Sailing The Graveyard of the Pacific

This coast has a nickname, the graveyard of the Pacific. It's an area known for tidal rips, jagged rocks, shifting sands, howling storms, and endless fog. Thousands of ships and lives have been lost, and even though we now have modern navigation equipment, the weight of this history and the eeriness of this coastline still affects us as we slip through an invisible world that never seems to clear. My husband Aladino and I are sailing down the west coast of Vancouver Island on board a 36-foot sailboat that we nearly completely rebuilt. In the last episode, we visited the calm Bunsby Islands and then we sailed to the small community of Cayuquit where we made a new friend and explored some of the small islands on the edge of the Pacific. But while docked in Cayuquit, the fog rolled in, and after a few days, we realized that it wasn't going to leave anytime soon. Either we get used to navigating through the fog or we're stuck for days or possibly weeks. So off we went, chart plotters on, carefully navigating between the jagged reefs that emerged from the fog. The coastline we had come to see was all but invisible. Even when the fog lifted momentarily, the world remained gray. The coast here is well known for fog in the summer and the locals call August foggiest, but we were doing this journey in September and that moniker still seemed to hold true. We attempted to travel in the gray interludes between fog banks, but sometimes the fog was just unavoidable. From one anchorage, we watched this black bear on shore, but as we watched, fog rolled in and the bear disappeared from view. More fog. So we haven't actually turned the camera on for several days because we've just kind of been at anchor and doing like really small little hops because there's just been fog every single day and it's not burning off throughout the day. It's just here and we're socked in and at first we were like, oh it's so magical and beautiful and such nice footage and now we are thoroughly sick of the fog. So yeah, we've taken the chance to do a bunch of work catching up with editing and all of that stuff that we've got to organize, but I really hope that things change soon because it's hard to see the scenery and there's no wind so we've had to motor everywhere. Morale is definitely a little low on board, I think, but we're gonna hopefully find some higher morale. We're going to continue on the journey. So right now we are at the northwestern tip of Nootka Island and you can either go on the outside of Nootka Island or you can go on the inside. We decided to take the back route simply because the water would be flatter and if it was all just going to be foggy anyway, then I figured at least the flatter water would allow me to get some computer work done down below while Aladino steered the boat. The fog is clearing! It's a miracle! Look at all the sunshine! Ah, it has been long. There's something cool about the fog though. It's like there's more lurking around. I feel the urge to just scan the shore with the binoculars all the time and I'm always looking for either wolves, cougars or bears since we have been seeing evidence of all three of them recently, which is pretty cool. But there's something nice about seeing seeing a little bit of horizon and a little bit off into the distance too. Circumnavigating Vancouver Island, a cruising guide by Roger L. Rue. I think it's one of those books that we got at one of those marina book exchanges. We have not used it a lot because it was published in 1982, but in terms of like weather patterns and stuff those things haven't changed too much and there's a whole section in here called fog. Fog is the most commonly feared element of the weather on the west coast in summer. Gales and heavy seas can be pretty well predicted and avoided. Fog on the other hand is both unpredictable and frequent and it is more prevalent in fair weather than in foul. During our trip in 1976 we had less than five miles of going in the fog for it was cloudy and rainy for most of the trip. But in 1981 we traveled in fog for over 70 miles and in 30 days experienced only one half hour of rain. On a trip back from Barkley Sound in 1978, a fair weather cruise, we were in heavy fog from Bamfield to Sooke, a distance of over 70 miles. So whoa whoa that was crazy just we actually haven't seen whales in a little while. When we were up at Calvert Island we were just surrounded by them but it's been a moment so it it was kind of nice that like that that old excitement was there again. I'm always amazed by how quickly the mood can change on a boat. We had really been feeling confined. The fog had felt like it was somehow not just surrounding the boat but like it had also infiltrated our minds. But now the comparatively clear conditions and these whales visiting us it felt like a good omen. It was the first real joyous excitement that had come to us in a few days and the intensity of that feeling was only increased by its recent absence. And then another thing that we hadn't been able to experience for a while. Actually rolling out the sails and getting to turn off the engine. What sweet relief. Ever since rounding brooks there had been no wind and this felt really good. Another interesting statistic that I also read in a few blogs and books about the west coast. It's totally a hit and miss but folks also found that they actually sailed less than on the inside route which is really counterintuitive. You can encounter lots of wind but yeah we like Maya said from this book here we are getting fog and pretty calm weather except now in the inlets. There's always inflow and outflow. Yeah so the inflow outflow from the inlets but then also I think brooks peninsula once you round that it really shields the actual coast from the wind. So if you want to get wind you got to go pretty far offshore. Yeah totally big time. So there is a little bit of a breeze when we left this morning too but not enough to sail but as it accumulates in the funnel now it is enough to sail. That's interesting. Yeah we'll see and maybe tomorrow morning we'll have outflow pushing us out. We'll see. Depends where we go. For now enjoy the sun and do a little bit of salmon trolling. We are passing Esperanza. It looks really really neat. Such a nice lawn, cool buildings, nice boathouse, incredible dock. What a place. So nice. And I think that they have fuel and a little shop with snacks and things but I think we're just gonna pass by enjoy the sun and enjoy it from here. Ah we might have reached the limitations of sailability. The