Sunday's snow mostly was gone by Monday, but we got another load later in the week. The weather system was difficult to forecast. Although the snowfall was less than the record originally anticipated, enough still fell to keep anyone off the roads who didn't need to be out. And we got an unusual freezing rain event. The combination knocked out power for many folks on the Eastside. The past few day's below-freezing temperatures have eased off now, and the snow is melting. But conditions still are pretty bad on many city streets, with power still out for a number of Eastside residents.

Below are a couple of images taken from our boat at Bell Harbor Marina. On the left someone is using a leaf blower to clear the ramp, and we actually had enough to warrant using a snow blower on the docks.

We had several inches piled on our decks. When building the boat, we added extra insulation above the overhead panels to improve heating efficiency for high-latitude cruising. Judging by the lack of snowmelt on our decks, given we keep the boat 72F inside, the insulation is working.

Novik from Skol checked out the snow for a bit. Spitfire left a few prints, but generally wasn't impressed.

The freezing rain coated our our rails in ice. The last time we remember seeing our deck rails frozen like that was several years back when saltwater froze on our rails and decks. After the freezing rain, the snow was like a hardshell candy: a solid crust on the outside, with soft and fluffy snow on the inside.

By Thursday, the snow path cleared on Wednesday was starting to fill in. The picture on the right below is taken along the old waterfront streetcar tracks across the road from the marina.

Lots of marina space. Even in the winter, it's unusual for the guest dock to be completely empty near the weekend.

Downtown Seattle was pretty quiet on Thursday. Some of the steeper roads were blocked for traffic. Many businesses were closed, and few cars or people were about. Pike Place Market was open, but unusually quiet, with a handful of vendors open and not many customers.

Snow is fairly rare in the Puget Sound, so a layer of the white stuff always is a treat. We'd spent the weekend in LaConner, where 2-3 inches of snow had fallen overnight, and left around 7 this morning for the run back to Seattle. The trip through Swinomish Channel was magical in the dark. With few people about that early, the snow was mostly undistrubed and lay thickly on the rails and every flat surface of the many boats tied off on either side of the waterway. The white blanket softened all the hard edges and reflected the faintest light. Even the most tired-looking vessel we passed looked shiny and new. In the shoreside houses beyond town, a few early risers were reading the morning paper with a fire burning in their hearths. Their house lights cast a welcoming, golden glow onto the white landscape. At the steep cliffs near the turn west, snow clung to the rocky walls and filled the trees. 

Some of the communites farther south had snow, but there wasn't much along the south end of Whidbey Island, so we weren't expecting any snow in Seattle.

On VHF, we could hear Vessel Traffic talking about restricted visibility in Elliott Bay. It was snowing fairly hard as we approached, we couldn't see the other side of the bay. The storm lifted as we neared downtown, and West Seattle appeared, presumably with a fresh coating of snow.

And an inch or two had fallen at Bell Harbor. The classic wooden sailboat Skol looked wonderful with a layer of white.

One upside to winter's shorter days is the nighttime lights. Whether from a passing ship, a moored boat, or a nearby house, we enjoy being snug inside with a view to lights twinkling in the distance. The show gets even better during the Christmas season, when colorful holiday light displays are put on afloat and ashore. Much of the time we spent in Barkley Sound over Christmas was away from any signs of civilization, and the nights were pitch black. We didn't see much in the way of winter light displays until arriving in the Gulf Islands.

Here's our log from the Sidney to Port Madison, or you can display them on the live map view.

1/1/12: Sunrise over Olympics Happy New Year. The winds were still blowing from the east as we left Sidney Spit, and predicted to hit gale force this afternoon. We'd left Effingham at exactly the right time. Yesterday the winds at La Perouse bank were blowing 13 at 7am and were up to 21 by noon. By mid-afternoon the winds were blowing in the high 20s, gusting into the mid 30's, and were still at that speed this morning.

1/1/12: Tsehum Harbor Public Wharf Fishing fleet on the Tsehum Harbor Public Wharf. We took a tour around Van Isle Marina along the south side of Tsehum Harbor. The place was full of Nordhavns--we saw two 62s, three 55s, a 47 and several 40s.

