Nanaimo Canada to Port Ludlow USA

We left Nanaimo at a decent time, around 10:00 to make the 90 minute passage to Dodd Narrows. At full flood the currents here are over 10 knots and this is considered one of the most treacherous passes in the region.

Slack water was around midday and we actually arrived an hour early.  I watched a yacht go through using my binoculars, it looked a little bumpy but I figured we could make it. We had the ebb tide with us giving us about 4 knots of push, and by going now it was less likely we would meet any boats heading in the opposite direction. It has a bend in it so you cant see the exit. There were a lot of other yachts and power boats hanging around for slack water. We put out a ‘Securitie’ announcement on channel 16 for any concerned vessels to contact us before we entered the narrows then headed in. I would soon see how difficult it could get, there where whirlpools all around us and standing waves in places, but right in the middle it looked calm. This didn’t stop the water from yanking the boat off course several times and I had to be quick with the steering to get us back on course. It only took about 5 minutes in all to get through then we were into boring calm waters again. We proceeded south towards America, next stop Prevost Island and a little bay called Annette bay. This was another lovely wooded calm spot, but quite popular with other boaters. There was a floating holiday home in the bay which was tied to a mooring buoyLater in the day the tide turned and we got to see a different aspect of the house. For the people sitting on the deck in their loungers it must be great for the view to be changing all the time.It was a very peaceful evening there and early the next day we were up and off to Sidney spit, a small nature reserve just of Sidney, Vancouver Is. 

There was a small jetty and mooring buoys. The chart and guides show anchoring locations around the buoys so to save a few pounds we dropped the anchor, first time failed and I recovered the anchor completely covered in Kelp, we motored to the other side of the mooring buoys and tried again, this time it set but then under a good pull from our engine the hook jumped out and I recovered the anchor to find an old rope wrapped around it.  By now I was thinking we were going to struggle and boats were arriving fast with only a couple of free mooring buoys left, so I motored over to one, Kathy took the helm and expertly brought us alongside one buoy which I hooped a rope through and that was it, job done, retire to a diet coke for me and a Pinot Grigio for Kathy.

We stayed for two nights here, the first night we walked the length of the spit along a shingle beach, the next day we walked the forest trails around the island.

Next we headed off to Port Friday which is in the USA on the Island of San Juan. This was a little stressful as we knew we had to go through the US Customs and Border Protection officials to be allowed in. We had already got our mandatory visas in London last year, and had phoned ahead to inform them of our arrival, but having heard of some problems people have had at airports when they are in anyway ‘different’ from your regular joe, and stories of passwords being demanded so they can search your phones, facebook accounts etc, we wondered how this would go. Another worry was to do with what food we could bring in. We still have a few dozen tins of tuna, beans, custard etc, some cheese and soy products. The website is quite vague and refers you to other departments that suggest you contact them if you’re not sure. For example most animal products are banned, but that doesnt cover cheese or chicken, but does cover beef.
As it turned out the worry was all for nothing, the biggest problem we had was getting alongside on the customs dock. When we arrived it was full with two huge superyachts, once they moved a queue of returning american power boats jostled to get in, we waited for them to clear, but we had to be careful as the water off the dock was also the airstrip for the float planes, which seemed to be taking off and arriving every 5 minutes.
Once ashore the CBP lady explained the procedure to me, I had to fill in a form, much like you do on a plane, she inspected the boat by standing on the dock and looking at it. She asked if we had any goods to declare, I said cheese, she said “CHEESE IS OK” and we were done,  She was probably the most no nonsense lady I have ever met, I had thought about being jovial, but decided against that. We got 9 month visas and given a cruising permit to make our lives easier when travelling around.

Port of Friday Harbour is a massive place, with a great range of vessels berthed here

We spent one night here and left at 5:50 AM the next day for Port Ludlow. We had to leave early as the forecast was for stronger winds in the afternoon and adverse currents, as it turned out the currents were bad enough and the weather forecast was wrong again. Still we got to Port Ludlow in 9 hours.On the way we saw many luxury houses set back in the trees along the coast. They looked wonderful and I mused on the fact that I might have had one if I had been born in Seattle. I was writing software for a word processor, much like Microsoft Word , back in the 80’s. Had I been in Seattle, I might have been on the Microsoft team writing Word, and by now be head of word processor hyphenation and line wrapping, or some other wonderful title. My small allotment of company stock might have bought me one of these waterfront mansions, and as I said to Kathy that I might also be on my third young blonde leggy wife by now too. She pointed out that if that was the case, I probably would be broke and have lost the house by then!

But back to reality and a sharp lookout had to be kept, these are busy shipping lanes, but fortunately they were quite quiet for us, however we could hear naval activity on Ch16 and the local VTS (local traffic management) channel, I couldn’t figure it out until I saw a submarine and escort vessels approaching us. We were planning to cross the traffic separation lane soon and they would be in my way, so I crossed early,  basically at a right angle to their path, which won’t have looked good to them. They weren’t transmitting AIS so I couldn’t work out how close we would get, but we were over the separation zone long before they got anywhere near, so I was a bit disappointed that a high speed coast guard rib was dispatched to tell me to watch out as there was a submarine passing by, Duh, and that I would be ok if I kept my course, which I thought was fairly obvious. Talking to a local later in the day I heard this is very normal, and in fact they will buzz any yacht in the vicinity and chase them ‘into the hedges’ as the guy explained.Arriving into Port Ludlow saw the wind drop to zero, and the sun come out, the fog left and it became a glorious day. Port Ludlow is a small community town, with a few shops, a marina which is part of a Golf course resort, and a few holiday homes and ‘condos’. 

This was our last deadline, the Bob Perry Rendezvous, we have no more deadlines other than a desire to fly home mid October. The Perry rendezvous happens every year and is a getting together of all boats and/or owners that were designed by Robert Perry. These are Tayanas, Babas, Pandas, Tashibas, some Hans Christians, Passport Yachts, and a gang of others. Boats mostly arrived on Friday and we spent Friday night walking the docks and meeting the owners, swapping tales and checking out the differences in our boats. I met some lovely people here. Saturday Bob had organised talks by two people, a professional boat delivery skipper, and a Rigger from Port Townsend Rigging. That was fun, later we had a big potluck dinner in the pavilion here, followed by a performance from the ‘Perry Rendezvous All Star Band’ which was six guys in the form of Crosby/stills/nash&young/Eagles/Stones with Bob Perry himself playing Bass guitar.  They were pretty good I must say, not my kind of music, I was born just a little too late for that, but Kathy loved it. Bob is on the far left of the pictures.

I got chatting to one of the guys sitting on our table during the meal, he was very friendly and keen to offer me tips on moorage. He, like many there was a friend of Bob’s and he also had a boat, but not a Perry one. But he also had a truck, which was quite a beast. I was keen to see his boat, which turned out to be just as impressive, and had me thinking of what kind of boat I would like next. Something small, fast and maneuverable, but mostly, something that looks great.Finally I’m in a cold place, at night here with clear skies the temperature drops. The waters here are quite cold and consequently the sea breezes are very chilling, so at long last, after many years I was able to put my Irish sweater into service. It’s doing a great job, thanks to Tim and Asta who bought it for me as a present, some time ago. Tomorrow (Monday morning), we leave around 8am for Seattle propper, we are booked into Shilsole Marina, just north of Ballard, once there we will have to find somewhere affordable to stay for the next four weeks as the daily rates are too much for us. Thankfully the people at the rendezvous have been really helpful with tips and suggestions, and a few have offered to meet up with us in town and show us around.

Paul Collister.