Sunday, August 11, 2019

Running on Empty


August 10 / Day 13 
Heavy fog to low overcast, Winds calm increasing to W @ 15 knots, Seas calm to swells to 1.5 meter with 2-foot chop, Seas moderate at times 

I awoke on Thursday to another foggy morning.  No surprise there as August is often referred to as “Fogust” when paddling the Great Bear Rain Forest.  The day’s task was to set myself up for crossing Queen Charlotte Strait during the brief weather window that would open on Friday.  Crossing the “Queen” to Vancouver Island is a crux move that is exposed, requires consideration and the right conditions.  I had left a dozen yachts anchored at Fury Cove when I departed Wednesday morning, all waiting for tomorrow’s forecasted conditions to make their crossing.  I was following suit, but being unpowered, I had to paddle for two days just to get to a place where the crossing would be possible.  I was nearly two weeks without rest, had bruised ribs plus a left cheek that was tender and swollen courtesy of a surf-induced battering suffered upon my arrival at Red Sand Beach.  I was pressing hard to get to a campsite where I could take advantage of Friday’s brief weather window that would allow a safe crossing of the “Queen”.  That window was forecasted to open near dawn tomorrow and slam shut with a return of high winds in the afternoon then remain closed for several days.  I was towards the end of my route and on the part that I’ve never been fond of.  It’s the part that is littered with a disproportionate number of objective risks, timing issues, attendant critical decisions and is accentuated by the fact that the Queen don’t play.  Lots of moving parts and what I really didn’t need was more fog.

When traveling south and setting up for crossing the Queen you must address a couple of significant objectives.   I believe that the best strategy with winds from the north or west is to round Cape Caution shortly after the turn to flood.  That takes wind against current issues out of the equation and ensures that you have time to cross Slingsby Channel well before it starts ebbing.  Slingsby is one of the last places you want to put yourself in a wind and swell against ebb current situation as it is a firehose that empties the majority of the Seymour / Belize Inlet complex into Queen Charlotte Sound.  Both Cape Caution and Slingsby Channel possess a great deal of potential bad juju.