Victoria to Breton Island (just off Quadra Island’s Heriot Bay.)

We have had a great trip along the Sannich Peninsula, through the Gulf Islands, and along the Vancouver Island side of the Strait of Georgia. What an abundance of marine life!

We’ve learned a great deal about the ocean; especially patience. The tides, currents, and particularly the wind, determine our schedule, not us.

We planned extensively for the wilderness aspect of our trip, but were unprepared for the warmth and kindness of the people we have met along the way. We have received emails of encouragement, offers of accommodation (including a hot tub!), and have eaten excellent home-cooked meals.

Bev and John Wolsey even gave us a paddle necklace carved from a bone (by John). We promise to introduce it to the Atlantic!

Thanks to Gary Willis, we have now been able to christen the canoe with a name: Suzie Jack. It is in honour of Stompin’ Tom Connors and his song, Gumboot Clogeroo. We didn’t break a champagne bottle on the canoe (those who know us, know we would never waste good champagne) but we sang the song in its honour instead.

Gary also made and applied the white canoeacrosscanada.ca decals as well. If you see a red canoe pass by with 2 people and a big white dog, please don’t be afraid to wave us in for a chat!

Take Outs

Stats

As of our crossing of the Discovery passage from Oyster River to Breton Island (Heriot Bay, Quadra):

Paddling days = 16
Wind bound days = 9
Rest days = 3
Total days = 28

Shortest paddling day = 23 nautical miles from Hudson Point, Saltspring Island to Wallace Island.

Longest paddling day = 23 nautical miles from Gerald Island to Qualicum Bay

Favourite piece of gear at present: Spirit Sail… a slick system!

Average cruising speed without sail = 3.3 knots (6 km/hr)
Top speed reached with sail = 5.9 knots (11 km/hr)
Least used item: sunscreen

Most trusted resource (aside from charts): John Kimantas’ Wild Coast Series Most valuable item chewed by Taq: map case Least valuable: bailing bucket

De Courcy to Nanaimo…. by Pam

We spent two days wind bound on De Courcy Island waiting for good weather to travel through Dodd Narrows. In order to negotiate the passage safely, we needed to wait for slack tide (a short amount of time when there is no current.) This makes an otherwise large tidal rapids turn into flat water for a brief period.

Originally, we had planned to travel through false Narrows (it has half the traffic and current), however, Kimantas’ guide book described the west side of the island as having gorgeous sandstone cliffs. Our plan was to paddle by the cliffs then cross over between Link and De Courcy Islands to reach False Narrows. Everything was going according to plan until we rounded De Courcy to cross between the islands …the tide was completely out and the passage was completely dry! If we backtracked we’d miss slack tide, instead we decided to paddle Dodd Narrows.

This was my first experience with tidal rapids and I was nervous. I suddenly second guessed our calculation of slack tide. Had I copied a time wrong? Looked at the incorrect day? My confidence rose as I saw other small boats heading to the same place.

The paddle to the entrance and center went smoothly. We rounded the bend in view of the outfall. There was quite a bit of current, even for being just after slack tide. We pulled off into an eddy on the right to get a good look at the water. We quickly exchanged our thoughts. Geoff suggested we ferry across to the left shore and take the eddy there. It went off without a hitch.

We found ourselves in the center of the channel with the pulp mill on the Vancouver Island side (left) and log booms on the Gabriola Island side (right.)

Unsure of the guidelines for passing a pulp mill, we decided to stay on the much prettier Gabriola side. After waiting for a tug hauling a log boom to pass and a ferry, we struck out across the channel towards Duke Point. As we crossed, the wind slowly began to build against us into a two foot chop. Halfway across, I felt as though I was paddling an ocean treadmill going nowhere. In the one hour it took to cross the 1.5 mile channel I went through a wide range of emotions…. exhaustion, frustration, anger, fatigue and determination.

After rounding Jack Point, we surveyed the harbour in front of us. We established the pattern of the Gabriola ferry and float planes, and made the final crossing to Protection Island through the chop.

Once we entered the harbour, the ocean was like glass. I felt almost sheepish for feeling tired and strained. We hadn’t had a chance to eat or drink anything for hours.

