On July 28th, we started to make our way to Victoria at 5:10 a.m. as the winds were supposed to pick up in the afternoon. We set sail at about 5:30 a.m. Sailing was great until we got closer to Victoria as the current and opposing winds created steep, mixed seas around Trial Island. It did not help with a monster yacht that headed right towards us. It seems they either did not know or did not care that we had the right of way, (under sail, starboard tack etc.) We even tacked away from them and the further we pointed away from the monster, the more they pointed right at us. The idiot yacht created a huge wake on top of the already confused seas. Marty had to dive Wild Abandon into the huge wake and shouted to me down to hang on tight. Our boat got a good plunge into the ocean!
We were early coming to Victoria Harbour so we got out our fishing rods and started fishing. After we turned past Trial Island, the seas were not as rough. The winds had calmed down. Within 15 minutes, we caught a lingcod….a keeper. It was funny as Jim and Karen from Port Townsend had called us. Mae answered the phone but could not talk as she was busy cleaning the fish. Marty told Jim that we just caught a fish. He could not believe it and had a good laugh. They were in Sooke. There was still a possibility that we could meet up with them either in Victoria or in Port Angeles. We had originally met Jim and Karen in Newcombe Harbour on the west side of Pitt Island last summer. We had great memories of that trip as we traveled with them for a couple of days. We wonder how their cribbage skills are?
We had a great spot booked along the Causeway in front of the Empress Hotel.
To our starboard side, we had the parliament buildings.
TANKERS DO NOT BELONG ON OUR COAST!
Sailing our own boat into Victoria Inner Harbour, in James Bay, was another one of Marty’s sailing dreams. It was fabulous there!