wind is really dying down because it's winding and we are in the narrow soon. I see the current. Oh if we had a bit of a blow we could continue but it is not dangerous I think from what I could find and the currents are not very strong but just to continue breezing on as we do I think that's going to be hard. We shall see. We have yeah over a knot of current right now but we're still going ahead two knots. We'll see. It's always after the darkest days that the light returns and I just cannot even describe how good it felt to finally see blue sky, to move with the wind and to see the world all around us. Oh I can't believe it. I'm making it happen. Ah and the wind the wind is still funneling through here and there. Now we've actually accelerated to three knots and we still have one and a half against us but look at this almost halfway through the narrows and we went one knot for 20 minutes there but we're patient. We're gonna give it a go. It is so scenic and just nice to just float slowly and quietly by places. It's like the best way to take it in and explore the surroundings and then there is also this way to make it. I cannot believe how this day has turned around. I mean we just had to put the engine back on for a second because we really lost the wind in this narrow part now but like I'm so happy we made this choice. What a turnaround. I'll be honest that with some exceptions traveling down the west coast of Vancouver Island isn't actually exactly what I imagined it to be. I certainly didn't imagine days like this on flat calm water with the gentlest of breezes. I thought that we would be surfing down wild pacific swell all the time and well we have had glimpses of that and this coast certainly can get absolutely wild with storms. I don't think I expected just how many hidey holes there actually are. There are so many inlets and passageways that while the option to sail big ocean exists there's also a lot of options for hiding or taking alternate routes and when the big ocean is covered with fog and without wind having these other options is really nice. There's smoke coming from that mountain and you know Canada has had one of the worst wildfire seasons on record so it looks like it's still pretty new. I'm just going to phone it in and report it because I checked there's a BC wildfire map and it has not currently been listed so it looks like it's still new and I hope that if I phone it in they'll be able to put it out. Hello yes we are on a sailboat currently sailing on the west coast of Vancouver Island and we are currently in Tassus Channel by Nootka Island. There is a peak that has smoke coming off of it in between so we're looking at our map and the peak doesn't actually have a name but it's in between Santiago Mountain and Mount Walker and it's sort of a peak like right in between those two. Okay I reported it I've never reported a wildfire before but hopefully they can put it out. The fear of wildfires is quite deeply ingrained in all Canadians. When I was a kid there were wildfires at times but nothing like it's been in the past few years. We've actually been quite lucky that we managed to escape the smoke this year because several areas of the coast were completely encased in smoke. Part of the beauty of this landscape is the endless forest but that endless forest poses a particular challenge for fighting fires. Often there are no roads, no nearby communities, no infrastructure for fighting the flames. Here of course there are some nearby communities but that just makes dealing with these fires early all the more important. We did notice this logging camp with people on the roof but they weren't in a position to actually be able to see the smoke although we could quite easily see their handiwork on the nearby hills. There was nowhere nearby to anchor so we kept going and eventually lost sight of the mountain with the fire but as far as I'm aware no huge forest fires were reported in the area afterwards so I guess it was dealt with. As we drew closer and closer to the ocean the fog returned. We had had a wonderful break but we can't escape it forever. We are entering a very shallow anchorage but I think it's going to be worthwhile. We are proceeding with zero rpm just with the push of the breeze because yeah the charts don't quite agree on the depth. I think we shall make it otherwise I wouldn't be attempting it but you never know. I don't want to go in there at five knots and then stay stuck so 2.4. I think we're through was at 2.3 and now it's increasing again 2.6, 2.7. I think we're in. Also I'm attempting this because now it's low tide and tide is coming up so even if we were to have gotten stuck we could have unstuck ourselves. Okay three meters well now we go a little further we will find depths of seven meters to anchor in with 21 meters of chain three to one ratio. Well here we are at anchor after such a surprising day. It's interesting because I feel like this happens frequently in cruising actually where several days kind of pass in monotony and you start to feel stuck on the boat and like just the weather's not cooperating and then all it takes is one day to change and for there to be a break and just the entire mood on board changes completely. I grew up in BC but I've never seen the west coast of Vancouver island because it's hard to get to so I just I feel really lucky and I hope that I'm doing it some amount of justice through the videos. When you see the grant like just how much of it is here I don't always feel like I can properly share that through the videos but I try my best. Huge thank you to the folks whose names are now appearing on screen for always going above and beyond to make sure that Magic Carpet keeps being produced. We couldn't do it without you guys. Really big thank you to all of our patrons for making this possible. The patrons allow us to keep this whole show completely audience funded and that means the world to us so we love, I love the fact that I can make these videos without having to interrupt them to read and add to you and that's entirely because we are audience funded. I'm very proud of it so thank you. If you would like to become a patron for as little as two dollars a month it's entirely up to you what you decide to donate. You can head over to our patron account link in the description and in exchange I post real-time updates on Patreon every single week. All right I think that's it from us. We will see you tomorrow or not tomorrow. I don't know I'm tired. I'll see the boat tomorrow. I'll see you guys on Friday. Bye everyone.