Fighting the tide
StevenWe got a bit of a late departure on our trip to the broken group this morning, leaving at 10am. We passed Moon Shadow off Sidney, then alternated motoring and sailing down Cordova Channel in light south westerlies. In Haro straight the winds increased to 15-20 knots, so we started to sail consistently. We made good speed through the water into and through Oak Bay, though we were losing a couple knots to the tide.
We sailed beam reach down the lee side of Trial island and into the flood stream. We fought 20-25 knots from the west, along with 2-3 foot chop and 2-3 knots of tide. We tacked back and forth for several hours with a reefed main, making about 5 knots either south or north depending on the tack, but slowly moving eastward. As we were trying to go WSW we took down the sails at 17:00 and motored towards Race Passage. Even with the motor we made as little as 2 knots over the ground towards Race Rocks. Thankfully the tide gradually subsided and then turned, and we made as much as 9 knots through Race Passage.
As recommended by the Dreamspeaker Guide, we tried to anchor behind Wolf Island in Beecher Bay. However someone has put in an undersea cable in the appropriate spot for anchoring, ruining the anchorage entirely. So we motored round to Murder Bay, on the other side of Wolf Island still in Beecher Bay, where we found good holding in 10 meters.
