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A WEEK IN THE GULF ISLANDS ON A 21-FOOT BOAT
By Jerry Schroeder
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Jerry Schroeder, who hails from Ballard (Seattle is a Ballard suburb), sent us this delightful recounting of his cruise last June. We found it interesting, informative and inspirational.
June 17. I've just returned from a week in the Gulf Islands. Many thanks for your fine guide. The 2001 edition was immensely useful, with one minor exception. The Brentwood Inn in Brentwood Bay on the Saanich Peninsula is no longer in business.
 For the past year I've made plans to cruise our Ranger 21 Surprise to Prince Louisa Inlet, with my cousin Shari as crew. Well, the trip was a great success, though we spent most of our time in the Canadian Gulf Islands and never made it to Princess Louisa Inlet.
Shari and I left Seattle about noon Friday, and spent the night in Oak Harbor. It was wet and raining, but the seas were calm. Saturday night saw us in Friday Harbor, in the San Juan Islands. Still wet, still overcast. Sunday was cloudy with sun breaks. We went through Canadian customs at Bedwell Harbour and plowed on north, spending Sunday night at the Page Point Inn in Ladysmith.
Shari insisted on the Page Point Inn after reading the Waggoner description. She was right. Excellent food, good lodgings, and relatively inexpensive charges. This turned out to be a common experience in B.C. The Page Point proprietors were especially proud that part of their appeal was their ownership of an enormous black cat, and also the Dame Pattie, a 12-meter challenge boat from an earlier America's Cup. Great looking boat.
We had planned to cross the Strait of Georgia and spend Monday night in Pender Harbour, prior to our assault on Princess Louisa Inlet. Surprise is a stout-hearted little boat and probably could have handled the rough waters, but we chickened out. We calculated the days, and decided that we didn't have enough time to do the Princess.
All good cruises have a bit of serendipity about them, and this cruise was no exception. Instead of Pender Harbour, we spent Monday night in Nanaimo, a sizeable and pleasant town 50 or 60 miles north of Victoria. As was our custom, I spent the night in the cuddy. Shari was able to rent a good hotel room at unexpectedly low rates.
Defeated in our original purpose, we perused our Waggoner Cruising Guide and made our way south to Chemainus, a former logging town whose lumber glories have passed into history. Some years ago they decided to take up tourist trappery, and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Their gimmick was to refurbish the older part of town, and paint murals on the sides of innocent buildings. The murals, 33 of them, are remarkably good pieces of art.
The public dock at Chemainus had recently been divested from federal management to local authority, and was being upgraded. The newly-appointed harbormaster proved to be quite solicitous and helpful. He was in the process of installing new wiring and water on the old docks. Mostly occupied by fishermen, the marina was trying to attract the boating crowd to supplement the many bus tours that visit. Chemainus has ambitions of becoming a boating destination, and the harbormaster was delighted at the Waggoner description of his town.
Shari spent the night at the Small World B&B. The owners did miniatures, dolls, etc., and the place looked like something out of a 19th Century Victorian "House of Dreams." One of the guests was a charming and attractive German woman from Heidelberg. She and her English husband were starting a winery on nearby Thetis Island, and their water system had gone kaflugit. Husband told wife to take the day off and she did. She was a stock broker in San Francisco before they took their kids up to B.C. to start a new life.
After Shari and I had dinner I returned to the boat and met Mike and Ann O'Kelly, a retired couple from Ontario (yes, they were Irish, complete with brogue). They had been touring the U.S. and Canada in a Volkswagen microbus and ended up in Chemainus. On a whim they bought an old 40-foot fishing boat for a song, and decided to refurbish it as a yacht for cruising the Inside Passage. Though Mike had woodworking skills, neither of them had any maritime experience. Ann O'Kelly asked, "Now, isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard of?" I replied that I thought it was probably the wisest decision they had ever made. I don't know if they'll succeed in their dream, but they were obviously pleased with each other and their choice. I envy them.
Wednesday morning we waved goodbye to the O'Kellys and chugged south. At my wife Fran's suggestion, we decided to see Butchart Gardens. It was only a short bus ride from our moorage in Brentwood Bay. Here we had the only problem on the trip. I managed to wrap a buoy line around my prop as we entered the harbor and past several floating B.C. Ferries construction barges. The construction folk had used a floating polypropylene line that lay just under the surface, several feet from the buoy. Fortunately, the locals were very helpful, and for a modest fee I hired a diver to unwrap the line. He did, and assured me that my zinc anodes were in good shape. The local dockside characters urged me to sue.
