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Our Princess Louisa Inlet Cruise was a great success. Success to me means no breakdowns or major deviations from the plan.

We cast off for this approximately 150-mile (one-way) joy ride from our slip in La Conner at a little before noon on a sunny Saturday. Our first stop was just a mile up Swinomish Channel where we visited the fuel dock to top off our 70-gallon diesel tank. Heading off with the tanks full, the fridge and cabinets crammed with ten to twelve days of very good eating, we headed north towards ominous-looking storm clouds and the forecast of gale-force winds. Yes, we are very apprehensive. Many thoughts occupied our thinking, the first was, were we making a mistake knowingly heading into bad weather? The second was, would we get stuck somewhere and not be able to get back in time for our breakfast date with Linda's mother a week from Tuesday?

Our first overnight stop is Patos Island. Patos is as far north, not counting Point Roberts as a boater can go before entering Canada. We anchored with plenty of daylight left to walk out to the lighthouse and hike around. The next morning we got going early before 7 am. With 40 miles to cover at 5-8 mph, False Creek in Vancouver may be an 8-hour run. With no good options to duck and cover along the way, I was still a little apprehensive, to say the least. The wind never really was a factor that day but about halfway to Vancouver we were about 5 miles offshore from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal when a following swell began to overtake us and toss Kraken around like the little 26 Nordic Tug she is. Steering the wallowing boat became full-time work and I found myself driving a zigzag course. I was zigging to make ourselves more comfy and then zagging back onto a course that would eventually get us to False Creek where we would check into Canada and spend the night. Linda got out the Dramamine, and I took one also, something I almost never do. About every fourth zigzag an extra big quartering swell would turn us sideways causing severe rolling and much crashing sounds coming from all of Kraken's many stores and equipment. At this point, we are seriously discussing changing course for Bedwell Harbor on South Pender Island. Bedwell was about the same distance, the waves would be more on our nose, and we could continue northward on the inside of the Gulf Islands affording ourselves much better protection, but then we would be on the wrong side of the Strait of Georgia, and north of Nanaimo was where the real gale winds were churning up the strait. This is not how my Princess Louisa Trip was supposed to go.

I never really felt seasick that day, but I could feel something queasily uneasy and was a little worried, especially after Linda quit talking and took to lying down. I reasoned that if things deteriorated more in the next hour we could turn and head for Point Roberts, an hour or so after that, head for the Fraser River (except it is known for problems with opposing tides) and an hour or so more, English Bay would be in range. I also vividly remember thinking of the posts I have written telling people to not push their luck, take their time, and wait it out for a weather window they preferred. Hardening my resolve, standing, and bracing myself, I pushed Kraken's throttle forward a little and the tachometer instantly rose to 1850 rpm, we picked up speed and with the added speed came much better rudder control. We no longer were pulled off course with every other wave. We still wallowed with every swell, the horizon tilted like a nauseating thrill ride. but I was able to counter steer keeping us under control. It wasn't too long before I bumped the throttle up to 1900 and then 2000 rpm. Kraken was knocking off 10-11 knots speed over ground, and I calculated later that she was gulping over 5 gallons an hour, or about 2 miles to the gallon. I remember thinking, with 70 gallons we can do this for 30 more hours. I also remember thinking how Kraken was 32 years old and brand new tugs like her top out at 11 knots wide open throttle, Kraken still had 650 rpm left and 4-5 more Knts to go. Positive proof that reserve power is a good thing when you need it, and we certainly used it that day. (Kraken was re-powered 25 years ago and can surprisingly creak out 15 knots on a good day)

In spite of recommendations to stay way offshore, I was driving a straight line (shortest distance) to English Bay, this brought us very close to the mouth of the Fraser River, for a while we were inside the warning buoy line and found ourselves in under 25 feet of water several times. The shoals of Roberts Bank and then Sturgeon Bank were turning swells into breaking waves demanding my attention. A few times I quickly spun the wheel hard over to avoid sneakers on our beam. As we got within the last few miles of English Bay the water got steadily worse, but finally, we turned the corner and immediately found peace. I throttled back to a more efficient 1300 rpm ( 7.5 kts) and we found False Creek on our chart plotter. This was the last we would be able to use the chart-plotter because our chart chip did not include Canada, from now on moving north we would be on paper charts, using the longitude and latitude coordinates the plotter supplied.

