Desolation Sound here we come!

[EdGacek]

My wife, Margie and I are about 3 years from retirement and are considering buying a C-Dory 25 cruiser. We are leasing a 25 Cruiser from Desolation Sound Charters June 12 - 17, 2017 and looking for advice and tips to make this experience as enjoyable as possible.

We owned a Bayliner 2452 for 12 years with our home port at John Wayne Marina in Sequim.

Are there suggestions for must-see coves, marinas or favorite cruising areas in the general area? We've never cruised these waters before. Will there be fishing/ crabbing opportunities this time of year?

Also, would love to meet up with any C-Brats along the way if you will be in the area.

We plan to be full-time RVers in retirement with boat in tow and have been inspired by reading Halcyon Days by Bill and El.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Ed and Margie Gacek
Knot on Call II (our future boat's name)

[localboy]

Prideaux Haven is beautiful...but will be crowded in June.

[hardee]

Hi Neighbor,

Welcome to the C-BRATS, and glad you're joining us. You are going to enjoy the 25. Room and handling.

Desolation Sound will be fun, and probably warm. Lots of places to go, and almost all are great. Curious where you are getting the boat from, (town) and how it is set up? Are you planning on anchoring out mostly, or at all?

Hope we get to cross wakes at some point, maybe even out of the home port.

PM in your box.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Ron on Meander]

Ed and Margie,
You certainly have a myriad of choices in anchorages and marinas. I think Desolation Sound charters is in Comox isn't it? From Comox you'll be crossing the top of Georgia Strait to get to Desolation Sound. There are marina's in Powell River and Lund on the mainland (east) side of the strait. Gorge Harbour marina on Quadra is nice and Refuge Cove marina on West Redonda is a funky stop. Some of my favourite anchorages in the Desolation Sound area are, Grace Harbour, Roscoe Bay, Squirrel Cove, Von Donop Inlet and the Octopus Islands to just pick a few.

If you do come over to Powell River let me know and we'd be happy to get together and share some of our "local" knowledge.

June can be a great cruising month with very long daylight hours and hopefully sunny calm weather. The water will still be too cold for swimming this early in the season. It will also be early for most returning salmon runs but you can still probably get some feeder chinook action. Crabbing and prawning should be good in some of the areas you will be visiting.

Cheers
Ron

[journey on]

Welcome to the C-Brats.

Since you've owned a 24' boat for years, where have you cruised? A Bayliner 24 is certainly able to cruise the San Juans, the Guloph Isles and then even cross to Desolation Sound. So I'm curious as to what a C-Dory 25 would do for you that the Bayliner wouldn't.

Boris

[hardee]

Boris,

I used to cruise with friends who had a 22-23 Bayliner, single I?O drive. Of course I was in my 22 Cruiser, with a full cruising load and so were they. Every time we would stop for fuel, my fill was exactly half of what the Bayliners was. Every time.

Of course Ed and Margie's Mileage may have been different.

Harvey
SleepyC

[EdGacek]

Hello Brats, Thanks for your replies and info.

We are really looking forward to our trip. We sold our 2452 Bayliner in 2014 to a total stranger who approached us to sell. Our boat was in the shop in Port Angeles and this fellow came in to the shop and told our mechanic "I wanna a boat just like that one." Our mechanic new we were frustrated by the 14 y/o Bayliner that had lost its luster and kept breaking down (it was a bad fuel sender which we had replaced in 2012). Anyway, our boat got sold in 3 hours when we had no plan to sell. We couldn't pass up a good deal.

We have been boatless for 3 years and really missed our cruising the San Juans. We Honeymooned at Rosario Resort in 2000 and went back many times to enjoy the resort and memories. We cruised to Tofino from Neah Bay one year and had a blast watching the bear along the beaches at low tide. Sekiu was a favorite fishing destination and had photos of our 6 kids in front of the Eagle each year holding their catch. We never ventured to the East side of Vancouver Island except to drive to Salt Spring Island Resort.

As we are looking toward retirement, we are intrigued to get a trailerable boat which we can pull behind our Beaver Motorcoach. It appears that the C-Dory is much better built and the outboard much easier to repair and maintain than the inboard. We got only 2 MPG in the Bayliner, which made cruising very expensive especially at $6.00/ gallon several years ago. Also, quite frankly, having a great group of people (C-Brats) to interact with makes the prospect of owning a C-Dory very desirable.

