We’ve officially finished the first leg of our trip, covering about 120-130 nautical miles and completing our first border crossing of the trip! We are spending 2 full days in Powell River to rest, do some necessary repairs, and check off any outstanding tasks on our logistics list (we never run out of things do on this trip).
Billy cooks dinner while in Newcastle Island!
Our trip so far has been wonderful, but difficult. We started out with easy paddling in the San Juans, but unfortunately I began the trip with a nasty cold caught from one of my patients. My illness made paddling pretty miserable, but I was able to push through. We crossed the US-Canada border on the third day of our trip, and were greeted by a power outage at Bedwell Harbor - no customs for us until the power returned! After waiting 2 hours, we eventually were able to access back up landlines to phone into a Canadian Customs call center. Everyone successfully made it through, and now our kayaks have unique Canadian registration numbers!
Nick handles customs on Pender Island.
The Gulf Islands provided the perfect training ground for our trip. We were blessed by practically zero wind and cloudless skies, and paddled on glass almost every day. Here we refined our campsite flow and bonded more as a team. Unfortunately, I was still plagued by my mystery illness (which I’m beginning to think was Covid), and was cursed by frequent nausea, vomiting, and general malaise. We kept a sedate pace to accommodate my woes. General highlights from this section include seeing a random goat on Prevost Island post puking, and encountering sea kayakers from Paddle Canada. These paddlers gave us valuable information and tips about Canadian weather and tides, and were generally very kind - this would be a frequent theme throughout our trip.
Our kayaks from above in the Gulf Islands.
Once we paddled through the False Narrows our sea conditions ratcheted up a notch. We were slapped by 24 mile per hour winds within spitting distance of Nanaimo, and had to quickly bail to shore behind an industrial log boom to wait for a better weather window. We slurped maté and munched on tuna wraps while waiting for the winds to die down.
Sasha drinks maté!
Eventually, the wind subsided to 19 MPH with more polite looking waves - this was safe enough for us to crawl up the coast. We even saw our first Orca directly in front of the Nanaimo ferry terminal, which made the wait worth it.
After a long, grueling slog we limped into Saysutshun (Newcastle) Provincial Park. This campground is on an island outside of Nanaimo, and was absolutely chock full of local school groups on end of year retreats. I’m sure the local kindergarteners were confused by our mountains of gear and generally bedraggled appearances. We slapped together a delicious meal of mac n cheese and crawled into our tent for the night.
Nick and Sasha arrive at Newcastle, exhausted from the paddle.
The next day the forecast had worsened. We were trapped in Nanaimo for 2 more days. Unfortunately, the campground was completely booked for the following night - we had to leave our kayaks on the island (shout out to Jeff from Jeff’s Kayak Stand, who kindly stored his boats by his kayak rental shop) and stay in a hostel in Nanaimo. The next two days were much needed rest and relaxation time as we waited for the seas to calm.
Eventually we had to press on. We wanted to make it to Ballenas Island to set us up for crossing the Strait of Georgia. This crossing is one of the major “cruxes” of the trip, as it’s 8 miles of open water exposed to nearly 80 miles of wind build up (aka "fetch"). Unfortunately, the wind kept building and building on the water- we turned around once the wind waves reached 4 feet, or about head level. We camped on a small, unnamed island near Neck Point that was home to seasonal fishing shacks. This ended up being our favorite campsite of the section- it felt like camping in a maritime museum! We spent one full day on “Shack Island”.
Tarp camping on Shack Island.
Next day we pressed on to Ballenas Island after the winds died down. Ballenas is perched in the middle of the Strait, giving it an unparalleled view of Vancouver Island’s snow capped mountains. The bugs were vicious, but we were so glad we made it we didn’t care!
Ballenas Island at sunset in the middle of the Strait of Georgia.
The Strait of Georgia was relatively uneventful. I, however, forgot to pee beforehand; Nick ended up having to tow me to prevent me from pissing my drysuit. After a much needed pee break on Sangster Island, we pressed on to Texada. We spent three days pressing up the coast. Unfortunately, the winds did return on day 2, causing us to cut our paddle short and aim for Powell River the following morning.
During the crossing to Powell River, Nick’s skeg housing broke (ironically, this break was identical to the fix I had to do prior on the trip on my boat). He bravely paddled 10 nautical miles with a gaping hole in his boat’s side and fighting side winds. Given this, we are spending an extra day in PR to fix his kayak before we push up the Johnstone Strait.
We were greeted in PR by Barb, a connection from Susan Conrad (highly recommended Susan’s book “INSIDE: One Woman’s Journey through the Inside Passage”). We had sent Barb our first resupply boxes, and she met us with plenty of cheer and stories about her adventures paddling and sailing the Passage’s waters. Barb kindly drove us to and from the grocery store, and gave us a tour of her lovely home overlooking Texada Island and the Strait of Georgia. She lent us the necessary repair supplies for Nick’s boat, and even supplied us with a cooler for our refrigerated goods. She is a true “water angel” (aka our equivalent of a trail angel, or a person who provides acts of kindness to hikers/paddlers). We are so grateful for her assistance and hospitality.
Sorting our food in Powell River!
Soon, we’ll push on to Johnstone Strait. We are expecting conditions to intensify, bears to emerge, and rain to soak all of our gear. Continuing is an exciting and scary prospect; we’re looking forward to more wilderness and more challenge, but still wary about the increased difficulty it will bring. I’ve had a particularly arduous start to the trip, and I’m certainly nervous about what the next month holds for me. This expedition has been full of amazing experiences, but it’s also been a trial of constant decision making, type 2 and 3 fun, and general discomfort. We’ve all been leaning on each other to make this trip successful- I feel confident that we can weather any storm if we focus on loving each other and taking each challenge as they come.
Billy, cozy in their Zenbivy Light Bed watching the sunset.
