Thursday, July 25, 2013

Day 44: Tofino to Effingham Bay


The morning dawned windy, from the opposite direction than the last few days. Cloudy, too. Winds were forecast to blow from the southeast at 20-30 knots this morning, 10-20 knots this afternoon, and light this evening.

After leaving Tofino I’ll be heading southeast towards Barkley Sound. I definitely don’t want to pound into head seas for the 22-mile trip. If the weather calms down this evening, I’ll leave. If not, I’ll wait until tomorrow morning when light winds are forecast.

In the mean time I wander around town a bit more and grab ice and groceries.

By late in the afternoon the winds seem to be abating. I figure I’ll wait until about 8:00 pm before leaving Tofino to give the seas a chance to settle down.

After dinner with Cam and Kim aboard their 60-foot Nordhavn Sea Level II (thanks!), I departed Tofino just before 8:00. Given the thick cloud cover, I knew I’d lose the light a little earlier than usual. The water was fairly smooth, and I set the throttle at 4800 rpm—about 16 knots.

Most of the trip was spent dodging crab trap floats. They were everywhere! Thankfully, I avoided snagging any on the prop.

About 10:00 pm I entered Effingham Bay. Lots of campfires along the shore (presumably kayakers). A half a dozen anchored boats were already at Effingham Bay, and by now it was mostly dark. Radar really helped in judging the distances between anchored boats, especially boats that weren’t displaying an anchor light. Effingham Bay is quite large, and I found plenty of spots to drop my anchor with adequate swinging room.

Now I’ll spend a couple weeks exploring Barkley Sound before heading through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and back towards home.

32.9 nm today
939.3 nm total

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