Day 1 Gerrans Bay, Pender Harbour

We’re anchored in Gerrans Bay 30 feet behind Tranquility Island which will give us some shelter from the expected southeaster tonight that is supposed to blow 25 starting at midnight.  Thanks to a helpful tip from a local we took up 25 feet of chain to keep us away from an area of boulders he said shows up at low tide.  After a send off from the dock that included Roman and Patti’s best bud Margo (who included an amazing bon package of magazines, Caribbean infused whisky, chocolates and puzzles) and my mom and dad and his sister and my hood friend Phil we fueled up and managed to get underway at 10:30am downriver in a full ebb tide.  The straight was calm with some good rollers around the merry island lighthouse which gave us a small taste of what she usually has in store.  We managed to make it past Thormanby in a following swell with Roman at the helm for a good part of the trip.  

Ominous clouds appeared to follow us and we made it into port with a light rain and tucked into a shoulder with some good protection.  

We are anchored next to a derelict freighter, rafted together with a wide assortment of smaller boats, a mix of rusting metals and tangled ropes.  Both patti and Roman grabbed their sketching pads and started to sketch once we had anchored, both not wanting to waste the light and the interesting foreground.  

We definitely feel the meaning of the word calm before the storm as there is no way to know a storm is coming it’s so calm in the bay.  We took a chance on the miracle oven for romans crispy baked chicken and the oven delivered a winner, making it a centrepiece of our first dinner with rapini and roast potatoes.  

Right now the weather is calling for 25 knots from the SE in the morning but we feel that Texada will shelter us from the worst so we’ll poke our noses out into the channel in the morning and see how it looks.  The weather will get better from this point on but right now we’re all cosy in a warm cabin.  

If anyone is interested we’ll be running a charter next year called Art on the Water.  Cost and timing TBD.









4.45 hours of running, 187L, remaining range 22 hours

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