Late Entry | Three Sheets Northwest

Heading South

by Scott Wilson on 19/08/10 at 9:23 am

We got up early to ride south on the ebb from Desolation Sound, ahead of a weakening frontal system moving down from the north. Clouds and rain have been something of a novelty this season and so the sky seems ominous as dawn comes with a flat gray light in stark contrast to the usual yellows and blues. At the same time, it seems appropriate… if the weather were better, would we really be able to make ourselves leave?

I had been looking forward to finally catching some of those mighty northwesterlies that have been lashing the area all summer on a downhill course, but the weather forecast disappointed… 5 to 15 knots northwest, plus rain. Enough for a straightforward, workmanlike sail, but nothing spectacular.

I motored up out of Malaspina Inlet at slack and made sail alone off Sarah Point as Mandy went back to sleep after helping weigh anchor and stow. On a reach, the ten knots of wind was about perfect; as I bore off to the south, though, it became a whisper and a litany of clashing rigging, a sound I became very familiar with until we came abeam of Savary Island, when the wind freshened and we angled west again to head down the outside of Texada Island.

Not much happens on the west coast of Texada Island or its small companion to the south, Lasqueti. We’ve taken this route once before, and seen hardly a soul. As we pass Blubber Bay and the wind starts to exceed forecasts, and the famously sharp chop in the Strait grows to three and four feet, I begin to wonder if the parade of boats heading down Malaspina Strait we just broke away from had the right idea.

But as we drew even with the big limestone pit north of Gillies Bay, the clouds began to break up and sun filled the cockpit, and the wind and waves moderated, and but for two tugs and a single other sailboat, we had the water all to ourselves.

There were a handful of other boats at the main anchorage on Lasqueti, False Bay, but it was equally clear there that we were well off the beaten path. A foot-passenger ferry visits the bay, and houses were dimly visible, tucked in the trees back from the shore, but we were running low on water and didn’t have time to explore. The next day we were off for Nanaimo: civilization again!

And so ended our swing through the pseudo-wilderness around Desolation Sound. We have another full month and a half away from Puget Sound, to explore and sail and soak up the sun at anchor, but we’ll be doing it now in the busier, more urban areas near Vancouver, the Gulf Islands, and the San Juans. For a lot of people, these places represent a summer getaway, but to us it seems more like a return. Like most people coming back from a getaway, we’re looking forward to the small conveniences… water, laundry, reasonably priced food, regular communications. Like anyone else, we appreciated the time we spent away from those things. Now I am looking forward to them all again. We’re heading south, and I don’t regret it.