Gorgeous passage up from Otter Bay to Nanaimo today. Slick ride at 12 knots on glassy surface all the way up Trincomali Channell (boy I could get use to this ;) )We purposely zipped up even though we knew we would have to wait for the tide change to insure calm conditions.

We waited for the change anchored below De Coursy Island in Ruxton Pass. It was a beautiful sunny morning and it was perfect for a knap.

It was good that we got the rest because when we went to make Dodd Narrows at slack things got a little interesting. We could see a sailboat that had just gone in northbound around what appeared to be a log boom that had come through southbound and was tied to the side of the south bay. Well......no.....it was headed north and proceeded to plug the opening just as I came up on it. Fortunately the C-Dory was up to the task as I slowly spun doughnuts just above the narrows for 10 minutes while two tugs bashed the logs through the opening.

We had made the appropriate "Securite" announcement of our intention to follow the boom through and were in the narrowest part when a call comes through on 16 that a 50 footer was about to start southbound through the pass. Well it wasn't about to come in, it was well in the now narrow channel left by the log booms on the other side as I came thriough. Fortunately again the nimbleness of the C-Dory was able to handle the bad situation and make it easy. We scooted along side the boom to the open channel in front.

Things were a little windier with substantial chop once we were exposed to the Georgia Strait and going into the gas dock at Nanaimo was tricky with both tide and wind trying to blow me off, but without any real embarrassment I was able to fill up for the journey northward. Looks like an early morning departure across the Strait should keep us out of the heavier wind, but we may stay an extra night here in Nanaimo if it looks Sunday will be better, after all we are just "cruising"