Nanaimo to Blind Channel Resort

(all charts will enlarge in new window when clicked)
After two nights at the port docks at Nanaimo taking care of business, we moved out to the anchorage at Newcastle Island for our last night at Nanaimo. The next morning we left about 07:00 and headed up the Strait of Georgia for Comox. Fortunately we had smooth seas most of the way. The strait can get nasty when the wind and tide oppose each other.

The sun broke through the morning marine layer by mid morning and we were stripping down by mid afternoon. Teal’s new solar panel was putting out good amps. We arrived at Comox and got dock space for the night. While doing our trip planning for our next leg to Campbell River, we discovered that our plan to go up through Discovery Passage and Seymour narrows was ill timed. We were in the full moon phase and were looking at large spring tides with mid day flood currents flowing south at Seymour Narrows at close to 16 knots. The currents at Campbell River were flooding south at 8 knots, making getting into the marina there difficult at best, and providing our arrival was timely.

We opted to take advantage of a more favorable north flood current in route to Heriot Bay on the other side of Quadra Island. In this part of the world where south flood tides from the Strait of Georgia and north flood tides from Queen Charlotte Strait can, and do, run right next to each other like two separate rivers. We made good time in smooth seas and warm sunny skies to Heriot Bay and anchored behind Rebecca Spit in Drew Harbor.

Along the way in the north part of the Strait of Georgia, we had a visit by a large pod of dolphins that played in our bow wave for a long time. I (Jo) was trying to get a picture of one of them surfacing. They would dance and flip over and shoot under the boat, and as George shouted, “Here comes one!” I would say “Where?”. I’d spot it and click the shutter…. and it had already broken the surface and was heading down again. Feeling exasperated at my failure to get a GOOD photo and sensing that the “dolphin dance” was over, we sat down in the cockpit. At that point one curious dolphin jump right next to us high enough to look into the cockpit. Just to let us know the show wasn’t over yet, I guess and maybe giving me one more chance to get the good photo.

The show was great and we felt totally entertained, and this is what I got.
( click photo to see our little friend enlarged in a new window!)



The next morning, we motored over to the gas dock at the Heriot Bay Inn Marina and filled our tank – first gas in Canada ($105 for 85 liters or equivalent of $4.77 Canadian per gal). Couldn’t buy propane as their scale was broken. As we headed up the hill behind the Inn to provision at our favorite store in Canada we were surprised to see how few boats were in the harbor compared to last year.

We stopped at the Inn’s office on the way back to buy a Canadian fishing license. We had already tried at Nanaimo and Comox and were wondering how we could get through all this great crabbing and prawning without a license. The gal at the desk told us, that they are the only place on Quadra Island where one can buy a license. There was only one store in Comox that sold sport fishing licenses, and that lady doesn’t always show up for work on Mondays… Seems that Fish and Game penalizes the vendor $100 for every mistake on the app. That’s a pretty steep penalty. Do we wonder why there are so few vendors are willing to sell fishing licenses.

We took off for our appointment with low slack current at Surge Narrows and on to Octopus Islands to anchor for the night.








As we approached the entrance to the Octopus Island Marine Park, it started to rain, the first we have had since getting Teal in the water this year.


(click to enlarge)
We set the crab trap late in the afternoon. George weathered the storm the next day to check our catch; there was nothing in there, not even a bloody starfish.


It rained all day both days so we held our anchor, kicked back and waited for better weather before moving on.

After two days at Octopus Islands we picked up the anchor and empty crab trap and went through Upper Rapids on Okisollo Channel and headed for Blind Channel Resort via Johnstone strait. The ebb current (north) pushed Teal to 9.7 knots until we turned into Mayne Passage and the short run at 5 knots to the resort.

As soon as we tied to the dock we fired up the wireless card on our on-board laptop and we were on line doing our email and Internet business. “Aren’t computers great? (Sometimes).”



Stay tuned for the next passage,

George and JoAnne

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© 2006 George Benson. Reproduction of any of the material on this log without written permission from George Benson is prohibited.