Spring 2021 transit to Alaska

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
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Where new to boating. Do some of you guys group up? I would like to make the run with a couple other more experienced boaters.
 
Depart Seattle on high tide, ride the ebb north until it turns to flood into Canada just past Whidby Isl. ride the flood north and Use Active Pass. You'll arrive Seymour 24 hours later an hour before slack. This was taught to me by an old fishermen in 1980. I did this more than once with a 10 kt. boat.
That's a pretty unreasonable expectation for the average recreational boater.
 
Better I keep quiet
Nah, don't keep quiet. You bring a lot to the table. There are quite a few here with commercial/work boat/military backgrounds. Adjusting to the expectations of recreational boating with just a couple as crew on a lightly built (compared to a heavy work boat) boat takes a bit of time.
 
Sorry, "I'm a new recreational" boater. I'm really stoked to have a half workboat/half yacht. I'll try to keep on track, and avoid broad "hammer and tongs" sorta posts...:)
 
Sorry, "I'm a new recreational" boater. I'm really stoked to have a half workboat/half yacht. I'll try to keep on track, and avoid broad "hammer and tongs" sorta posts...:)

trawlercap; unless “cap” refers to some sort of boater’s head cover, it implies a level of knowledge and experience several rungs above the rec boater, enroute to the Canadian San Juans, who doesn’t know what a day marker is.
 
The advice is all good. It will just get broken up into a few days by most recreational boaters, riding the tides for each segment on successive days.
Well of course that is obvious and prudent. Recreational boaters doing a straigt shot in 24 hours, as suggested, isn't.
 
Have you contacted Canadian authorities for their definition of "most direct route".

Yes I and others I know have. A direct safe route with no get off the boat, sightseeing or covert interludes are well understood for BC waters. Waiting for weather and currents are likewise permitted. Not to mention leave the pooch at home unless boat potty trained.

Now, what new travel protocols will enter in this issue? Stay tuned I'd guess as most are whether traveling by air, ship, recreational vessel or car.
 
Now, what new travel protocols will enter in this issue? Stay tuned I'd guess as most are whether traveling by air, ship, recreational vessel or car.

I expect some form of proof of vaccination passport document/e-file. Not sure how that would work from the dock phone in Sydney to the folks that pick up the line in eastern Canada. Maybe it will be a code that ties to a database driven from the doctor/inoculator end. If somebody's working on that I haven't seen much evidence.

Waiting for stateside herd immunity is looking like 3rd/4th quarter '21 or beyond.
 
Does anyone find it ironic that a large part of the economy that keeps our recreational marine industries going (here in BC) comes from the large number of US boaters who are welcomed into our waters. Normally, Canadians are hoping US boaters will spend more money while here, not less. I am worried about the ongoing economic health of many of these businesses, and from a purely "selfish" perspective, the potential downgrading of the facilities (either in quality or number) available to all boaters in the future. This includes local restaurants and pubs.
I understand and support the reasons why, I just worry about the future.

Here is hoping that we can all "get our acts together" and get back to "normal" boating. Maybe when we "reopen" our US friends can "spend a bit extra" while visiting to help out the businesses (and facilities) they often used to "rely" on? :)
 
Where I live at the head of Douglas Channel, it's a 120 mile round trip off the Inside Passage so we see little in the way of US boaters. Then again, there's little in the way of recreational marine services...just ask Crusty, as he's been here.

(Hey Crusty...another breakwater broke since you were here. They towed a monster cement breakwater from down south and anchored it this summer. Just survived its first storm, but only had 40 knot winds. Time will tell!)
 
Does anyone find it ironic….

Not me. Since recreational boating became a part of tourism, related businesses have started up, succeeded, failed and changed hands, just like every other tourist based business.

The (here in BC) marine industry has survived for a century and 2020 has been like a return to the 80s; all the places to drop the hook are still there, a dozen boats in Squirrel Cove, two in Codville; an abundance of fresh crab and no hardship finding necessities.

Bella Bella existed long before Kenmore Air. Lose a resort, a chandler or wine store deliveries to the marina, make an adjustment; it’s a loss of privilege not a loss of boating.
 
...another breakwater broke since you were here. They towed a monster cement breakwater from down south and anchored it this summer. Just survived its first storm, but only had 40 knot winds. Time will tell
That's funny. That thing sat in Howe Sound forever while multiple tow companies, surveyors and insurance experts crawled over it for fitness to travel. Missed several departure dates and then sat in Duncan Bay getting rerigged.

There was a pool on whether it would even make it to Kitimat. Nobody won.
 
That's funny. That thing sat in Howe Sound forever while multiple tow companies, surveyors and insurance experts crawled over it for fitness to travel. Missed several departure dates and then sat in Duncan Bay getting rerigged.

There was a pool on whether it would even make it to Kitimat. Nobody won.

The problem here for the breakwater is the same reason anchoring a boat around here can be hard.

The marina is in a small bay beside a creek (when I say creek, it's of a size other places might call it a river) and the breakwaters cement anchoring blocks are dropped onto a mud slope from the estuary drying flats which go to a depth of a couple hundred feet before the slope angle softens. The slope drops 100 feet of depth in 200 feet of horizontal distance where the anchor blocks are placed.

The blocks fall along a slope which lies in a south - north direction, but the breakwater lies pretty much east - west. The problem is, winter storms can be short lived (day or so) 60 knots from the south, or northerly outflow 40 knots for up to two weeks at a stretch.

There is the Kitimat River estuary nearby, and Minette Bay's narrow entrance is close as well, so when currents run into waves, they get very steep and close together which pummels the breakwater.

The anchoring blocks were easily twice the size (outside dimension-wise) of previous ones, but the breakwater is larger/heavier, so we'll see?!!?

Hopefully, if it all breaks free, it'll be deflected while destroying the outer docks and not reach ours in the middle of the marina :eek:
 
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Murray,
Makes me thing of Shearwater.

Just checked...Shearwater goes to about 80 feet outside the marina, Douglas Channel outside the marina goes to 450 feet. Plus about 27 miles of narrow channel fetch to the south.

We stayed with the frugal/scruffy sailboaters tied to the old boomsticks breakwater in Shearwater and loved it there :thumb:
 
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Murray,
I meant about the storm that wiped them out 20 or so years ago due to engineering mistakes on their floats.
I assumed everybody in the vicinity would know about that. Kind’a like the ferry sinking.
 
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Murray,
I meant about the storm that wiped them out 20 or so years ago due to engineering mistakes on their floats.
I assumed everybody in the vicinity would know about that. Kind’a like the ferry sinking.

Gotchya...that was in my paddling days, before Badger, so off my radar.
 
In 2017, Crusty and I side tied in Shearwater. Got woke up we 50mph willa wha and we dragged the bay. Got real close to going aground on the island. Talk of the town. After that, Crusty refused to side tie.
 
Yup ... Been there DT but mine was a blow hole experience in "Windfall Harbor" duh
 
With Johnstone strait, many will do it leaving very early in the AM and finishing around noon before the big winds come down the strait. Because I can average 20 knots on my boat, I can leave Comox and be in Echo Bay in the Broughtons in 6 hours.
 
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