way up the coast with a first stop at Sk’ang Gwaii on Anthony Island, a World Heritage site known for the aging totems and longhouse sites.  The Haida now have ‘watchmen’ stationed at the important sites who welcome visitors and provide a very professional and informative guided tour of the artifacts. 

 

It took us about 2 weeks to work our way up the coast, anchoring out each night.  We had some great sailing and wildlife viewing, including eagles, loons, sand hill cranes, black bear, orca and humpback whales.  We fished for rockfish, and caught two salmon as well as a couple of dogfish.  We visited 5 native village sites and were invited to do a potluck dinner with the watchman and watchwoman in Tanu. 

Unfinished pole on the ground in Windy Bay

We were especially privileged to see the new totem pole in Windy Bay on the ground.  Windy Bay was the scene of a historic standoff between members of the Haida Band and the logging industry in the mid 1980’s a standoff which resulted in the setting aside of much of Moresby Island as a preserve, known as Gwaii Hanaas (Beautiful Islands).  The totem pole was due to be raised on August 15, and it arrived by boat in Windy Bay the day before we did.  We could feel the anticipation and pride as we spoke to people about it, since this was the first pole to be raised in the preserve in 130 years. 

Shelf fungus

Because the preserve has not been logged for 20 years, the area is incredibly pristine and unspoiled.  It is not as rugged and wild as Alaska, but has a more serene beauty to it.  We saw few boats over those two weeks, as the area is visited by only 1500 or so people per season – most of those  being kayakers or people coming in on tour boats from Sandspit.

Sandspit Marina

After a couple of weeks working our way north, we arrived in Sandspit in early August.  Since we still had a few days before Mary and Maryann had to leave, we did a short side trip through the Skidegate Channel, a narrow, shallow, 5 mile long passage between Graham and Moresby Islands.  It is well marked with aids to navigation, but still a bit nerve-wracking to see the depth sounder saying 10, 11, 12 feet.

On our return, Mary and Maryann headed home while I changed the oil and prepared for Joyce and Mike’s arrival.  Mike arrived first, and the two of us rented a car and toured Graham Island, 

Sunset in Masset

Haida dance to open the music festival

stopping for 3 days at the Edge of the World Music Festival, an annual event in Tlell.  It is a low-key but festive affair, attended mostly by locals.  Mike and I too a hula hoop workshop - and I won a hula hoop...and found a place to stow it suspended from the V-berth ceiling.  We met a very fun couple from Alberta who were touring Graham Island on their bicycles.  The four of us had dinner after the festival at a local restaurant where the only other table of diners happened to be Justin Trudeau and his family (the son of Pierre and Margaret and the heir-apparent to the liberal party in Canada.

Once Joyce arrived, we all went to the Haida Heritage Center on August 15, where we watched the live streaming of the pole raising in Windy Bay with 400 other locals. 

Raised pole at Windy Bay

What a privilege that was!  We learned so much about Haida art and culture on this trip, and were constantly impressed by the generosity and pride of the Haida we met.  Joyce and Mike are sailboat racers, like me, and the three of us had a lot of fun sailing back down the coast, analyzing trim and debating tactics.  We visited some of the same places and some anchorages I had not visited on the way up – we were able to see the pole upright at last when we went to Windy Bay.

A few other observations and interesting events:  For reasons I don’t understand, the water in the Queen Charlottes is 10-15 degrees warmer than in Puget Sound…warm enough to swim in, in fact.  I know that after making two unplanned entries: one time to chip barnacles off of the depth sounder and the second time to unwrap the dinghy painter from the prop.  Both times I was pleasantly surprised to find the water to be refreshing, but not at all chilly. 

And then the weather turned.  All the way up Mary and Maryann and I had fair and warm weather – sunny, a bit breezy, and northwest winds - the typical summer pattern.  But on the way down the southerlies set in, along with wetter weather and higher winds.  In some anchorages we encountered williwaws of 35-40 knots at night, and on two occasions I put out 275 feet of rode.   

Fortunately it always seemed to clear as we left the anchorage so we had dry and pleasant days…until we arrived in Rose Harbor after a boisterous sail.  The winds picked up to 40 knots and it rained in buckets as we hung on the mooring.  It was so bad that even the fishing boats came in to hunker down, and the tour boats cancelled trips to Sk’ang Gwaii.  The good part of that was that we were able to completely fill one of the water tanks from the dinghy, obviating a trip to a water buoy.

Off the Queen Charlotte Strait on the mainland

Morning reflections

Day after day we listened to the forecast and after 3 nights, when it had finally eased, the forecast was for 5 more days of southerlies.  Continuing along the west coast of Vancouver Island in those conditions would not have been fun – and I could not guarantee to Joyce and Mike that we would get home when they needed to.  So we opted for plan B, crossing to Shearwater and heading south along the Sunshine Coast. 

Crossing Hecate Strait was lovely – we were able to sail for the first 18 hours and then had to motor for another 8.   After a night in Shearwater, we headed down the mainland coast under steadily dryer weather.  The sun came back out, the humpbacks visited in profusion, and we explored some new anchorages that were quite charming.  Fog set in from time to time - rounding Cape Caution we were in and out of patches - but in general the visibility was good.

Small slide in the Queen Charlottes

In the Broughtons we witnessed the fallout from the rain event: a debris field of logs and shredded timber that stretched from Tribune Channel to Johnstone Strait.  It turned out that there had been a massive landslide in Knight Inlet, on a scale that locals had never seen before.  This photo here is of a small slide in Haida Gwaii, but provides some idea of the devastation that can result.  The topsoil layer is only inches thin and the trees really are just hanging on by their fingernails.

Wind vane in action

All in all, our trip south was very pleasant.  Fortunately, we had received a replacement ram for the autopilot from Raymarine while we were in Sandspit, and it functioned flawlessly when we had to motor for lack of wind.  

 When there was wind, we steered ourselves or used the wind vane, which also served us very well.

All told, I was gone for almost 4 months.  I was very pleased with the boat's performance – other than the autopilot, we had no issues.  The engine functioned flawlessly and the boat was easy to balance under sail.  We got some good practice with reefing and anchoring, and even had a day or two to play with the drifter reacher.   

Now my plan is to put the boat on the hard for the winter and take off for warmer climes…I leave on Sunday for Malaysia, from where I will help deliver a boat to Cairns.