Sail away between the Gulf Islands

On Saturday we had perfect conditions for a cruise: sunny, windy, calm seas. Dad likes sailing, mom was eager to try, and of course they took me, their trusty fluffy cute bunny monster, along.

A friend had invited us out on his boat, a sailing boat roughly 7m long with one mast.

We used a tiny little dingy to reach her, because she is moored a little way out.

The wind looked promising enough that the skipper decided to reef the main sail right away, which means he made it smaller. Once we got going it was wonderful to give through the water without effort or noise!

We started in Sidney, and spend most time in Byers Passage, first looking at the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve on Sidney Island, then passing Sidney Spit and looping around Dock Island (which is tiny) and then crisscrossing back to the harbor.

Along the way we saw several curious seals check us out, but they decided we were not that interesting after all.

We sailed around 12nm (nautical miles, 1nm equals around 1,85km) in 4 hours, so our average speed was around 3kn. It felt faster though! Tidal currents slowed us down a lot: the water leaving for low tide makes for turbulence whenever islands form narrow passages. That can lead to awesome sailing with zero gain against the land, just as swimming in a river.

Afterwards, we took the dingy for a small spin in the harbor, and returned home totally exhausted and very happy!

Stay tuned for dad shooting two semi automatic rifles and all of us visiting amazing tidal pools with lots of marine life at Botanical Beach!