1/1/12: S/V Kestral S/V Kestral heading out for a rum race.

1/1/12: Close quarters Spitfire looking nervous as we turn around in the marina. He's not big on close quarters.

1/1/12: Abandoned cabin Abandoned cabin on Harlock Islet.

1/1/12: Pocket tug Pocket tug in Page Passage.

1/1/12: Lewis Bay We're anchored in Lewis Bay, on the northwest end of Coal Island, with a view to the ferries at Swartz Bay. The Coastal Celebration and the Mayne Queen already were at the dock when we dropped hook, and the Spirit of Vancouver Island and the Skeena Queen arrived shortly after. Winter allows us different choiced in anchorages than the summer, partly due to less crowds but also due to prevailing winds. Lewis Bay would not be a great summer anchorage with a northwest wind blowing, but we've got gale force winter southerlies in the forecast and Lewis Bay is well-sheltered from that direction.

1/1/12: Dockside Grill We ran the dinghy to Tsehum Harbor for a quick of the area and to see if the Dockside Grill was open. It was closed for New Year's Day. Bummer--their view looked awesome.

1/1/12: Marina beacon This beacon is in the middle of one of the fairways at Van Isle Marina. And they're serious--a big rock is underneath that post.

1/2/12: Sunrise Sunrise over the head of Lewis Bay.

1/2/12: Ferry terminal We love having a view to a ferry run, and being able to see the terminal was even better. Winter is a great time for ferry watching--the late dawn and early dusk means the ferries are lit up more often than in summer. From the anchorage we also could see several large cargo ships way down Satellite Channel towards Cowichan, and lights on the hills on the southern tip of of Saltspring Island.

1/2/12: Spirit of VI Spirit of Vancouver Island off Fir Cone Point, at the northern tip of Cole Island. Lewis Bay turned out to be an excellent anchorage. We were a little concerned that the ferry wakes might be a problem, but no wakes of any note came through the entire time we were there, even when the big Spirit-class ferries came booming through.

1/2/12: Coastal Celebration The Coastal Celebration is the newest BC Ferry. It sailed from Germany through the Panama Canal, arriving in June of 2008. The bridge is unusually low in the bow compared to the other ships of that size.

1/2/12: Coast Guard Canadian Coast Guard ships moored in Patricia Bay. The Institute of Ocean Sciences is in the background.

1/2/12: Brentwood Bay We're anchored off another ferry dock--this one a lot smaller than the last though. The previous time we were in the area, the temperature was below freezing for days. Todd Inlet to our south was completely iced in. Brentwood Bay is another good Christmas anchorage-- houses pack the shores, many with holiday lights.

1/2/12: S/V Cetacea S/V Cetacea at anchor nearby in Brentwood Bay. Everthing was painted black, even the kayaks.

1/2/12: The Sea Lion The century-old tug Sea Lion on the docks at Brentwood Bay. We've seen this boat as far north as the Nakwakto Rapids, working as a floating resort, and more recently moored at the Vancouver Maritime Museum on False Creek.

1/2/12: Public dock Looking west across the public dock into Brentwood Bay.

1/2/12: Brentwood Bay Resort We had an excellent lunch at the pub in the fabulous glass and cedar Brentwood Bay Resort.

1/3/12: Ganges Harbour Ganges is a busy water aerodrome. The planes run fairly close to the anchored boats--it's a pretty exciting show. The harbor is open to the south, and big southerly blows will generate waves. But the waves tend to be less than a foot or so and not uncomfortable. We love anchoring here in the winter--crowds are less and the shores all around twinkle with light after dark.

1/3/12: Cape Kuper Cape-class 47' motor lifeboat Cape Kuper heads out from its base in Ganges.

1/4/12: School bus Water taxi The Graduate arrives into Ganges. While we watched from Shipstones pub last night, several dozen kids boarded this boat, Scolarship and Ganges Hawk. The vessels returned back to Ganges a few hours later. They headed out again this morning and all returned about the same time.

1/4/12: Seahorse Seahorse moored behind us, with the Coast Guard station in the background.

