Variable winds

I mean really variable--between 40 knots and nothing, within the space of about an hour. That was what characterized our sail down from Nanaimo to Ganges yesterday.

It was really whipping in Nanaimo; no one else was leaving the harbour and I questioned my own judgment as to the wisdom of departing around eleven. The other people on our float thought we were crazy but helped us get out of the tight spot on the leeward side we were stuck in anyway. I think their concerns were probably justified by the difficulties we had just getting out of the dock--I couldn't get the $#(*$#$% transmission in gear again, although the lever seems to be more stable now, and we drifted down onto a old steel ferry that is used as a waiting area for the current Protection Island ferry. Eventually things got sorted out, without damage to either party, and we motored out of the boat basin.

It was really tearing outside the breakwater, so we motored around into the lee of Protection Island to raise sail. We only put up the main, and with one reef tucked in it at that, and then spun around and took off like a banshee running downwind for Dodd Narrows. We had a bit of an ebb with us, but we were making 6 knots plus of boat speed for most of the way even before accounting for that. Three to four foot seas were rolling us around from astern but Mandy did a great job of keeping on course in some pretty tight spots. We shot Dodd Narrows under sail (normally I wouldn't have considered this; but there was only one other boat going through and we let him get clear before we did it), hitting nine knots over ground going through the passage.

Shortly after that, on a rather rough gybe, the aft-most reefing point on the main tore partly out. We came up into the wind and dropped the main smartly, then raised our jib and kept going at nearly the same speeds.

That only lasted until about the north tip of Saltspring Island, however. The blasting northwest wind faded away to absolutely dead calm in less than an hour as we headed south. Fortunately, we still had some current, and after a couple of hours of eking out little random breezes, we finally came into some decent wind again near the entrance to Active Pass and were able to sail around the corner and up into Ganges Harbour.

This is a great anchorage, at least in the sense of being able to put down one's anchor and have plenty of swinging room--the whole of the harbour seems to have good mud bottom and depths around 30 feet: prime conditions for a small boat such as hours. It's a little exposed to southeast winds, but the winds are so weird around here it's hard to say if that's a danger (as it would typically be along the northwest coast). At any rate, there isn't any wind to speak of at the moment, or in the forecast, so we will probably be motoring from here.

We're heading to Butchart Gardens next; they have a water-side entrance and a dinghy dock, and we're only about twelve miles from there now. I think we'll head down there today, spend today and possibly tomorrow there, then work our way back out into the southern Gulf Islands.