Day 17-18 of the 1st Voyage: In which the Captain performs a trifecta.

We left Bedwell Harbor in the morning for an easy jaunt up to Ganges Harbor where we spent the night. I will remember this place for two reasons (and I am writing them down here because I know I will forget otherwise): First, you had to climb Mount Everest to get from the dock to street level. I’ve never seen a gangway that steep, although the toe holds they had embedded in it should have been my first clue that this would not be an easy traverse. Once you got to the top of the first gangway, there was a landing with about a dozen recycling bins and a small closet (I’m guessing that’s where they stashed the bodies of those that weren’t successful in the initial ascent). From there, another long gangway that swayed precariously over a deep ravine finally connected to the street. It was an exhausting climb to the summit. We had to hire a Sherpa for the Deck Boss or I think she would have tapped out at base camp.

The second thing I will remember about Ganges Harbor is that they had the first decent-sized grocery store we’d seen in a long time and apparently I don’t know how Canada works. We were picking up a few items and, not finding one of our staples (no, don’t worry, we brought plenty of bacon with us), I asked one of the employees where I might find the beer. His eyes widened and he got all up in my personal space and said, “BEER?!!!” I sensed I had asked a loaded question and when he immediately asked if I was “from the States or Quebec” I very nearly went with, “Oui! Quebec!” thinking that might be the lesser of two idiots. As you may have guessed, Canadian grocery stores are not allowed to sell alcohol of any kind. Which suddenly explained the 16 liquor stores we had passed in the three blocks from the Marina to the Thrifty Foods.

Editor’s Note: there was a third reason that involved two navy training vessels, a bunch of new recruits obviously docking and securing a large boat for the first time, and the yakkity-sax music playing through my head while watching them bumble about, but given my own very limited skill set I thought it kind of pot-calling-the-kettle-blackish, but at the same time…it was awesome!

Early the next morning, we left for Nanaimo—or at least tried to. The dock had seemingly taken such a liking to our boat that it would not let us go. No matter how hard the Captain gunned the engines to get us away from the dock, current and wind conspired to keep us there. So the Captain simply faked them out—he slowly backed us down the length of the dock at a nice, steady, stealthy pace till the stern slyly peeked out from the end of the dock and then—PSYCH!—sharp turn of the bow and we were off the dock and on our way. Like a boss.

While setting the course for this journey up the Inside Passage, the Captain has identified a handful of “Navigational Nemeses”—particularly difficult bodies of water that have “bad reps” so to speak. The first of these lay between us and Nanaimo: Dodd’s Narrows. It’s not just a clever name—an entire body of water literally narrows down to a slim passage between two rocky outcroppings. It’s so narrow that only one boat may go through at a time, and it has to be timed correctly with the tide or else the current will push you through so fast that you won’t have the ability to safely withstand the slingshot into the immediate dogleg. Yes, you heard right—slingshot. As in, the water narrows, then blasts out, hits the water coming through the other side of the island, and shoots off to the left taking whatever gets in its way with it. A small sailboat, then a powerboat, both made a play, backed off, tried again, finally made it through. The Captain settled in behind two commercial fishing boats and followed their course; once he saw the trajectory they made during the slingshot, he was able to steer Raven into a better course. No muss. No fuss. Captain = 1; Nemeses = 0.

Editor’s Note: did you notice how I mentioned there was another way through (around the other side of the island)? It’s much wider, but is so littered with shoals and reefs that it’s extremely difficult to get through. They call it False Narrows because Sh*t Creek was already taken.

On the other side of this nasty stretch of water is Nanaimo, one of the larger cities in BC and a big center for boating. The harbor came up on us rather quickly so while I was readying the fenders, the Captain radioed the marina. That’s when the directive came in to “raise all the fenders one foot!” What? “They’re putting us on the big dock!”  The big dock in this case is a large concrete pier that acts as a breakwater for the rest of the marina. It’s generally reserved for commercial boats, extreme fat cats, and—apparently—us. The only problem? We were rigged for a starboard tie, and they wanted us on the inside. Normally this would necessitate moving all the lines from one side of the boat to the other so we could tie up portside, but not today. Because awesomeness likes to come in 3s, the Captain merely approached the pier, turned us on a dime, and backed us in…like a boss.

 

Pictured: Ganges Harbor with the Mount Everest of gangways in the background (high tide)