1/4/12: Ducks Finally got our ducks all in a row. :)

1/5/12: Sunrise Sunrise looking south through Swanson Channel. We ended up spending an extra night in Ganges, just catching up on various projects, watching the floatplanes and hitting each of the two waterfront pubs for dinner.

1/5/12: Rainbow Rainbow over Mount Tuam, Saltspring Island.

1/5/12: Wind in Haro Strait A gale warning was in effect for the Strait of Juan de Fuca, east entrance. In Haro Strait the winds were gusting to nearly 40 knots from the southwest. We were expecting to take real pounding when we rounded Gonzales Pt along the southern tip of Vancouver Island. But the gale warning had ended and winds had calmed by the time we got there, and the seas were smooth.

1/5/12: Esquimalt Harbor HMCS Algonquin and HMCS Regina just inside the entrance to Esquimalt Harbour, with HMCS Protecteur behind. Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Esquimalt covers 10,300 acres on both sides of Esquimalt Harbor and employs some 4,000 military and 2,000 civilian personnel. Their primary misson is to support Canada's Pacific Fleet. Esquimalt is the first Secret Coast destination we've visited in the 52. Other than the Desolation Sound trip last Christmas, we've not been up the Inside Passage beyond the Gulf Islands. Both summer Alaska trips were offshore.

1/5/12: Navy ships HMCS Saskatoon and HMCS Brandon moored deep inside the harbor. Alongside likely are HMCS Whitehorse and HMCS Yellowknife.

1/5/12: Coastal Inspiration BC Ferry Coastal Inspiration moored alongside the Esquimalt Graving Dock. The 1,200' dry dock is the largest on the Pacific coast and can handle som 90% of the world's ships.

1/5/12: Six Mile House Pints of Kilkenny at Six Mile House. In the past we landed below the pub and climbed up through their garden. They've put a fence up, however, so we couldn't go up that way. We instead landed under the bridge and climbed up to the Parsons Bridge Park path and then walked up to the road.

1/6/12: Dawn Dawn looking from the anchorage toward Dockyard, CFB Esquimalt's main facility. The Olympic Mountains are in the distance. Some of the base lights still are visible, but nothing compared to the display at night. One of Esquimalt Harbor's many attractions, especially in the winter, is the nighttime view of the brightly-lit base.

1/6/12: Sir Wilfred Laurier CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier, a light icebreaker, arriving in Esquimalt Harbor to tend the buoy at the entrance.

1/6/12: Breakwater Sunrise over the Ogden Point breakwater.

1/6/12: Float plane Float plan readying for takeoff in the inner habor.

1/6/12: Victoria Inner Harbour The Causeway floats usually are near empty in the winter, but were packed when we arrived on Friday morning. The Victoria Harbor Authority now allows winter moorage there, so most of the boats were somewhat permanent.

1/6/12: Coho The Coho rounding Laurel Point on arrival into Victoria. It sure looks like a tight squeeze for a ship that size.

1/6/12: Bastion Square Historic Bastion Square, packed with tourists in the summer, is pretty quiet today.

1/6/12: Murchie's We had an excellent breakfast at Murchie's, and spent the day in Victoria touring around and visiting with family. And, of course, we managed to fit a pub stop in there too.

1/7/12: Port Madison Paul Johansen at its mooring in Port Madison. We left Victoria about 5am this morning, and arrived here at 2pm. We only ever to go Port Madison in the winter--its too crowded other times. The harbor is an excellent winter anchorage: snug with good wind protection, and in the early evening the lights from the houses on the hills above cast a warm glow.

A storm warning was in effect, with winds expected to reach 40-50 knots in the afternoon. More systems were on the way. The only obvious weather break coming up in the next few days was a several-hour window starting sometime after midnight, when winds would be 15 knots or less. We weren't pressed for time yet, so had no reason to risk rough seas. But we did want to take advantage of the window if conditions looked good. We also wanted to avoid entering an anchorage in the dark. Since the run would be 10-12 hours, and we only had 7-8 hours of daylight, we'd have to leave or arrive in the dark, or both. If we have to navigate an anchorage at night, we'd rather leave from one that we've recently entered and are familiar with. Leaving between midnight and 2am would allow us to arrive well before dusk.

