Friday, December 6, 2013

Monday, 21October2013: Victoria to Skyline

Weather:  Initially sunny and warm, then thick fog.  Winds:  Initially, N10.  Seas:  <1ft.

Uneventful departure out of Victoria, motoring out of the harbor and setting main and screacher just before the turn south out of the harbor.  Sailed eastbound in sunshine at 7.5kts.  Fog was visible coming over the hills to the north.  Varied the route some and went north of Trial Island and was rewarded with a couple Steller sea lions in McNiell Bay!

Winds picked up and soon we were seeing 17kts apparent, way too much for the screacher.  But before I could furl it, the halyard block at the top of the mast fractured, ending the screacher's use for the day.  Dropped the screacher and unfurled the genoa.  Wind started to decrease and died at Discovery Island.  Fog with 1/4mi visibility descended.

Not good.  Heard what sounded like a large vessel fog horn in the distance to our 2 o'clock.  About 10 minutes later, heard the same horn at 11 o'clock.  Fine!  The vessel has made the turn into Haro and was northbound.  I called Victoria Traffic, gave them our location and intention and they responded back there was no reporting traffic to worry about.  Great!  A few minutes later, the vessel's wake showed up from the south.  About 10min later, the vessel's northbound wake appeared from the east:  Just as it should.

It is a long motor across the Haro Strait in 1/4mi visibility.  At one point, it increased to about 3/4mi to the south, but about an 1/8mi to the north.  South of San Juan Island, visibility increased to 3mi and remained so until approaching Rosario Strait where it descended to 1/4mi again.

Called Seattle Traffic with location and intent and receiving a report of a vessel northbound at Allen Island.  Not a factor!  So we pushed.  Visibility continued to decrease and was less than 200yds as we passed between Williamson Rocks and Allen Island.  Never did see Williamson Rocks.  Took Allen Island close to port and continued into Burrows Bay.  Flat seas, a few birds appearing out of the fog and essentially no visibility.  Really glad for a reliable engine, autohelm and GPS!  Otto was doing a better job keeping us on course than I was so I let it take the helm.  About 1/2mi outside our marina entrance, the fog parted and we had clear visibility in.  Uneventful mooring!

One interesting bit about being in Victoria this time was there was a 45ft monohull moored outside of us.  Turns out it belonged to a Dutch cruising family.  They had voyaged from the Netherlands, across the Atlantic into the Caribbean.  Eventually they did the Panama Canal and into the South Pacific.  From there, they went to Hawaii, then Alaska and had made their way this far south.  They had no further intentions except to stay in the area for the winter.  Nice to chat with them!

Lesson Learned:  Use the Traffic Control Services!

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