Alaska 2 - Ardentnauts escape San Juan Orbit
Bellingham-Inati-Bedwell-Nanaimo
We’ve been off the dock for 9 days and are well settled into our boat life. The boat lists a little to port and aft given we have all our parts, tools, and food in the port aft berth. To compensate the forward water tank is always kept full (more on that later) and anything heavy (i.e. spare anchors) have been moved to starboard cockpit lockers and lazarettes.
Someone referenced us as Ardents and it stuck with a small modification to Ardentnauts
A very warm and dry Ardentnaut A
We try to keep the lazarettes relatively free so they can be used store dead bodies (thankfully there aren’t any…yet), the intended use in ancient times (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarette). The plan is that these spaces will never be used and end up being wasted space. Actually we do hang lines back there but that’s about it.
After our spirited sail to Suscia Island we headed to Anacortes for a night to do our final provisions, fuel, and a new fishing pole for Laura. Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes is really great in that everything is walking distance from the marina — including car rentals in case one needs to get somewhere far from the marina.
From there we headed back for the afternoon to Bellingham and completed a couple maintenance items:
Final hookups for the Victron Cerbo GX so we can really understand our power consumption and needs. Holdfast Marine did this.
Installation of a new engine hour meter. One can’t do maintenance (change oil, fuel filters, etc.) at regular intervals if one doesn’t know what they are. Holdfast Marine did this too. As you can see, we often means we don’t do anything.
Swapped some lines around. Both our new mainsail furling and boom vang lines were slipping in their respective clutches because they were too small. We swapped some lines around and rethreaded them so now they work better than ever.
While having that work done we had a great discussion with another sailor about their voyaging on the outside of Vancouver Island. They did the trip last year with their six month old, ducking into the 6-7 navigable bays on the west coast. This year they are back for more and said it will be a little more challenging with a 1 ½ year old escape artist.
At 5pm on Monday April 23, 2024 we left Squalicum Harbor and headed to Inati Bay on Lummi Island for the night. I have done this five mile venture 100-200 times (lost count) in the last 25 years. This time felt different because we were leaving not for a 1-3 week round trip in the Sailish Sea but for 5-6 months to Southeast Alaska. For me this is a 10-15 year dream come true. For Laura, she wanted a change and jumped at the chance to take on this kind of an adventure. Mission accomplished.
Traveling into Canada by boat this go around provided some comic relief. Bedwell Harbor/Poet’s Cove on South Pender Island is the easiest place to check in from Bellingham and we have done so many times. It turns out we have never been to Canada this early in the season and the Customs Office there isn’t open until May 1. The odd thing is that when you check into this facility by phone — a phone with very short cord such that one has to be glued to the phone while you wait 10-20 minutes on hold — you never actually meet with anyone face to face. In fact, when traveling by boat to Canada over the years, I have never met with any Customs Officer face to face — zoom or in person. Hmm.
I digress. When told Bedwell was closed as an entry port, I asked the phone entity (again, not sure they aren’t staffed with AI impersonations) where we should check in. She — no It — responded that It could not give me that advice. I rephrased my question to “What offices are open where we could check-in” and It gave me a list entry ports, none of which were possible for us to reach before dark. I asked if we could some how anchor for the night and proceed north to Nanaimo the following day and was told that was possible but only if we didn’t go ashore. Conceding that, we proceeded to Montague Harbor (another 3 hours north) for the night, grabbed a buoy (for which we did not pay because I couldn’t go ashore lest I get arrested), and onto Nanaimo the next day. Reaching Dodd Narrows in time for slack tide required an early departure. Surprisingly, trailing winds took us most of the way on one starboard broad reach — that never happens in Triconmali Channel.
We traversed Dodd Narrows at slack tide as planned and Laura took the helm while I prepared dock lines and fenders to arrive in Nanaimo. Laura had her first experience of “thinking the auto-helm is on” and letting go of the helm to check the chart plotter. I look back from the bow and yell, “Laura, why are you going in circles.” as the untethered helm has us doing donuts. Good thing there was no one in the vicinity to either witness or collide with. One only makes that mistake once. No worries, my mistakes will be documented soon enough.
Upon arrival in Nanaimo Port Authority, the exact location of the customs dock isn’t quite clear. Waggoner’s says it is behind the fuel dock but there is only room for 2-4 boats on a yellow painted section in front of some well traveled commercial fishing boats. I radio the port authority and they reassure me that the bedraggled yellow dock is indeed the customs dock. I think to myself, “this is where we had to do go because the office in Bedwell is closed at this time of the year?”
As I step off the boat to check in with customs I remind Laura not to step on Canadian soil until I come back with official check in documentation. Expecting a very explicit customs office I find none. I am tempted to buy an ice cream (sunny out) before checking in just to be obstreperous (typically Laura’s MO) but ward off that temptation. I walk into the Port Authority hoping they can tell me where the customs office is and they inform me that I just need to call them (on the 800 number I already have) and they will come to the boat. Now I’m in violation of Canadian Immigration Laws because I stepped on CA soil without checking in. I walk back to the boat, call the 800 number, talk the same voice I did the day before and clear customs once again without ever seeing a real person. But we’re legal in Canada now and celebrate with Kelp ale and Poke for dinner.
