May 3-9, 2023
Crossing Boundary Pass into Canada, the sun was welcome and warm, shining above from a blue sky with a few wisps of clouds and not a breath of wind. A bit of haze on the horizon makes Mt Baker appear to be floating well above the water’s edge off in the distance. Our first night in Canada we headed to Lyall Harbor after clearing customs in Bedwell. Arriving to find only one other boat in the anchorage was a welcome site, and we had a beautiful evening despite a few rollers from the nearby ferry dock.
The next day we made our way to Ganges on the largest of the Gulf Islands, Salt Spring. We’d heard this was a great place to provision, and had a large bay for anchoring. Unfortunately when we arrived, we realized much of the bay has been filled with private mooring buoys. We found a spot to tuck Chandelle in on the west side of the bay between a few other anchored boats, thinking we’d be well protected here from the light westerly that was forecast.
That night, as the winds turned west, we started getting blown around with winds 20 knots and gusting to mid 30s. Though our anchor held us fast in the thick mud bottom, it’s always unnerving to move around so much at anchor. There is a large hill where we were anchored so we believe it could have been a williwaw effect though we couldn’t find any reports of this happening in Ganges. I stayed up late to monitor things for a few hours, and then went to bed knowing our anchor alarm would alert us if we did start to drag. The next day was rainy, and much more comfortable with mild winds. We dinked to shore to check out the town, and can certainly see the charm that draws people to Ganges.
We entered Montague Harbor on a cold breezy afternoon, sailing downwind with just the head sail out. A few hours after we set the hook the breeze died down, and the evening was warm and inviting so we loaded into the dinghy and went ashore to see if we could catch the infamous Tommy transit bus to the Hummingbird Pub – unfortunately we were too early in the season, so after wandering around for a bit we headed back to the boat to scrounge up some dinner for ourselves. Montague Harbor is a well protected bay on Galiano Island with a marine park for camping and hiking. We marveled at the views from the hike around Gray Peninsula, and the massive numbers of clams and oysters littering the lagoon at low tide.
It feels quite freeing to have left the dock behind, especially after working for so many years to get to this point. We’re settling in to this nomadic lifestyle, grateful for all of the upgrades we’ve made to Chandelle, and for the incredible cruising grounds of the Pacific Northwest.
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