Stuck in the middle with you
It was an early departure from Nanaimo, Newcastle Park. The boats were all squeezed in together on the dock and our first task was to get the trophy rafted back up to the side of our boat. We didn’t want to do it away from the dock, as it would have been tough with the winds blowing, even with the protection of the island we were behind. Keith backed her straight in and Eric helped us get her hooked and tied up to Little Wing… perfect execution! The people in the next boat over (4 feet away) didn’t know anything was happening… some will say that’s because it was 6:00 in the morning.
As we headed out of the bay, the sun was just coming up over the ridge of Gabriola Island and was right in our line of travel - tough to see around. As we clear Newcastle Island and come into the main channel, the winds grow significantly and the waves are more intense. We have just a short hop around the corner, so we should be good… or so we thought.
Kanani, in the lead, radios to the team “There is a large ferry coming in on my bow” but it was a ways out yet and we had no idea how quickly it would be on us. Then Lucky Penni radios “I have another ferry coming up on my stern”.
Before you knew it, the large ferry in front was crossing Kanani’s bow, the ferry behind was passing Lucky Penni’s stern and we were all between two large fast moving ferrys. Look at the waves in comparison to the size of our boats and it may give you some idea how rough it was.
We all had to make drastic maneuvers to get out of the way of each other, the large ferries and their wakes, which felt like 10 feet tall … and oh, don’t forget the wind waves which were huge. It was like trying to move through a washing machine with large waves and wakes, coming from all directions. Kanani received several warning honks from the large ferry as it was moving into port and Dave was able to change course and parallel the huge vessel starboard to starboard to get around it.
Holy cow it was intense as we were all trying to traverse all the wakes and waves. The pictures don’t do it justice as you can’t see all the white knuckling. And Sue, bless her heart, was trying to stay in her seat and still capture it with pictures - oh, and her seat isn’t bolted to the floor.
It was crazy - who’s idea was this to leave so early …. oops, it was mine!
We finally made it to the narrows and went through without any issues, which was a blessing as we were all wore out. But Kanani will never be same and will forever be known as “10 toot Kanani”.