Here's our log from the Ucluelet to Sidney, or you can display them on the live map view.

12/29/11: Red sky at morning ... Last night we recorded winds over 30-knots, but the seas are calm this morning. We've got another storm warning in effect though: Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailor take warning.

12/29/11: Seal show A seal put on an energetic show just off the back deck. It leapt, jumped and splashed for ages.

12/29/11: Whiskey Dock We tied off at a public dock, Whiskey Dock, to walk through town. A dramatic cedar commercial complex, overlooking the waterfront, is nearing completion in the background.

12/29/11: Ucluelet Aquarium Part of that new complex is the Ucluelet Aquarium.

12/29/11: Driftwood flower Near the north end of town, someone has built amazing varnished driftwood sculptures. This flower stands perhaps 10' of the ground and is at least 5' in diameter.

12/29/11: Driftwood octopus Another spectacular sculpture, this one of an octopus.

12/29/11: Drill bit art At the foot of a nearby driveway, three drill bits were mounted on each entry post. Ucluelet is full of unusual creations like this.

12/29/11: Small Craft Harbor The Ucluelet Small Craft Harbor. We're anchored on the other side of the buildings in the background.

12/29/11: Cynamoka House We'd not had breakfast yet, and were hoping to find a nice coffee house. Cynamoka House and Guest Suites fit the bill.

12/29/11: Breakfast Great coffee in a bottomless cup and delicious fresh-baked muffins hit the spot.

12/29/11: Barometer falling The barometer fell 21 mb, from 1011 to 990, in the past 12 hours. Another big system is coming through.

12/29/11: Big winds The winds were strong when we arrived, but really are building now. You can see the calm weather that we had this morning, sandwiched between big blows.

12/29/11: Boat movement at anchor The chart plotter track shows where the winds have been coming while we've been anchored here. We've spent little time drifting around the anchor and most of the time blown hard to the northwest and southeast.

12/30/11: Sea lions Sea lions seem to have taken over one of the Ucluelet docks. Perhaps thirty lounged there each time we passed, and we could hear them barking as we walked through town yesterday.

12/30/11: Exploding wave Wave exploding against the shore at the Crow Islets. The barometer bottomed out at 990 last night, but still is at 992 this morning. A gale warning is in effect, with winds expected to be northwest 35 to 45. The winds are in the high 20s now with gusts into the 30s.

12/30/11: Surf Surf crashing against Page Island, with wind blowing the wavetops off.

12/30/11: Wind-streaked waves Wind-streaked waves as we head into Peacock Channel. We'll have a brief weather window early tomorrow morning, with winds dropping to 15 knots sometime after midnight, but rising to 20-25 tomorrow morning and 30-40 tomorrow afternoon with more systems on the way later in the week. We thought hard about leaving then. But the window just seemed too small, and we weren't pressed for time yet, so we had no reason to risk rough seas.

12/30/11: Ruins of Ecoole In the 1920s and 1930s, Ecoole was a BC Packers Pilchard Reduction plant with a small supporting settlement. The site was abandoned in the 1940s and this is pretty much all that is left. Because the Vancouver Island's west coast was populated so early and so heavily, it also suffered through many abandoned enterprises and communities as their resources waned or business moved elsewhere. Ruins are common in Barkley Sound and farther up the island's west coast, much more than at other places along the BC shoreline.

12/30/11: Floathomes, Rainy Bay We're considering a run to Port Alberni tomorrow--while winds have been fierce throughout Barkley Sound, the highest wind speed in Port Alberni over the past 24 hours was 4 knots. Big outflow winds were blowing down-inlet when the weather was cold a week or so back, but the winter storms don't seem to reach there. The cove at the head of Rainy Bay was a potential anchorage for the night With a string of a dozen or more floathomes along the west shore, however, and boats coming and going, it didn't feel private enough.

12/30/11: Canadian flag A Canadian flag is painted high on the cliff near the cut to Useless Bay. The inscription with it reads "1965 Whitehurst". We're not sure what this refers to--perhaps a tug name?

