This past weekend, I decided to finally take the Ripple away from her home port for an over-nighter to Keats Island. Specifically, out destination was Plumper Cove Marine Provincial Park.
Plumper Cove is about 25 nautical miles away from my marina, on the northwestern edge of Keats Island. Getting there involves sailing west out of Burrard Inlet, north up Howe Sound and then west past Bowen Island to Keats.
The Route
The crew consisted of myself and 3 friends. I had asked everyone to "pack lightly," being not totally sure of how much stuff the Ripple could hold. When everyone arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see everything get stashed away nicely.
We left port at around 9am on Saturday morning. The weather was forecasting 5-15 knots of wind from the west/northwest. Unfortunately, that meant a dead headwind for the first 8 miles of the trip. This seems to be a pretty common occurrence for cruising around the BC coast in the summer. Rather than spend hours tacking back and forth out the Burrard Inlet, we decided to just motor that leg, in hopes of being able to pull the sails out later on.
Motoring out of Burrard Inlet
The crew taking in the sights
Motoring west went smoothly until we neared Point Atkinson, where we planned to turn north into Howe Sound. Within a mile or so of Lighthouse Park, the waves, which were coming from the west across Georgia Straight, grew significantly in size and made the going pretty uncomfortable. I decided to put the main sail up to give the boat some more stability. We also altered course slightly so as not to head directly into the waves. Soon enough, we'd rounded Point Atkinson, and once we were in the lee of Bowen Island, the waves settled back down. We all breathed a sigh of relief.
This ship was tied up right by my marina. Impressive craft to say the least!
Motoring up Howe Sound, the wind was quite light, which made it easy motoring, but not sailing. I had already mentally prepared myself for the likelihood of having to motor most of the way, given the forecast. The spectacular views of the Sea to Sky mountains certainly helped to "ease my pain".
Easy to get lost in that view
Before long, we rounded the NE corner of Bowen, past Finisterre Island (which is more of a rock than an island if you ask me) and started west towards Keats. We passed Halkett Bay on Gambier Island, which is another destination I would like to check out soon.
Looking north towards Squamish. Black Tusk waaaaay off in the distance.
As we approached the western edge of Bowen Island, the wind picked up beautifully, blowing up from the south and putting us on a perfect beam reach to Keats. I quickly threw the genoa up (my BRAND NEW genoa no less!), trimmed the main out a bit, and shut off the engine.
On a perfect beam reach approaching Keats Island.
The Ripple continued along at the exact same speed we had been motoring, on a direct course towards our destination. The thing dreams are made of! In hindsight, I should have taken a longer video!
The wind carried us to within a few miles of Plumper, at which point we dropped the sails and motored into the cove. It was around 3:30pm, and we were all wondering how busy the anchorage was going to be. Being so close to Vancouver, I had been told it was a popular spot. The hope was that one of the public mooring buoys may be available. Just in case, I decided to ready the anchor before entering the cove.
Plumper Cove
Good thing I did. All the buoys were taken, and the anchorage was quite full, with probably 15 or so boats at anchor already. Having never anchored this boat before, and not anchored any boats in a number of years, I was a bit nervous about where to go. We ended up doing a few laps, looking for a good spot. Somewhere along lap 2, a nice fellow on a BEAUTIFUL Bayfield 32 told me the depth he was anchored in for reference. I thanked him and told him this was my first time anchoring, to which he replied, "Don't worry about it... we've all had a first time".
After yet another lap, I picked a spot and dropped the hook. After the line was out, we were all a bit uneasy as to whether it was holding, so we spent the next 25 minutes staring at inanimate objects on the shore and trying to see if they were "moving". Eventually we all assured ourselves that were set. I promptly cracked a beer to calm the nerves. We made it.
Anchored at last!
The evening was spent cooking kebabs on the BBQ and swimming off the side of the boat. I had brought my inflatable dinghy (which I've decided to name Drip), but none of us had the energy to pump it up after a long day in the sun. So we blew up my Canadian Tire, one man swimmer's raft instead and took turns floating in the cove.
Tough life
At one point, the wind shifted significantly and we watched a large catamaran swing around on their anchor line, right into another sailboat anchored near by. The crew of the cat fought off the unattended sailboat (the skipper and his wife were ashore at the time) with boat hooks, and pulled in enough anchor line to avoid much of a collision. When the skipper/wife returned, there was a bit of an argument between the crews as to who was at fault. I overheard the cat saying they had 200 ft. of line out, which was a 4:1 scope for that depth. Not unreasonable, but clearly pretty long for sure a crowded anchorage. The skipper/wife ended up pulling their anchor and moving elsewhere. I was just glad we weren't involved!
"Meat Sticks" aka kebabs for dinner
Evening in Plumper Cove, looking north towards Langdale
By 9pm, we were all ready for bed. We all wanted to stay awake to watch the Perseid meteor shower, but could barely make it to nightfall. I saw two solid shooting stars, at which point I felt satisfied and went to bed. In the night, some larger waves came into the cove from the south, making it a pretty rolly time. Our anchor spot was pretty exposed to waves from that direction. If I were to go back, I'd try to tuck up closer to the islands just to the west for more projection.
Sundown
Next morning, we had another swim, had some breakfast, drank some coffee and moseyed our way out of the cove. The return trip back to Vancouver seemed like it went way faster than the voyage out. We were able to sail the same leg from Keats to Bowen. From there we motored to West Vancouver, but with a bit of tailwind this time (not enough to sail on though).
When we reached Point Atkinson, we found a 5-8 knot westerly wind blowing up Burrard Inlet (towards home!). So we put up the sails and lazily surfed the small waves at 3 knots back towards the Lions Gate Bridge. On the way, we spotted a small porpoise swimming nearby! However, by the time I got my camera out, it was gone, so you'll just have to believe me. :-)
Lazy cruise downwind in Burrard Inlet towards Vancouver
We timed our 6 hour journey back with the slack tide under the bridge just about perfectly. I was quite happy about that. Quick motor back to the marina and the our journey was over.
So there it is! First trip is in the books! Overall it was a great success. Like everything though, I definitely figured a few things out that I will take into the next trip.
Things I Learned on this Trip:
Sailboats are much more stable with the main sail up, even if you're just motoring. So as long as it isn't going to cause issues, it seems like a good idea to put the main up (preferably when in calm waters!)
It's easy to overthink the whole anchoring thing...
Next time I will definitely inflate the dinghy before leaving the marina. Leaving it until your arrival, no one will feel like doing it!
I've always known I'm not designed to be in the sun all day, but I definitely need to get one of those big sun hats. I got absolutely cooked in these two days, despite my constant "sunblocking"
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