Gulf Islands

Location:  Anacortes, WA

Sunset, Montague Harbor, Galiano Island, BC

We have been cruising the Gulf Islands for the last 10 days or so.  We ended the last blog in Bedwell Harbour (Map Location 1).  We spent a few days at anchor there.  We took the dinghy over to Poet's Cove Marina to fill our portable gas tank.  Their gas pumps weren't working so we took the dink through the Pender Canal to Port Browning. We ate lunch at the marina then walked into town to fill our tank at the gas station.  Oops, we left our portable tank at the fuel dock at Poet's Cove.  So, we bought a new portable tank at the station.  Back to the dink, thru the canal, to Poet's Cove to pick up our tank and back to our anchorage.  Dave dropped me off at the beach for my afternoon walk and to buy some beer at the Medicine Beach Liquor store.


Map showing our stops in the Gulf Islands: 1. Bedwell Harbour, BC  2. Montague Harbour, BC  3. Chemainus, BC 
4. Ganges, BC  5. Prevost Harbor, WA  6. Anacortes, WA

Bridge over the Pender Canal.  The Pender Canal connects North and South Pender Islands.
The canal bridge has a height restriction of 27 feet so we weren't able cruise under it with Seabiscuit.
Our air draft (vertical height above the waterline) is 37 feet which includes our SSB (single side band) antenna.

On the morning of June 5th, we left Bedwell Harbour and cruised to Montague Harbour, Galiano Island (map location 2).  We set the anchor then got ready for our project of the day.  Our new dinghy is 1.5 feet longer than our old one, and the hull is aluminum, so we needed to do some modifications to the dinghy cradle on the boat deck.  As shown in the photograph, we added some PVC hose to the cradle rails so that the aluminum hull wouldn't sit directly on the stainless steel rails.  We added an extra layer of hose at the rear of the cradle (blue ovals in the photo) and also added some padding to the forward part of the rails to raise the dinghy bow (red ovals in the photo).  This will help the dink drain and also lift the motor shaft enough so that it doesn't rest on the deck.

Modifications to the dinghy cradle to fit the new dink.

Late afternoon we took the dink over to the Montague Harbour Provincial Park dock and walked along the beach and through the woods.  Along the beach you can see shell middens, evidence of the native population who lived on the island more than 3000 years ago.  We ate supper and had orange-mango margaritas at the marina restaurant before dinghying back out to the boat.

Looking across Montague Harbour from the anchorage.

Wednesday morning, June 7th, we cruised to Chemainus on the east coast of Vancouver Island (map location 3).  Chemainus has a Wednesday market during the summer so we walked into town to check that out.  The town is full of murals and art projects depicting the town's history, Chemainus Murals.

A ferry runs every two hours between Chemainus and Thetis Island.
We stayed at the town marina, located just south of the ferry landing.

Water wheel and mural in Waterwheel park.  The Wednesday market is held here.

B standing in front of a wood sculpture depicting the Chemainus lumber industry.

Chemainus also has a highly rated professional theater Chemainus Theater.  We got tickets for the Thursday night performance of Rock Legends.  The theater is small and intimate and we were able to get seats in the middle of the second row.  The show was very well done and we had an enjoyable evening.

Friday morning, June 9th, we left Chemainus and cruised to Ganges (map location 4).  Ganges is known for its Saturday market and is a provisioning stop for cruisers coming from the US into Canada.  We weren't ready to do any major provisioning but wanted to check out the market along with the grocery, liquor and hardware stores.  Ganges will most likely be our first stop in Canada when we head north towards Alaska.

Produce at the Ganges Saturday market.

Canadian Navy training ship 58 "Renard" at the Ganges Marina dock.  It and its sister ship 57 "Caribou"
pulled in on Saturday evening.  You can read about them here Canadian Navy Orca Class Patrol Vessels

Sunday we cruised from Ganges to Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island, WA (map location 5).  We had originally planned to anchor near the Princess Margaret Marine Park on Portland Island, BC but it was a tight location with recommendations to anchor and use a stern tie back to shore.  We aren't set-up to stern tie so we decided to continue to Prevost Harbor.  We'll get some stern tie line before we leave Anacortes so that we'll be ready next time.  The water in Prevost harbor was really clear, so after we got anchored up, Dave put on his wet suit and used the hookah to dive and clean the boat bottom.  It was fairly clean with the exception of some algae on the top of the stabilizer fins and a few barnacles starting on the main prop.  After he was finished, we launched my kayak and I paddled along the shoreline.

B kayaking in Prevost Harbor.

Seabiscuit at anchor, Prevost Harbor.

Monday morning we cruised to Anacortes (map location 6).  We saw our first pod of Orcas in Rosario Strait just before we entered the Guemes Channel.  Our hope was to get our heater part installed and then to head north.  But... the part arrived from Europe damaged.  So, we are now waiting on the replacement of the replacement.  It is supposed to be here on Monday.  We have been keeping busy working on our project list and getting things crossed off of it.  We'll go anchor out at a nearby island for the weekend, then come back into the marina for our part early next week.

Until next time...