Conversation transcript & overall summary · generated 22 September 2026
Gig Harbor, WA → San Juan Islands → BC Gulf Islands → Desolation Sound → Return
Overall Summary
The trip. A multi-week cruise aboard a sailboat (not a powerboat), roughly 6 knots of boat speed without current assist, towing a dinghy the whole trip and with a dog aboard. The route ran from Gig Harbor, WA, north through Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, across the border into BC at Sidney/Van Isle Marina, through the Gulf Islands (Montague Harbour), north via Nanaimo/Newcastle Island toward the Sunshine Coast (Pender Harbour), and on to Desolation Sound (Refuge Cove, Squirrel Cove, with Melanie Cove/Prideaux Haven as the turnaround point), before starting the trip back south.
How the planning worked. For nearly every leg, a downloadable HTML "skipper's briefing" was produced covering wind forecasts (Environment Canada and NWS marine zones), tidal current tables (Dodd Narrows, Haro Strait/Kellett Bluff, Point Wilson/Admiralty Inlet), routing notes, and known hazards — most notably the Whiskey Golf (CFMETR) torpedo test range near Nanoose Bay, which required either live status checks or a routing detour. Nearly every departure got at least one "go/no-go" re-check against fresh forecasts, live lightstation/buoy readings, and the user's own apps (PredictWind, Windy, Windy.app, Navionics) before casting off.
Recurring themes. Weather models frequently disagreed with each other and with what conditions actually looked like at anchor, which led to a repeated practice of leaning on live lightstation reports (Merry Island, Chrome Island) as the tie-breaker. Tidal current tables for Dodd Narrows were read directly off photographed CHS printed pages after PDF/automated extraction repeatedly failed. Two routing corrections were made mid-trip after the user caught errors (see Corrections below). Anchorage choices were adjusted in real time based on actual holding conditions (Refuge Cove turned out to be rock-bottom/dock-only, prompting a move to Squirrel Cove).
Route & Leg-by-Leg Transcript
Leg 1 — Gig Harbor → Port Ludlow Tue 7/14, 0600 departure
First skipper's briefing requested and delivered as a downloadable HTML file — wind (NWS PZZ134/PZZ135) and Tacoma Narrows/Foulweather Bluff current notes.
Established the HTML template (styled document with wind box, tide table, hazards, source links) reused for every subsequent briefing.
Leg 2 — Port Ludlow → Spencer Spit 0900 PST departure, later revised
Briefing built, then rebuilt after the user asked to time departure to hit Point Wilson near slack water — timeline and current-window language updated accordingly.
Standalone multi-day Point Wilson slack-water reference table produced separately (Jul 12–18), extrapolated from Foulweather Bluff data with confirmed vs. extrapolated rows flagged.
San Juan Islands / Sidney, BC area — planning & provisioning
Researched anchorages near Sidney BC (north of Sidney, Princess Bay area) and Montague Harbour, including holding/anchoring notes.
Given the user's stated difficulty walking long distances, liquor-store provisioning near Sidney was researched with taxi/call-ahead recommendations rather than a walking plan (Thrifty Foods Sidney link provided).
Full briefing built: Haro Strait/Kellett Bluff current table, CBSA phone-reporting procedure (verbal declaration, no forms, dedicated phone at the Van Isle fuel dock), personal exemption limits for alcohol, cooked-meat import question answered, Swartz Bay ferry-traffic hazard noted.
Multiple live re-checks of Haro Strait conditions the morning of the crossing before departure.
Later editions added a Van Isle Marina slip-reservation box (phone, Dockwa link) and the mobility-related provisioning note.
Newcastle Island → Pender Harbour Whiskey Golf transit
Whiskey Golf (CFMETR) hazard researched in depth: transit-corridor coordinates, contact numbers, and the distinction between the next-day-only phone line (1-888-221-1011) versus same-day status (VHF 10 / 250-468-5080) — corrected mid-conversation after the user asked "how early can I call."
Forecast for this crossing deteriorated intraday (calm morning outlook → Strong Wind Warning appearing between AM/PM bulletins), prompting a same-day "leave early" revision to the briefing with a new timeline.
An alternate northern routing (Newcastle Island → Hornby Island Tribune Bay → Savary Island → Lund → Prideaux Haven) was also drafted, explicitly avoiding Whiskey Golf, for use if the range status was unfavorable.