12/30/11: Rainy Bay We considered anchoring in the northeast portion of Rainy Bay, but it felt pretty exposed and also not very private. Several small boats were about and a couple of fair-sized houses were ashore.

12/30/11: Effingham Bay We're back at Effingham Bay. The weather forecast worsened to storm warning 40-50 knots for this afternoon, but the weather window has increased. Winds are expected to drop to 15 before tomorrow morning, and instead of rising to 20-25 tomorrow morning, they'll rise to 20 knots late tomorrow morning. We'll keep an eye on the weather and if conditions look good, we'll head out sometime early tomorrow morning.

12/30/11: Barometer back up Conditions aren't good yet though--the barometer was 992 when we left Ucluelet this morning and by 5pm was 1009. Gusts to nearly 50 knots in Imperial Eagle Channel heeled the boat over 4 degrees as we approached Effingham Island. 20-30-knot southwest winds are blowing through the anchorage, bringing 1-3' waves. The boat is pulled back on the anchor a long way from where we set, but isn't undulating much in the waves. With good holding, 8:1 scope on an all-chain rode, and tons of swing room, we're safe and comfortable inside.

12/31/11, 3:00am: Pachena Point We got up at midnight and checked the weather. Conditions definately were calming down out there. Winds were averaging 15 NW on the latest lighthouse weather reports. The seas were 10-12' on our beam coming out of Barkley Sound, but not really a problem. And once we turned towards Juan de Fuca Strait, they'd be behind us. Even better.

12/31/11, 7:30am: Juan de Fuca Strait We picked an excellent weather window. Seas now are near calm, with 10-20-knot winds on our sterm giving us a nice speed push. We'll be into the Victoria area by noon.

12/31/11, 10:15am: Olympic Mountains Snow-covered Olympic Mountains. We're making excellent time--with a push from the current and the wind behind us, we're doing almost 10 knots.

12/31/11: Race Rocks Conditions here can be wicked when wind blows against a several-knot current. But the waters are calm now.

12/31/11: Coho The Coho heading to Port Angeles from Victoria.

12/31/11: Pilot Pilot boat returning to the Victoria Pilot Station.

12/31/11: Golfing Golf with a view at the Victoria Golf Club.

12/31/11: Surf kayaker A half dozen kayakers were surfing the waves off Cadbora Point.

12/31/11, 2:00pm: Sidney Spit Smooth seas the rest of the way. We're anchored at Sidney Spit and will take the dinghy across to Sidney for lunch at the Rumrunner Pub overlooking Haro Strait.

12/31/11: New Year's Eve We found Gray Matter moored at Sidney and spent New Year's Eve with Mark Mohler, Christine Guo and friends. We had a cold dinghy ride back to Sidney Spit after--the winds had come up from the east and the water was quite choppy.

Previous log post for this trip: Christmas Cruise 2011: The Wild Pacific Coast

A southwesterly gale was well underway as we approached Ucluelet. 6-8' waves were rolling through and crashing into the shore on either side of us. The buoy in Carolina Channel, to our west, was disappearing completely behind the waves. The calm weathers we'd experienced early in the trip had given way to storm after storm. What better place to enjoy the weather than in Canada's storm-watching capitol? Ucluelet has built a thriving tourist industry based in giving visitors a chance to experience the west coast's fierce weather firsthand. We were eager to walk out to the Amphritite Point Lighthouse to view the storm in full force.

Here's our log from the Pinkerton Islands to Ucluelet, or you can display them on the live map view.

12/27/11: No rain, no wind The heavy rains we've had for the past two days finally have stopped, as has the wind. This is the view looking north from the anchorage.

12/27/11: Snow level The snow level has dropped since we arrived in the area. We didn't see any in snow on the foothills last week.

12/27/11: Pinkerton Islands The view west from our anchorage.

12/27/11: Dinghy tour The wonderfully complex islets of the Pinkerton Group are great dinghy and kayak territory. We've not been out in the dinghy for the past two day as it's been raining too much. Our general rule with winter boating is: "If it's not raining, get out there." We'll have plenty of time pinned inside the cabin to relax or do boat chores when the weather is bad.

