The weather is lightening up somewhat today, with brisk winds from the Southeast. In this part of the coast, this means more rain! We depart Grace Harbour and will come back here some day when its hot and sunny. A stop for a few hours in Powell River, Lunch with my sister and a quick shop to restock Food & Booze. The public marina is full to extreme, with every slip rafted 4 deep. People think we are crazy to be leaving the safety of Powell River Harbour to go to who knows where!
As we head the 4 1/2 miles across from Powell River to Vananda Texada, it starts to get a bit exciting. The seas are at least 7-8 feet on our beam, not to bad, but Mike decides to "Tack" a bit as we will never make it into the opening of the marina. Dave & Penny have "reserved" a spot on the dock for us and are watching us from the breakwater. According to them, there were times that the waves were so high, it covered our boat up completely with ocean spray. I can attest to that as I was sitting on the bridge, listening to things in the main salon crashing and banging around, but was not leaving my chair to go see. Not to mention that the dog had his talons dug right into my feet, so in effect, my feet were nailed to the floor. At one point, the waves were so high, that they were spraying through all the zippers and it was like we were being sprayed by a fire hose. Mike and I looked at each other like drowned rats and had a bit of a laughing fit. We safely make it into the marina, and it takes about an hour to dry everything out (including all of our electronics on the bridge), de-salt all the windows and canvas (so we can see out again)and we join the group on the dock to watch the storm from the safety of our moorage. Vananada is a good place to hide out from bad seas. Not many people know that this little marina exists, but mark it in your books for a safety haven in bad seas.
We had jokenly said that after 5 months, we were due to get the crapped kicked out of us and sure enough, Malaspina Strait did not disappoint!
Our ongoing adventures of cruising up and down our beautiful coast - delicious, breath-taking scenery with some unforgettable characters and adventures that make you want to buy a boat!
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