Pender Harbour to Gorge Harbour

We left Pender Harbour at about 8:00 am. In hindsight, we should have waited a few hours before setting off. Once we left the shelter of Pender Harbour, we encountered at least 9 or 10 knot winds and waves of 2 meters. We were bouncing all over the place, and dishes were flying off shelves and breaking. It was a little too rough for us, so we decided to head into Blind Bay to wait out the wind. It is predicted to die down in a few hours.

There were a few cabins dotted along the north side of Blind Bay, but it is not a heavily populated area. After about an hour, our wind app showed that things were settling down, so we ventured back out into Malaspina Strait.

The waves had dropped to about 1 meter, so we carried on. Eventually, the wind died down so much that we were able to go to planing speed. We made it into Gorge Harbour by about 3:00 pm. We filled up with fuel, got settled in our slip in front of Scout, another boat in our group, and then met up for a lovely happy hour with them. Great Escape, chose to anchor at Teakerne Arm for the night. They are a large 30 meter boat and the entrance to Gorge Harbour is narrow for such a large boat.

After supper, we discussed our strategy with Scout for our next day's travel. We will be going through some channels that get narrow in spots. When the tide rushes through big rapids and whirlpools form. You have to go through at slack to avoid trouble.

Should be an interesting day.Read more