A LONG DAY AND SLOW SAIL

Up bright and early today to beat the forecast gale.  Beautiful daybreak and flat calm in Gillespie Channel, the water was like glass.

Up bright and early today to beat the forecast gale.  Beautiful daybreak and flat calm in Gillespie Channel, the water was like glass.  Getting out through the narrows was very exciting with the water rushing out at a rate of knots.  Once committed there is no turning back and no place for indecision, just power on to keep steering control and pop out the other end.

I wanted to sail up Principe Channel and enter approach Prince Rupert from the west rather than the usual route up Grenville Passage.  But the prospect of a thirty-mile tack into a building headwind deterred me.  So I headed off up Otter Channel and towards Grenville Channel.

The forecast gale didn’t arrive and instead the wind was from the South and fluky.  We sailed for nearly 12 hours and only made 30 miles progress.

To compensate for the slow sail the weather was brilliant, not a cloud in the sky and visibility forever.  Great scenery all the way back to the snow covered mountains inland.  I didn’t see any sea life at all today and thankfully not many logs after a small bump this morning.

This evening we have anchored in Curlew Bat which is on a small island about five miles south of Grenville Channel.

Not sure if I will start up the channel tomorrow, I will see how I feel in the morning after the efforts of today. Total voyage distance 544.8 miles.

Logged 21st May 2016