Canada Customs was our first stop at False Creek (simple phone call) and then we made our way to the Transient Boater Welcome Boat at the dock under the Burrard Bridge. The young man that greeted us was extremely nice and very helpful. He told us where to anchor, answered all our questions, gave us a tourist map/brochure and made us feel truly at ease and very comfortable. It was a good thing that we got an early start out of Patos because even though we covered 40 miserable miles, it was still mid-afternoon. We docked at the Granville Island public dock which is free and only 500 feet from the welcome dock, took a quick look around and decided to go for a bike ride. The sun was out, but rain was threatening so we tied our coats on our racks and took off for Stanley Park. All in all, we pedaled about 15 miles circling Stanley Park and False Creek on a level beautifully built and maintained shore-side trail. When we got back to the boat we stowed the bikes and checked out the public market which is a lot like an upscale Saturday Market under one roof. We settled on pizza and coke while the place closed down around us. It was only 7 p.m., but it was Sunday night. Kraken was tied up out front or I guess it was out back if you weren't a boater. We had been there for 5 hours, the sign said 3-hour maximum and no overnight tie-ups. We pushed off and motored about 1,000 feet to where we dropped anchor among 40 or so other boats. We are right in the middle of town. The water is flat, there is a no wake speed in all of False Creek. Aquabuses are scurrying everywhere. Lights of the modern high-rises light up the sky. Compared to how our day had been out on the strait it was magical. Sleep came easy, we slept soundly.


The next morning, I woke early even though I wanted to sleep in. The weather radio reported gale-force winds north of Nanaimo and 15 -20 south of Nanaimo. So where we are is not good and where we are headed is much worse. The decision to stay put is not difficult to make. I''m standing in the cockpit, coffee in my hand, Aquabuses are passing on both sides of us, some within 20 feet, and I'm nodding good morning to drivers and early commuters alike. There is a gentle breeze, and the water is reflecting billowy white clouds, the Aquabuses barely leave a ripple. It's hard to believe, gently floating like we are in protected False Creek with a modern city all around us that out in the Strait of Georgia nature is raging. I remember thinking how great this place is, and how I am coming back again someday.

We spend some of the day acting like tourists ashore, we overhear other boaters talking about how they were forced back in yesterday due to big waves. The laid-back day turned out to be very enjoyable, I was not the least bit disappointed being forced to wait in port. In the afternoon Linda reads and knits while I sail the dinghy around the bay. The little Aquabuses are everywhere, one time I counted six of the 12-person boats underway, and then turned and saw three more in the other direction.


Tuesday morning found us leaving at the crack of dawn, just like at Patos. We have 50 open unprotected miles to cover, and the weather is supposed to be better early rather than later. When we got fuel at False Creek I found out what pushing Kraken hard had cost us in Canadian dollars plus how much more fuel costs by the liter. I miss the chart plotter already, without a Canadian chart chip it's totally useless for finding our way. We look out the windows at the drippy cloud-covered coastline and try to match up what we see with navigation charts. What I have on the screen is a rough drawing of the coast, no depths, no topo lines, no landmarks, and islands are missing. We have two charts I picked up for $1 each, one is dated from the forty's the other the eighty's. The longitude and latitudes and the land masses are accurate, but the depths and nav aids not so much. Our Lorance depth sounder has quit working at depths over about 100 feet only we don't know it. I read off coordinates and Linda finds our location on the charts, things are going fine the water is calm, I'm not pushing Kraken as hard as before but we are making 9 knots, so some current is helping us. We pace a tug boat a mile off our starboard side for several hours and I mistakenly assume he is going where we are going, by following him we miss our turn up Agamemnon Passage, at the same time I find out Linda and I aren't communicating the lats and longs correctly. Lost but not really really lost, I hail a fishing boat going past and ask him where Pender Harbour is. He says turn around and follow me, you're 5 miles past it.