It was here that we found the only exception to the Waggoner. The Brentwood Inn of fabulous memory had closed and was on the block. Not to worry. Shari and I rented rooms at a small place named "Rusty Duck." The Rusty Duck was rundown and funky on the outside, but inside it was clean and comfortable.
The Brentwood Marina had its usual assortment of characters. One old geezer had just re-masted his sloop. He lost the original mast on a trans-Pacific voyage and was forced to complete the trip under jury rig. Then there was the French mother-daughter combo who planned on doing the Northwest Passage in a sailboat. Both were quite toothsome, and TV people were merrily interviewing the delectable duo. I don't think anyone inquired about the practicality of the trip.
Butchart Gardens lives up to its reputation. It's a fabulous place, even to a non-gardener such as myself. They have the tourist business organized to a fare-thee-well. Busloads of seniors, Asians and Europeans would arrive, be quickly shunted to an assigned parking spot, and piped into the gardens. It was almost impossible to take a picture without a tourist being in the frame.
We spent Thursday night in Sidney, B.C., a pleasant town with an excellent marina. Sidney is not too exciting, but not too bad, either. Lotsa bookstores.
Friday we took a quick hop across Haro Strait to re-enter the U.S. We cleared customs at Friday Harbor, although Shari almost cost me a $5000 fine from a ferociously polite U.S. Customs agent. He let us off with a stern warning, but never, ever again is Shari to leave the boat before the captain (that's me) has cleared customs.
I like Friday Harbor. I've been there several times over the past two years, and I keep finding new places. Dinner at the Friday Harbor Inn was fabulous and relatively cheap.
We left very early Saturday, hoping to carry the ebb current down San Juan Channel and through Cattle Pass, then to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend. We were successful with Cattle Pass, but almost immediately ran into wind and waves. Mighty little Surprise could handle the lumpy seas, but Shari and I couldn't. With wind and wave to our stern, we surfed east. A long, long trip brought us to Seattle about twilight. My wife picked us up and we collapsed.
My boat is an R21 from Ranger Fiberglass of Kent, Wash. The R21 proved to be an excellent cruising boat, but an even better conversation starter. Everywhere we stopped people would come up and say, "Oh, what a cute little boat!" If I had a nickel for every time I heard those words, I could buy another one. I'm also delighted with the economy of operation. The entire 320-mile trip used less than 30 gallons of diesel. Of course, I chug along at only 6 knots.
Lessons learned:.
• Keep daily trips to 40 miles or five hours or less. The last day's 14-hour trip from Friday Harbor to Seattle was exhausting.
• Check weather forecasts constantly. I goofed by trusting Friday's forecast for the Strait of Juan de Fuca. By Saturday things had changed. Fortunately, we were not out on a limb and could make a detour.
• Reliable, comfortable and economical, the Ranger 21 is an excellent pocket cruiser. But at 21 feet it is five or six feet too short. A behemoth boat show bimbo boat would be too expensive to operate, but a 28-foot Surprise would be ideal.
• Cruising on a small boat means gear gets shifted constantly. Plastic tubs make life a lot easier.
• Make careful plans and a schedule, but don't be afraid to change them. We budgeted 10 days for the Princess Louisa trip and concluded that two weeks would have been wiser. I would also suggest a two-day layover every four of five days. We pushed it, and after we got home neither Shari nor I wanted to look at a boat for a while.
• Don't argue with customs agents.
• Do not travel without a GPS. This handy little device saved our bacon several times a day. The first night found us trying to locate Oak Harbor in the dark-almost impossible without the GPS.
• Carry backups of critical equipment and instruments. I have a backup GPS, and I carry a handheld VHF to back up my on-board VHF radio.
• Canadian prices are remarkably cheap. With one exception, every Canadian we met was friendly, pleasant and helpful. That exception turned out to be a transplanted Californian.
• The best time to travel is mid-June or earlier, before the tourist season starts. Lodging prices almost double on the 15th.
Both Shari and I feel we've only scratched the surface of the Gulf Islands and the Inside Passage. Next year we are considering two weeks and a slightly bigger boat.v
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