Sailing Lionheart 2023

Bryan and Donelda asked us to join them for 2 weeks of sailing from Nanaimo. I jumped at the chance, and a nervous Sandy agreed to risk it. The whole adventure was excellent. One week with just the 4 of us. Then Mark and Susie, and then Dominic joined us for the 2nd week. Not much wind, but SO MANY WHALES!

Where did we go? Where did we stay?

Click HERE to find out.

More photos?

Day by day photo albums can be found HERE.

Day by Day

  • 2023-09-01 Friday: Board Lionheart
    • Met up with Bryan and Donelda, ate at Carlos O’Bryan’s then loaded up Lionheart
    • Drove to Canadian Tire in search of crab and prawn traps
    • Visited Carlos O’Bryan’s again. Mud Pie was ridiculous
    • Returned to Lionheart and went to sleep.
  • 2023-09-02 Saturday: Nanaimo to Pender Harbour
    • Sail to Smuggler’s Cove for lunch
    • Motor to Pender Harbour for the night
    • Too late to purchase groceries. Everything seems to close at 5.
  • 2023-09-03 Sunday: Pender Harbour to Lund
    • Single small rock crab in the trap, too small to keep
    • Enough wind to sail for a few hours
  • 2023-09-04 Monday: Lund to Grace Harbour
    • Cinnamon buns and espresso at Nancy’s
    • Motor/sail to Desolation Sound and explore it.
    • Eat lunch drifting
    • MANY jellyfish, apparently non stinging
    • Jump in water and swim about, with a wet suit.
    • Spend night in Grace Harbour
  • 2023-09-05 Tuesday: Grace Harbour to Prideaux Haven
    • Leave the jellyfish
    • Sail in just barely adequate conditions
    • Find a nice spot to stern tie up, and watched Rock and Rye learn about stern tie ups
    • Tacos and a swim (in a wetsuit)
    • B+D take dingy out and drop crab trap and prawn trap in appropriate places
    • W+S Dingy ride around Prideaux, watch the seals on the rocks
    • dinner and cards and rain
  • 2023-09-06 Wednesday: Prideaux Haven to Refuge Cove
    • Prawn trap contained a mini Alaskan king crab!
    • Took the long route, going north of Redondo Island
    • Got rained on.  Lots of cloud and fog
    • 5-ish humpback whales in Pryce Channel
    • 1 breaching/slapping humpback whale in Deer Passage
    • few more humpback whales as we traveled
    • several dolphins
  • 2023-09-07 Thursday: Refuge Cove to Gorge Harbour
    • Looped around north hoping to see whales but no…
    • Decide to enter Gorge, good choice.
  • 2023-09-08 Friday: Gorge Harbour to Secret Cover
    • Motor to Secret Cove
    • See Orcas
    • See MANY humpback whales in the straight, highlight was when two went under our boat and popped up 30 feet with very loud exhalations.  Everyone jumped.
    • Fancy dinner
  • 2023-09-09 Saturday: Secret Cove to Gibsons
    • ? Motor to Gibson’s to pick up new crew, Marc and Susie
    • Smoky in Gibson
    • Need to rent power connector for 15 amp
    • Did laundry.
    • Groceries and IGA were too far to walk.  Cab was late for Sandy and Donelda.  Return trip was even slower, and a local lady ended up giving them a ride back to the harbour.
    • Fisherman filleting fish feeding seal
    • Dinner at ?bar
  • 2023-09-10 Sunday: Gibson’s to Egmont
    • Motoring and sailing.
    • Humpback whale breaching while sailing
    • Good tailwind sailing
    • Motoring up channel to Egmont
    • Egmont very nice, geodesic domes for camping
    • Ate at BackEddy bar.  Good WiFi!
  • 2023-09-11 Monday: Egmont to Chatterbox
    • Sailing and motoring up to Malibu Falls
    • Actual slack time 25 minutes after documented time
    • Checked it out in dingy first, lots of seals playing in eddies
    • No drama going through Malibu Rapids
    • Very busy at Chatterbox.  Found a nice place to stern anchor very near the Falls
    • Short dingy/walk to see falls
  • 2023-09-12 Tuesday: Chatterbox Falls to Musket Cove
    • Woke up to rain, which stopped during the short motor to the top of Malibu Rapids.
    • We timed our entry perfectly, didn’t even stop to look around before going through
    • Decided to end up in Musket Cove instead of visiting Egmont (and Skukumchuk rapids)
  • 2023-09-13 Wednesday: Musket Cove to Lund to Ragged Islands
    • Lund was packed full, so we just passed on by (plan b) to Ragged Islands.
    • Swam around in the bay, just before a pod of 4? orcas cruised through our small bay
    • Dominic jumped into dark water to experience swimming in luminescence.
  • 2023-09-14 Thursday: Ragged Islands to Pender Harbour
    • Started by going north hoping to see mountains etc, but low clouds meant we turned around soon.
    • Mostly motored south, but did sail slowly for a bit.
    • Lots of humpback sightings
    • Fancy dinner at Lagoon restaurant at Painted Boat Resort
    • Dingy ride to and from was a gong show, especially in the dark.  I got lost twice in one trip.
  • 2023-09-15 Friday: Return to Nanaimo Marina
    • Sail a bit
    • See whales
    • Jump out of boat in middle of Strait of Georgia
    • Meet the rest of Mark and Susie’s family… and say Goodbye
    • Pack up car and pretty much move out of boat
    • Sleep on board Lionheart for last time
  • 2023-09-16 Saturday: Nanaimo to Blue River
    • Load up the car
    • Take ferry across to Horseshoe Bay
    • Drive to Blue River (Cabin)
  • 2023-09-17 Sunday: Drive Blue River to Saskatoon