In previous conversations, Dad had described the location of a floating pub. True to his word, we spotted the beautiful oasis called Dinghy Dock Pub. We chose a parking spot nearest the door and tied up the canoe with fumbling, numb hands. After paddling on our knees for hours (better stability in the chop) I found it difficult to get out of the canoe and onto the dock. I attempted to wrestle control of my limbs as I could feel people’s eyes on us through the windows. What I really wanted to do was throw myself onto the dock and lay in the sunshine.

Geoff and I sat at a dog-friendly table outside. We ordered seafood chowders and a couple of house lagers, to start. As we sat, an older British gentleman approached our table. In a stiff accent he commented to Geoff, “I see you’re doing the man’s work, navigating.” As Geoff struggled to utter an appropriate response, my mind filled with images of what a woman’s role in the canoe may be in his mind…sitting in a corset under a parasol, sipping iced tea with my man paddling me along while reciting poetry. It sounded tempting for a moment, then my tired muscles brought me back to the present. I wouldn’t change a thing; I’ve heard corsets are uncomfortable anyway.

A Day on the Strait of Georgia...by Geoff

We awoke at 6am, listened to the weather, and snoozed until seven. Breakfast included coffee, tea, and Red River cereal from thermos’; vitamins (thanks to New Chapter); and bannock with peanut butter.

We hoped to leave by nine, but falling tide, loosely packed gear, and a runaway dog delayed us until 10 am. After calling and calling Taq, we left without him (not really). Realizing that his food had left, he came over the hill and swam out to us.

This was the day of ducks! Thousands - tens of thousands of Surf Scoters flew amongst us for most of the day. The recent spawn of the herring has left the sea teaming with life. Cormorants, gull, oystercatchers, scoters, buffleheads, goldeneyes, sea lion, and even a grey whale shared the Strait of Georgia with us today.

The western shore of the strait is well developed, so we took advantage of parks to run Taq and stretch our legs. One such place was Rathtrevor Provincial Park, where I caught a Dungeness crab with my paddle (and subsequently let it go because of its size) At about 4 pm the wind blew up from the southeast, so we started looking for a campsite. We had planned to camp at Little Qualicum River, but the campground was closed so we continued into Qualicum Bay where we found a campground/RV resort with small cabins to rent.

We slept in bunks that night after a dinner at the local restaurant. We had covered over 20 nautical miles that day, Good Friday.

Thank You!

• Katy, Bob, and Peter Macdonald for coming to Victoria to see us off. We can’t tell you how much that meant to us. They waited out the weather, walked Taq, and provided us with great food, nice wine, and warm soft beds. Katy and Peter crewed us from Victoria to Saltspring Island – it was wonderful to see them at the end of each day. Thanks also to Dave and Sharra Hinton of Weedman Winnipeg for lending us their big Ford truck to travel to the coast. A big thanks to Peter for driving it to Provost and taking us (and our large pile of Gear) to Victoria.
• Wendy and matt Wheatley surprised us with a large bouquet of flowers and a bottle of local wine on Saltspring Island. What a treat! I carry the card we me still.
• A big thanks to Glenn and Mary Fidler for opening their home to us. Not only did they ferry us to and from the water for four nights, they also made a big “Welcome to Comox” display in their Regenesis store window.

• Dean Hardy (and his neighbour whose name we unfortunately did not write down – apologies!), Lantzville
• Philip and Heather Pettyfer, Ship’s Point
• Roy and Gert Frelone, Courtenay
• Bev and John Wolsey, Comox
• Gary Willis and Linda Foster, Comox

• Blue Ridge Inn, Victoria
• Sea Breeze Inn, Saltspring Island
• Newcastle Island Caretakers
• Qualicum Bay resort, Qualicum Bay



• Our first bug gear purge occurred at Phil and Veronica Harrison’s home in Lantzville. Thank you to Matthew for helping us unload gear and to Veronica for driving us to the bus depot to mail the box. We cooked some delicious meals in their beautiful home alternating hot showers and laundry. A welcome break!
• The CanoeAcrossCanada.ca and Susie Jack decals displayed proudly on our canoe were made and applied by Gary Willis. He and his wife, Linda Foster, opened their home to us for a couple of days. We will never forget their great food and great company.
• Finally, thanks to Kevin for coffee and tea on De Courcy and Ceil and Larry for buying us beer at the pub on Salmon Point - Cheers!

Pam, Geoff & Taq