May 15th, 2024
We made it to Blind Channel around 5:30 last night. It was a long cruise day and we are looking at a longer one today. We love Blind Channel. It’s a great place to overnight if you are planning on traveling up Johnstone Strait. The staff are friendly, the docks in good shape, the store is well stocked, and the restaurant is very good. (The restaurant is not open yet for service. This open in June). We like the inside dock, on the end when we can get it. Makes for an easy out.
We left Blind Channel this morning about 6:30. Both WeatherBuoy and PredictWind forecasted 6 to 8 knots for our entire 8 hour journey. Environment Canada predicted a windy rough ride and at 0600 am it was blowing 17 knots at Fanny Island which is at the lower portion of the strait. We could not find any other active weather stations, and Johnstone is a very long strait. We take Environment Canada with a grain of salt. They tend to be wrong more often than they are right. (Maybe its to protect themselves: your gonna die; you probably wont.) Before we left I walked the dock and talked with 3 boats that were leaving this morning as well. They concurred with our predictions. And so we were off.
Three hours into our trip the only boat we have seen is this Viking Cruise ship. In 2017 we took a Viking Cruise through the Baltics (and St. Petersburg) on a ship very similar to the one passing us now. I dare say their accommodations are a bit nicer:) But hey, we are having more adventure, right?
The water was a little choppy up to Port Neville (remember this is a long 8.5 hour cruise). After that we experienced calm seas, so calm I made banana bread.
Final note. We are using Chris Parker (mwxc.com) for our big weather crossings, namely Cap Caution and Dixon Entrance. We got Chris through reference from Predict Wind which is our primary weather app. Chris is extremely knowledgeable and has predictive and actual tools that exceed anything we can get. I strongly recommend using Chris for the big crossings or any weather conditions that you are concerned about. I also found out today that Chris is at Trawlerfest in Anacortes, WA teaching classes this week. If we were there I would definitely taken his class.