Barkley Sound Day 3 – Hello Victoria and the Vic-Maui Crews!

Devon woke up early this morning, pulled up the anchor and motored away from Port Townsend on the way out into the Strait.  Crossing Juan de Fuca Strait to Victoria was uneventful, and that doesn’t really tell the completely picture.  There was no wind, no waves, no swell, nada!   Flat and calm all the way across.  We arrived in Victoria harbor around noon, promptly attracted the attention of the harbor patrol by not following the traffic pattern correctly (and in doing so delaying the landing of the “Evening Magazine” Kenmore Air plane.  Oh well.  Then we tied up to the Customs dock, called in to announce our presence, then radioed Victoria Harbour for moorage.

Initially we were told to go to the Wharf Street harbor but a boat that was supposed to check out was still there and there wasn’t room for us.  Then they told us we could head in to Causeway Floats which is right in front of the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Building.  The Vic-Maui race is departing Today through Monday or so from this marina and some of the initial boats that left made some room at the last-minute for us.  It’s cool to be on the docks with all these crews that are getting ready for the race in large boats, as well as some that are similar or smaller than ours.

We took a walk in to town for some ice cream and a stop at the toy store for some crafts that the kids can do on board.  As we got back to the boat we saw the CSR Marine 55ft sloop coming in skippered by Nigel, the same Nigel who went out on our boat a bit over a week ago to diagnose the propeller issue.   So I chatted with him a few minutes and toured their boat, they expect to make it to Maui in about 8.5 days.

We’ve decided to take it easy and stay another night in Victoria before we head out through the strait toward the Pacific Ocean and then North along the West Vancouver Island coast into Barkley Sound, about 90 miles, making for a very long day.

PredictWind shows mostly upwind through the strait tomorrow, with more beam reaching on Monday, and less chance of ocean swell on Monday as well.  I have some boat projects I’d like to work on, we need some milk and produce, and there’s a cool museum here with Mammoths that the kids would like.

So the girls both got into their projects in a big way..   Actually it’s pretty surprising since both are pretty tedious.  Morgan even used Youtube to get ideas on making her clay charms and turned out some pretty impressive specimens.  Good thing for the decent WiFi here in Victoria.

Devon was dismayed by the long cook time on the pork in our little oven, and unfortunately we don’t have a meat thermometer on the boat (yes it’s now on the shopping list, though my MEATER kickstarter should show up around August/September and solve this problem).  While waiting for the pork roast, Devon whipped up some crackers with goat cheese and the Cherry Lemon Lime Marmalade that we got at the Astoria farmers market (SO GOOD by the way).  We also managed to polish off the Hard Row to Hoe 2013 Syrah we had on board.  It took a few minutes to air out, but I certainly liked it.  Nigel told me that Blue Fox Café is the place to go for a good breakfast so we might try that out tomorrow morning.

Well after 2 hours, the pork roast turned out…Awesome!  Coupled with the shell pasta in cheese sauce and the salad, it turned into a great meal.  Rounded that out with some Smore’s pizza left over from Thursday’s stop at Papa Murphy’s and a Lion King viewing, the night finally wound down.

Hmm, we still have two bags of sundries to stow somewhere, and I have tools and parts for my SSB and other electronics projects sitting around.  I need to finish those projects and stow the remaining parts and tools so we can have a nice cabin to relax in.

• Moored on North C Dock at Causeway Marina, Victoria, BC
• Engine Hours: 1416.2hrs – 1421.2hrs = 5 hours
• No winds above 5 knots, no sailing
• Water Consumption – 353-182=171 /8.1 = 21 gallons (including washing all the dishes)
• Distance Travelled – 35nm
• Barometer at 1013.2mb and holding, slightly rising