12/27/11: Float home The Pinkerton Islands are outside the Pacific Rim National Park, and have a number of floathomes and cabins tucked away on and alongside the islands. Of the many floathomes we've seen on this trip, only a few have been occupied.

12/27/11: Walking on water This would be a bad time for a large wake to hit.

12/27/11: Private island This cabin was on an island all to itself.

12/27/11: Unusual current On an 11' high tide, we were able to work a ways up two creeks that empty into the Pinkerton Group from Vancouver Island. The surface current in this one was most unusual. The current was running perhaps a knot or so where we're stopped, and the direction kept changing back and forth, between inflow and outflow, in the space of minutes. We couldn't figure out what would cause that.

12/27/11: End of the road We probably had enough depth to go further up this second creek, but too many branches were in the way, and the rain had started up again. Time for lunch.

12/28/11: Newcombe Channel A gale warning is in effect for West Coast Vancouver Island south. Winds are expected to be 25-35 from the southwest with 4-meter seas. The wind already was blowing a steady 25-30 from the SW as we approached Ucluelet Inlet, and 6-8' waves were rolling through and crashing into the shore on either side of us. The buoy in Carolina Channel, to our west, was disappearing completley behind the waves. Newcombe Channel looks reasonbly wide on the chart, but felt pretty narrow with breakers all around. We've recently added an attitude gauge to our Maretron N2KView display. The video shows the boat's motion, with pitching up to 10 degrees, and also the wind speed.

12/28/11: Newcombe Channel The attitude gauge showed little rolling motion, even though the waves were on our beam. Our stabilizers were working hard to produce that result.

12/28/11: Spring Cove, Ucluelet We tied off at what was left of the public dock in Spring Cove to walk out and see the weather at Amphritite Point.

12/28/11: Peninsula Road “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing” (Ranulph Fiennes). Rain was pouring and the wind was gusting, but that was kind of the point: we were out to see storm.

12/28/11: Wild Pacific Trail A spur trail for the Wild Pacific Trail is at the intersection of Peninsula and Coast Guard roads. The main trail is incredibly well-built and maintained. A wide gravel path, with room for 3 or 4 people walking abreast, winds through vibrant rainforest along the rugged shore. Numerous lookouts, interpretive signs and benches are along the way.

12/28/11: Carolina Channel Looking east across Carolina Channel. We entered Ucluelet Inlet less than an hour ago this side of the barely-visible islands in the background. The buoy on the right of the picture is the one we saw bouncing around as we approached. We could here it's bell from our anchorage in Spring Cove.

12/28/11: Breakers The "wild Pacific" definitely was on display today as waves battered the rocks. The steel bark Pass of Melfort wrecked nearby on Chrismas Eve, 1905. The ship was enroute from Panama to the Puget Sound and was blown off course in a southerly storm. None of the 36 on board survived. These shores are as unforgiving as they look.

12/28/11: Amphritite Point Lighthouse The Amphritite Point lighthouse on its rocky perch. Behind are the old light keeper quarters—the light was automated in 1988.

12/28/11: Original lighthouse The original wooden lighthouse was built in 1906 in response to the Pass of Melfort tragedy. The structure lasted less than a decade before a storm swept it away.

12/28/11: Storm watching We weren't the only ones out enjoying the storm. On our short walk we encountered perhaps twenty others, some clearly local, some obviously tourists. Ucluelet bills itself as Canada's storm-watching capitol. The Wild Pacific Trail was built to give visitors a safe and accessible view.

12/28/11: Head of Ucluelet Inlet The storm was sending fair-sized waves into the anchoarge at Spring Cove, and the houses on shore reduced the privacy somewhat. Either one we could have put up with, but with no compelling reason to stay, we moved to the head of Ucluelet Inlet for the night.

12/28/11: Eagle's Nest Marine Pub On the way to our anchorage, we passed a building with a big sign: "MARINE PUB". This turned it to be the Eagle's Nest Marine Pub. We have a hard time passing up on a marine pub, but the weather was pretty miserable for a dinghy ride. Luckily, the rain and wind stopped just around dinner time and started up again only after we'd returned to Dirona.