Telephone, Telegraph, Tell A Friend

Since Nanaimo is going to be our re-provisioning point before we head north, we need to plan the next part of the trip around the Dodd Narrows tides. Rather than get a really early start from Prevost (hey, it's a vacation after all), we decide to make one more stop on the way - Telegraph Harbor on Thetis Island.

From Annette Inlet we headed up the Trincomali Channel, through the Houston Passage, and up along Kuper Island to Telegraph Harbor. It was a hazy day with light winds - a generally uneventful trip.

Coming around the top of Saltspring Island, Chemainus comes into view on the east side of Vancouver Island. With the overcast skys, light haze, and huge plumes coming from the mills at Chemainus, the scene was almost Victorian - the huge factories belching their vile stink into the air, with the sun blotted out. It makes quite a contrast to the magnificence of the mountains rising up through the lower clouds just a little bit north along the shore. Looking back on it, I wish we had taken a shot of the mills - but we focused on more attractive views.

We spent the night at the Thetis Island Marina. The weather seems to have chased away the crowds - we had lots of space coming in. They said it's been a bad season this year with so much rain in July and August - it was certainly an odd year for someplace that ususally gets lots of good weather in the rain shadow of Vancouver Island. If we had know things would be this empty on the holiday weekend up here though, we probably would have taken a different route up and anchored out. It was still a nice stay though (clouds and rain don't bother real Northwestern sailors), and we did our part to support the local economy.