Johnstone Strait...

The various weather prediction sites I've come to know and spend lots of money on... completely let me down.   Predict Wind and Windy both predicted 6-8knots of wind blowing down Johnstone Strait.  They weren't even close.   We had 39knots of steady wind with 45knot gusts.   3'-4' wind waves on 2sec period too.   Nasty.

The problem is really the combination of wave height and a short period.   With a short period, the waves get closer together which when the height of the waves is factored-in, becomes quite uncomfortable, but not dangerous.   We ride on top of a wave, pitchpole forward, hit the next wave, take on a lot of water and spray, then pitchpole back.   Rinse with saltwater and repeat.  We got a thorough saltwater bath from masthead to the waterline.

Here we are in one of the few calm spots as we rounded Chatham Point.   That put us in the lee side of the mountains for a bit.   Welcome relief, indeed.

The high winds and waves only lasted for the first 5 hours.   Once we got past the rapids at Helmcken Island in Johnstone Strait things got much better.  The wind died down to 20knots and the seas flattened out to 1'-2'.   Not ideal, but I'll take it!

On the way up the Strait, we encountered a gray whale just off our starboard bow, lots of porpoise, a few seals, a pair of cute sea otters, and lots of eagles.

We cruised past a few potential anchorages and continued on to Port McNeill, at the north end of Vancouver Island.  Unfortunately, we left the nicer warm (70 degrees) weather in Campbell River and substituted that for cold (40 degrees), windy (15 to 20knots), and overcast skies.

Here, in Port McNeill, we will stay until we have a suitable weather window to cross Cape Caution, which is exposed to the North Pacific for about 50 miles or so.   My less-than-trustworthy weather apps are suggesting that this coming Saturday would be an OK day to make that passage.   They are calling for 8-10knots of wind (on the nose, of course), and 3' seas on 5sec period on our beam (side of the boat).  All-in, that's probably tolerable.   

Once we are "inside" again and protected from the North Pacific swells, we should be good until our next encounter with the North Pacific Ocean at Milbanke Sound, 2 more day's north.

We took a brief hike along the waterfront and then off to the local IGA store.   There we picked-up some fixin's for Spaghetti Bolognese and flowers for Karen.

On the way by the waterfront park, we found these really cool musical sculptures just waiting to be played.   I could not resist.   There was a little mallet tied to them begging me to strike the "leaves".  Delightful resounding notes!   Apparently, it was louder than I thought as the Curator in the office next to the park stuck his head out the window and told us that those were put in for the kids, but the adults have really taken to them!   I guess that would be me.

I'm just a kid in an older person's body.   What happened!!!

We also found a very colorful Orca sculpture, so it was selfie time.

There are a lot of boats at the dock awaiting good weather to make the crossing.  I count 4 Nordhavns, 1 Fleming, 1 President/Legend (named Shearwater, just beautiful), 3 Helmsmans, 1 Tollycraft, 2 Ocean Alexanders, 2 Puget Trawlers (hey Mark...), 1 Neel trimaran, a few sailboats, and a bunch of boats I don't recognize.   In addition to those pleasure boats this is a working harbour (hey, we are in Canada and that's how they spell it) so there are lots of fishing boats here too.

Tonight, can you guess what was for dinner?   Yup, Spaghetti Bolognese and a lovely spinach salad with my Goose dressing.  I call it that because that is what the people (George & Rosanne) on Spruce Goose (home-built cold-molded 24' sailboat) called it.  I sailed down the coast of the US and Mexico with them back in 1983.   As best I can remember the recipe:

1/3 fresh squeeze lemon juice (maybe a bit more...)
1/3 Cider vinegar with Mother
1/3 Olive oil (robust or Kalamata preferred)
2 Tbsp diced garlic
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Ton of fresh ground black pepper (that may just be me...) and some salt
Shake and serve - it's great.

Note the flowers in the picture...

How can one have Spaghetti Bolognese and not have wine???  Well, you can't or at least I could not.  So, I paired it with a 2022 Long Cellars Savor, Premium Red Blend; 60% Merlot, 30% Cab Franc, & 10% Cab Sauv all from the Boushey Vineyards near Yakima.   Fabulous wine.   Super smooth and approachable, moderately heavy extraction, big round dark cherry and Bing cherry, and black currant fruits, forest loam, leather, cedar, with hints of vanilla and a long supple finish.

Thank you, Jason!