Fully rested from our arduous and demanding cruising schedule… we departed Westview Harbor at Powell River the morning of 9/15/23. We had our sights set on crossing the Strait of Georgia and re-entering the Gulf Islands before transiting across the border back to US waters. We had little desire to make our way across the Strait to Nanaimo, hover there for a bit, and transit the Dodd Narrows to get back into the Gulf Islands. Been there.. done that. As an alternative, we crafted a course that would bypass Nanaimo and get us into Dogfish Bay, situated on Valdes Island, just Southeast of Gabriola Pass. It was a long passage for us, a 55 NM jaunt, and it took us 7+hours to complete.
Our course took us across the Malaspina Strait and then along the Eastern shore of 26 mile long Texada Island. At the Southern tip of the Island we entered the Strait of Georgia proper and made our way across the Strait. The weather was perfect for a passage. Our course line took us into and across the “Whisky Golf” Military Test Range which was open for non- military vessel transit on 9/15/23. In the deep waters of the Range, the Canadian and US militaries test warfare equipment: torpedoes, sonar, and sonobuoys. It is not a place to be when the range is active. More information about the Range can be located at: https://midislandnews.com/whiskey-golf-military-test-range. If the Range had been active we would have had to perform a detour around it which would have added to the length of our passage. As it was… we just blasted right on through it.
The course for the last 2.6 NM of the passage led us through a labyrinth of small islets, rocky outcrops, shoals and strong currents.
An aside: In the 1930s and 1940s, dogfish, Squalus acanthias, a small shark abundant in Canadian waters was hunted and targeted for it’s liver from which Vitamin A was extracted and sold for human consumption. Some of the meat was sold as well. Many dogfish were caught, the livers removed with the “remains” dumped into many of the smaller bays where the fishers anchored for the night. One of those small bays was behind Kendrick Island and it still has the local name of Dogfish Bay.
The weather was changing. Within 4 days strong Southeast winds would make a transit of the Strait of Juan De Fuca an arduous experience. Our plan was to leave Dogfish bay in the morning, transit Gabriola Pass at the slack and make our way back to the US.
Salish Sea Cruising With Blair, Les, Leo, and Bliss 