Stormy Solo Sailing Through The Gulf Islands | Ep 2 | Sailing Sea Dream of Clyde

Sea Dream of Clyde's shipyard date in Nanaimo was coming up, so I took advantage of a forecasted southerly blow and well timed northerly flowing flood current to sail 35 miles north from Cowichan Bay to Nanaimo Harbour where I was hauling out.

This transit includes two tidal passages to plan around; Sansum Narrows is relatively wide, and rarely flows fast enough to be dangerous, however, sailboats should head through it with the current to avoid a very slow passage. The second pass I had to get through was Dodd Narrows, which can be very dangerous for slow moving vessels if not transited within an hour or so of slack. If a sailboat is too late or early, getting through can be impossible against turbulent currents that can flow at over 7 knots!

Along the way, I worked on getting my recently installed retro Hydrovane self-steering wind vane to steer the boat with moderate success.

As often happens in the Gulf Islands, a 15-25 knot forecast meant anything from perfectly calm all the way to 30 + knots, with everything in between! All in all, a fun downwind sail with mostly good wind.

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