Around Vancouver Island Trip report

[Patches]

My wife and I just completed a counter-clockwise trip around Vancouver Island, starting from our homeport in Bainbridge Island, WA.  A few of the highlights follow.

—we blitzed up the west and north sides because of work commitments, burning a lot of diesel in the process.  The new Beta 25 was reliable the entire way.  Took us 9 days to travel from home to Bull Harbor (the jump off point before rounding Cape Scott).  The rest was on the west side, coming down the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the return to the Seattle area.

—many whale sightings, both Orcas and Humpbacks.  Closest encounter was a humpback about 40 yards away.  Lots of sea otters, especially Bull Harbor and on the west coast.

—Very few other cruising boats, sail or power. We saw no other boats in any of our anchorages from Bull Harbor until we got down to Hot Springs Cove.  When we woke up in the morning, there was another Catalina (350) anchored next to us.

—Navigation was done by depth sounder, Garmin 547 chart plotter with a G3 chip, and Raymarine wheel pilot.  These were the steady, reliable workhorses of the trip.  We added a Garmin In Reach for emergency and texting purposes, but it never really had any weather information for us.  No radar.

—Electrical system kept up with all needs.  I have modest electrical demands, and a house bank of 3 Firefly AGM batteries.  Refrigeration was provided by my portable Engel Fridge/Freezer combo and was the biggest consumer of amps, though very modest consumption.

—Experimented with a KISS cruising set-up.  Went with a manual windlass, Airhead composting toilet, and Origo 6000 alcohol stove and oven combo.  All worked brilliantly.  Although I completely removed all propane from the interior of the boat, I did mount a dedicated 1.1 gallon tank on a stainless bracket which I through bolted to the transon for the Magma grill.  Again, worked perfectly.  I would not hesitate to use this KISS set-up for much longer trips.

—Sublime ocean sailing north, and just south of Brooks Peninsula/Cape Cook.  Our C34 Mark 1.25 handled the swell (and confused seas) around the 4 major capes very well.

—Used the aft cabin as our storage area/garage.  It held, among other things, our two inflatable kayaks and two 5 gallon Jerry jugs of diesel as well.

—dinghy (Westmarine 260 fiberglass RIB) was carried fully inflated, inverted, on deck in front of the mast and behind the manual windlass while in the ocean. We tied it down while en route and used the spinnaker halyard to lift it on and off using the port cabin top winch.  Once we got into more protected anchorages and Barkley Sound, we towed it around.

The trip was amazing.  No one out there in places except for an occasional fishing boat.  The Catalina 34 did very well in the ocean conditions and proved herself very capable—and comfortable for two. You must be prepared, as there is no cavalry to quickly ride in to the rescue (only our Garmin SOS feature) and very few places to provision/get water/drop garbage.  The scenery and wildlife are stunning, and we had whole anchorages/areas to ourselves.

Patches

[AndyBC]

Great report, sounds like an epic trip!!  Any photos to share?

What was your average cruising speed?  How did the auto-pilot handle the swells - did you have to take over at times when the wind was too strong?

Did you buddy boat with the Catalina 350 for a bit or did you go in different directions?

[waughoo]

Patches,

Awesome!!!  I'm happy to hear you did it.  I recall this was being planned for some time.  I went to Barkley Sound on my folks' boat when I was VERY young and still remember stern tying just 20' off the shore and feeling the boat rise and fall with the incoming swell from the Pacific: fantastic!!

[Gulfsailor]

What a great report! When my wife and I cruised from Vancouver to Alaska of a cruise two years ago, I told her these look like excellent cruising grounds. Lots of secluded anchorages too.

[Jim Hardesty]

Patches,
Thank you for sharing your great cruising experience.  It's great to hear cruising stories that don't include major break downs or near death experiences.  Just enjoyable and rewarding sailing, as nearly all of mine are. 
Jim

[Carbon]

Pictures or it didn't happen

[Patches]

I'll try to figure out how to load some photos or video.  It really is quite remote and spectacular.

To answer Andy's question about the Raymarine wheel pilot steering, it did fine when asked.  It wasn't asked to steer when I was having too much fun steering the boat down the swells in a following breeze.  Nor was it asked to steer in some very confused seas/cross swells going around Estevan Point or Beale Point. It couldn't keep up, and it required a lot of concentration on my part to steer safely.

We never did meet the owners of the Catalina 350 which appeared in our anchorage sometime after dark. We left pretty early the next morning, and nobody was stirring as we motored out. They had Washington State registration numbers, but no home port indicated on their transom.

We did meet—of all people—another boat from Bainbridge Island in Barkley Sound.  Not only that, they kept their boat (Halberg Rassy 42) in the same marina as us! But they were moving on to Bamfield and we were taking advantage of a weather window to sail all the way down the Strait of Juan de Fuca in one day.  That was a 13 hour day, and those of you who have done it know there is really only one bail out point on the Canadian side (Port Renfrew) and the conditions were such that we pressed on to Sooke Harbor.

Although I haven't tallied up the exact distance covered, it was about 750 miles. A  pretty serious trip, and one that challenged us in many ways.

Patches

[waughoo]

EXCITING!!!

[LogoFreak]

So awesome!!! I plan on doing the same June 2025, might pick your brain :)