August 22, 2008

Sunset before the storm at Lund

Nanaimo BC.
We left Lund Wednesday morning during a short lull in the winds. We stayed two nights, Monday and Tuesday, waiting for the winds to abate. It looks like we made a good decision about where to wait out the weather. After talking to some other boaters and hearing their horror stories about sitting out the storm at anchor the decision to find a dock was a sound one. The first night at Lund was not too bad but it was obvious that the winds kicked up fairly strong that afternoon and a run towards Powell River would have been fairly rough. We talked to a couple sailboats who came in from Powell river the second day they said it was a wild ride, like running through a car wash and it was even worse the day before coming up from Pender Harbor to Powell river which is when we would have been running that section if we had not stopped at Lund when we did. .
The second night, Tuesday, in Lund was a dark and stormy night just as they predicted, boy howdy! They predicted 35 plus mph winds and we certainly had that. The floating breakwater we were on was moving 30 or 40 feet back and forth during the peak winds and the canvas sounded like it was going to come apart at times. We had thunder and lightening and it rained several inches. I clocked steady 20 mph winds at the dock so I can only imagine how bad it was out where there was no protection. The floating breakwater that we were tied to is only about 100 yards inside the point of rock that protects Lund from a SE wind. We could see the rollers going by just off the breakwater and they were 3 to 4 footers easily and every boat that came in was rocking violently. Those that chanced going south bound were taking water over the top and they were only a quarter mile away from us so there was not much land protecting us from the winds. Again, I am very happy we were at a dock and not on an anchor. We spoke to some folks later who said they were anchored on Jedidiah Island, SE of Texada and they said they clocked 40 mph winds in the anchorage and their anchors dragged and had to be reset several times during the night to keep from being driven onto the rocks. The next night they were in Garden bay and the wind was so strong there that it tilted them sideways at the dock. Another couple who were in Lund the second night with us said that they were in Squirrel Cove with 70 other boats the first night and several of them drug anchor in 25 mph winds. People who were in Tenedos Bay also drug anchor all night. One guy behind us at Nanaimo apparently lost his tender during the storm and never found it.
We Left Lund Wednesday morning with the forecast for the winds to increase again around noon but figured we could make it down to Nelson Island where there were a couple of options for shelter if they did pick up
The winds were fine when we left but for the first several miles there were good 3 foot rollers off our Starboard forward quarter that made for an uncomfortable ride for about the first hour. After that we got behind Texada Island and the rollers went away and the remainder of the ride was quite nice. We tucked into Musket Island Marine Park on Hardy Island about noon just as the winds were beginning to pick up as forecast.
We tried to anchor but for some reason could not seem to get the anchor to bite. We tried 4 times and each time the anchor just skidded across the bottom with no bite whatsoever. I finally pulled it up all the way and there was no anchor. The plow portion of the anchor had sheared right off the shank and the shank was all that was left attached to the chain. Not a good thing.



All that is left of the Anchor

I quickly rigged the spare anchor and was able to get it to grab and then got us stern tied but I was a bit concerned about the direction we were facing if the winds picked up a lot and sure enough they did. The SE winds curled around the headland we were behind and put a pretty big strain on the anchor and the stern tie was tight enough to play music on. I decided that this was not the best place to be in a strong SE wind so we pulled the anchor and moved across the bay to Nelson Island and Ballet Bay which was a good move as the winds if anything were even stronger than the previous two nights. Ballet Bay is much more protected and once we got tucked in we did not even feel a breeze the rest of the night. But it rained again even harder than the night before and by morning I had about 6 inches of water in the dinghy to pump out.
Ballet Bay is nice but it is surrounded by private property which limits the available access to shore but for a storm shelter it is as good as it gets. Each time on this trip that there have been strong wind warnings we have been able to find secure shelter and usually have found a dock to tie to. Lesson learned, if there are high winds predicted, find shelter and say put. We were certainly more comfortable at a dock during the wind storm at Ketchikan and Annette Inlet and again at Lund than we would have been at anchor. The other wind storm when we were at Meyers Cove in Meyers Passage either never materialized or we were tucked away in a good spot. We going shopping for a bigger heavier anchor however since there is not always a convenient dock to tie to when the weather changes.



Ballet Bay after the storm

Thursday morning the winds had quieted down completely and we had a perfect day to motor across the Straits of Georgia to Nanaimo. We stopped briefly at Pender Harbor to pick up some diesel since we have been going about 40 hours since filling at Port McNeil. Figured I might be running a bit short and running out of fuel in the middle of the straits would not be a good idea.



Calm water in the Straits of Georgia

We were able to get a spot inside the harbor at Nanaimo and I think were going to stay a couple days and go exploring. The city has a bunch of parks with bike trails so we may actually get to use the bikes Sherm and Nancy gave us and of course Newcastle Island has all sorts of hiking trails to walk the dog on.