Whiskey Golf was ultimately confirmed (by phone) to be in its summer shutdown until August 11 — removing the hazard for that window.
Correction — Reid Harbor → Van Isle Marina
Briefing initially routed the departure past Turn Point; the user corrected this ("when you leave Reid Harbor you do not go by turn point"). Route was verified and rewritten to the correct Boundary Pass / New Channel / Spieden Channel path, with a footer note documenting the fix.
Dodd Narrows — current table reading (Jul 22 and early Aug)
Automated PDF extraction of the official CHS current tables repeatedly failed past a page limit, and third-party XTide mirrors were blocked to automated fetch. The user photographed/pasted the printed table pages directly.
July 22 slack times derived as 0541 and 1204 PDT, later confirmed against Navionics.
An early-August read (Sunday Aug 9) initially misaligned rows and had to be redone from a fuller pasted table, correcting to 0721 and 1441 PDT.
The attached CHS 2026 table (Jul–Sep columns) is the same reference document used for these lookups.
Pender Harbour → Desolation Sound leg plan revised repeatedly
Initial plan split the leg with an intermediate stop (Savary Island / Powell River) to keep daily travel under 6 hours, per the user's stated preference.
Jedediah Island / Boho Bay explored as an anchorage option; corrected after research showed Boho Bay is actually on neighboring Lasqueti Island, not Jedediah — Deep Bay (north end of Jedediah) was substituted.
Grace Harbour was initially framed as a midpoint stop, then corrected — it sits close to Refuge Cove, not roughly midway from Pender Harbour, so it was reframed as a side-trip rather than an en-route stop.
In the end, the user departed Pender Harbour and ran directly to Refuge Cove in one push, on the first favorable weather window, rather than using any of the discussed intermediate stops.
On arrival, the anchor at Refuge Cove found rock bottom; research showed Refuge Cove is effectively dock-only rather than a true anchorage, so the user asked about tying to the fuel dock, found it full, and moved to Squirrel Cove (confirmed good mud holding).
Other Desolation Sound topics covered along the way: nearby beaches at Refuge Cove, Paige Islets location, holding/anchoring quality at Prideaux Haven, jellyfish species present and sting severity, live wind/wave station availability for the northern Strait of Georgia, and boat-maintenance questions (adding anchor chain, splicing chain-to-chain).
A slip reservation for Thursday, August 6, 2026 was confirmed for the Melanie Cove (Prideaux Haven) → Pender Harbour return leg.
Return leg planning — toward Nanaimo
Weather comparisons run repeatedly (EC official text vs. Windy.app vs. PredictWind vs. GFS+) to pick the best return-crossing day, with the user consistently preferring some wind over dead calm to avoid an uncomfortable beam/quartering swell, and explicitly avoiding a headwind dead on the nose.
Dodd Narrows slack times pulled again for the return transit window (Sunday in question), with a Navionics-vs-table discrepancy resolved once the fuller printed table was provided.
As of the most recent check, the user was preparing final go/no-go weather and current checks ahead of the Nanaimo-bound leg.
Corrections Made During the Trip
1. Gale-warning overstatement. A synoptic Marine Weather Statement was initially described as a formal gale warning; corrected after the user pointed out no watch/warning was actually posted.
2. Turn Point routing error. Reid Harbor departures were initially routed past Turn Point; corrected to the actual Boundary Pass / New Channel / Spieden Channel route after the user flagged it.
3. Dodd Narrows table misreads. Two separate instances of misaligned rows in the printed CHS current table (an internally inconsistent July 22 read, and a row-shifted early-August read) were caught and corrected once fuller table data was supplied.
4. Boho Bay geography. Boho Bay was initially placed on Jedediah Island; corrected to its actual location on neighboring Lasqueti Island.
5. Grace Harbour framing. Grace Harbour was initially presented as a midpoint stop toward Refuge Cove; corrected once distances showed it sits close to Refuge Cove rather than roughly halfway from Pender Harbour.
Key Reference Sources Used Throughout
Purpose
Source
Wind forecasts (US waters)
NWS marine zone forecasts (PZZ134, PZZ135, etc.)
Wind forecasts (Canadian waters)
Environment Canada marine zone forecasts (Strait of Georgia N/S of Nanaimo, Haro Strait, Juan de Fuca sub-zones, Northern Inland Waters)