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Published: June 20th 2017
Geo: 48.6385, -123.332
All Aboard the Ibis (August 29th 2015)
Today we go! But first breakfast. There is something to be said for staying at a non-franchise hotel as the Victoria Regent has a delicious, free breakfast. We go to breakfast right away at 7am as John and Janet are coming to pick us up at 7:45 to head for the boat. Thanks to Janet, they are NOT going to pick up us at 6:30 like John wanted to do. It is a 20 minute drive to the harbor and we don't have to be there until 9am. Can you tell that John is excited?
This is John's dream trip - he dreams of living on his boat and sailing and Jeff and I are so happy to be part of his journey.
Soon they arrive and while John circles the hotel looking for the hotel's free parking garage, Janet joins us for a cup of coffee and presents Jeff with his choice of hats. He is thrilled with the Tilley! John joins us, we grab our 2 duffel bags and backpack...which we had stuffed into a large checked bag since wheeled luggage is not permitted on the boat. We have arranged to leave our big suitcase at the hotel - John has some clothes he'd like to store in it and a pressure cooker!! He bought the pressure cooker at the same thrift store when they got one of Jeff's hats. Got the pressure cooker for $10 and is going to pay $25 for it as checked luggage back to Missouri. (But it was such a good deal!)
Our 20 minute ride gets longer and a wee bit longer. Soon Janet has the GPS up on her phone and Jeff is reading a road map. Aha! They each find our location at the same time and the car becomes a little echo chamber. Siri say "Turn left in 4 kilometers" as Jeff says "Turn left up there at that light."
We reassure John that the boat won't leave without us as we are the only passengers. Once he drops us off he still needs to return the rental car and is getting anxious. Off he goes. Janet asks "Do you think I should have gone with him?" We say "Yes!", laugh and head off to find Dock C.
Hey! That's a seal! There are seals! We are sidetracked watching the cute seals. Eventually we arrive at the Ibis at 8:45 sans John. Sue and Captain Al aren't quite ready for us so we wander back to the main marina area and stop in the gift shop. Sue told Janet that while we are supposed to arrive at 9 the boat doesn't usually set sail until 11. What?? I could have stayed in bed another hour? LOL
Sue also said that she had sent Al back to the house to fetch the salmon she had forgotten; and she needed to run to the grocery to pick up a cabbage and some paneer. We walk back toward the front of the marina to wait for John.
It is cold and windy, I don't know enough to know if this is good sailing weather or not.
After a while we board. There are two staterooms, and since he has claustrophobia we give Jeff the choice as to which berth will work best for him. We get instructions on how to flush the head, light the oven/stove, where the breaker box is for turning on the gas for the stove, the instruments, the mast light and all things nautical.
It's time to set sail!
John takes the helm under Al's direction and we leave Oak Bay Marina for Sidney Spit Marine Park.
John and Janet have a sailboat (with a rudder) in Missouri. The rudder part is important - if you want to turn left in John's boat, you turn the wheel to the right, and vice versa for turning right. The Ibis steers like a car, to go left, steer left. The different in steering leads to a little excitement but soon we are on track.
Once we get into the Baynes Channel we pass Chatham Island and Discovery Island. As we get into Haro Straight, things become rougher, we jibe once and the waves are getting rougher. John is at the helm. Suddenly, Al says "something's different" and takes the helm. The working jib is up as is the sheeted main. Al calls for John to take the helm while Jeff and Al pull sails in and out; Janet and I clinging on. Al shouts to John to steer to the right, and instinctively rudder boy steers to the left! Al shouts "how many knots?" John can't see the instrument panel clearly because of a glare, so I shout over the wind "11.3 knots; Wind speed 34". It is pouring down rain. We zoom past D'Arcy Island (an abandoned leper colony).
By now the sails are down, the seas are high and the boat is rocking like crazy. I wonder what it will take for it to flip over. Rough, rough water (in sailing speak, that is "rough chop"😉 coupled with 'gale' force winds is not how I envisioned my first time ever on a sailboat!
Eventually the current changes, the waves lessen slightly. Captain Al says "We never would have started out in that." But here we are...I am a water person. I love being near, on and under the water, but that was really scary. Al tells us that he hasn't had a crossing like that in over ten years and it is very very unusual. Lucky us.
Once I stopped being terrified, I asked Captain Al if our boat could flip over and he reassured me that it would not. The keel (the part under the boat that keeps it upright) weighs 4,000 pounds. Now I understand the term "keel over" and am thankful not to have experienced it firsthand!
We motor the rest of the way to Sidney Island Marine Park where we are going to moor. Janet and I are sent to the front of the boat with a long pole that has a hook on the end. Our job is to catch the ring on top of the mooring bouy and lift it out of the water. Then we are supposed to put a rope through the ring so we can tie the boat to it. RIIGGHHHTT...
We are wet and shivering, the wind blowing right into our faces. As Al passes mooring after mooring, Janet is saying, "That's a nice bouy" as we passed one after another. "That's a perfectly lovely bouy" as we float by. What is he looking for? Finally, we are honing in on the Holy Grail of bouys, the boat slows, Janet stretches out and misses the ring. The Ibis goes around again, she leans out over the side so far that I hold the back of her life vest and have my other arm around a pole. She snags the ring, but it slips off. Al calls helpfully from the cockpit "Catch the ring". Janet momentarily contemplates using her pole as a harpoon and we both get the giggles. Damn it's cold out here! Third time around - bouy successfully snagged! Now we are supposed to lift it up and put the rope through the ring. Stupid thing is REALLY heavy - there is no way we are lifting this sucker. Our main focus now is two-fold: 1) not to drop the stupid thing back into the harbor and 2) not to fall overboard while trying to hang on to it!
Missions accomplished. Al comes to the bow to lift the bouy and tie the rope. Whew! We are stopped for the night.
The rain has stopped, behind us appears a beautiful FULL (almost a full double) rainbow! Gorgeous!!
Dinner was a delicious homemade vegetarian lasagne (compliments of Sue) with garlic bread and caesar salad. Everything is delicious. We finish dinner by polishing off almost 1-1/2 bags of cookies!
This charter is designed so everyone gets a chance to be the skipper, crew and cook. I think I will stick to crewing and cooking!
Quotation of the day comes from Janet. "Really, Jane, when's the last time you sailed past an abandoned leper colony in gale force winds?"
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Bev
non-member comment
Yup - this looks familiar. My first husband, Brian, was a sailor. His family had a 27" sailboat in California on which we spent many days sailing, some with the railing under water. The roughest water was when Brian and I concluded a we
ek with friends on a rented 36" sloop sailing to/from Catalina and had to get the boat back to Long Beach from Newport. The dinghy was airborne and the Coast Guard helicopter kept checking on us (we forgot to turn on the radio, if they were trying to contact us). Been there; done that; don't want to do again.