Turns out our gut instinct to round Cape Scott a day early was right. We awoke in Sea Otter Cove to a gale warning forecast for the west coast of Vancouver Island. It would to blow that afternoon and was forecast to continue for days. Though we really wanted to stay in Sea Otter Cove to explore for the day, we decided that Quatsino Sound would be a better place to sit out a multi-day blow since there were lots of anchorages to explore there, so we headed back out into the open ocean to make the passage to Quatsino. Conditions were calm and windless so we had to motor for the morning. Unfortunately Quatsino Sound has been extensively logged which made us sad. We anchored our first night in East Cove with more views of more clearcuts. It was a bit blah. The following day, after a morning paddle, we headed back down inlet to Winter Harbor which brought us back to the mouth of the inlet. As we approached the mouth of Quatsino, big, choppy waves rolled in from the open ocean, making an uncomfortable but exciting roller coaster ride. We tied up at a dock in Winter Harbor where we went for a hike through some old-growth forest to a rock beach. It was also a bit blah there so we decided not to spend a night and headed around the corner and anchored in North Harbor. We were stuck for two nights in the rain while we waited for the winds to calm down and we all got intense boat-bound fever (a variant of cabin fever). Though we were bummed to be stuck, it was nice to get a day of forced rest before facing the infamous Brooks Peninsula and the dreaded Cape Cook.
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Always nice to get the boat all washed off with fresh rain water.
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