This website has been invaluable as we plan our future on the water.

Happy cruising,

Ed and Margie

[Will-C]

Just some ideas of what we did last year on our trip up to Desolation Sound. We left from Bellingham and stopped at Friday Harbor and Roche Harbor and checked into B.C. at Poets Cove, South Pender Harbor. Hung out for the evening on a mooring ball there. Then headed up thru the Gulf islands to Nanaimo. Be careful of the tides while transiting Dowd's Narrows best near slack tide. Don't ask why I mentioned that. Then we headed up to Comox then across the straight of Georgia Powell River. Had a nice dinner with Ron and Anne Baker. Then headed up to the Desolation Sound area. We stayed a night at Toba Inlet at a place called Wildernest and the then worked our way back south with a stop at Refuge Cove, then down to Okeover Arm /inlet near the Laughing Oyster Restaurant. Then back over to Lund and down to Powell River. Attended the C-Brats gathering Then down to Jervis Inlet and up to Princess Louisa and Chatterbox Falls with a group of folks that had attended last years Powell River gathering. Back across to Nanaimo and down thru the Gulf Islands stopped at Salt Spring Island, you have to see the farmers market at Ganges and checked back into the states at Roche Harbor. Great trip met some really great people, none with a discouraging word.
D.D.

[Dreamer]

I think that sometime before your trip, the Sequim fleet should get together with some charts and do some trip planning. I think I have some charts of the area that I'll never use again. I bet Harvey, Sleepy C, would be up for it. Maybe over lunch!

[EdGacek]

Great idea, Roger. Would love to meet our C-Brat neighbors near Sequim before our trip in mid-June. We'll buy lunch in exchange for your years of knowledge on the water! Let's do it!
Ed and Margie

[hardee]

Sounds like a good to to be had. Don't need to buy my lunch, but would be fun to meet and share. I haven't spent as much time in desolation as Roger but have passed through some of that water and it is nice cruising ground. I mostly looked for tiny, out of the way anchorages and enjoyed the warm dry weather.

You are going to want a copy of the Desolation Sound Cruising Planner Map
By Don Douglass and Réanne Hemingway Douglass. It is a nice 36" x 24" map (not chart) of the Desolation Sound area, and I used it Open and on the table all the time. Keeps the big picture available, great for planning the next anchorage or passage, and keeping track of where the radio traffic you are hearing is in relation to where you are.

It's available from Fine Edge:
http://fineedge.com/NAUTICAL%20BOOKS/desolationsound_map.html

Harvey
SleepyC

[bridma]

Hi Ed and Margie,
My mate rented the 25 cruiser from Desolation Charters. It is/was the only C-Dory they have and about 3 years ago it was new to their charter fleet. My friends enjoyed the boat but it was not set up properly for cruising. Biggest complaint was no curtains on any of the windows for privacy. Perhaps all the glitches have been ironed out now. But you may wish to check out ahead of time that it is fully loaded for your intended use.
Have fun.
Martin in Comox.

[EdGacek]

We are planning on buying a C-Dory 25 Cruiser and pulling it behind our Motorhome which is a diesel pusher. As a tow vehicle we are considering a diesel GMC Canyon which we can tow behind our Motorhome 4 down (when the boat is in the water) and possibly tow the C-Dory for short distances once we arrive at our destination. The Canyon is rated to 7,400 lbs. towing capacity but is only a half ton pickup. Anyone have experience towing a C-Dory 25 with a diesel Canyon? Thoughts?

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Ed, on various forums (Airstream, etc.) the Canyon has received good reviews, but the F150 Eco Boost seems to be the preferred TV. I have no experience with either, but once I wear my Ranger out, will probably go the F150 route. It can pull the Airstream, my CDory, and carry my small popup truck camper. Our Airstream loaded is around 7,500#.

[thataway]

Ed,

The answer is a qualified "yes" it is doable.

We have a 42 foot diesel pusher and tow a Yukon XL. The problem towing a 25 foot C Dory behind most diesel motor homes is the length. Official length limit is 65 feet on interstates, but can vary by state. Good Sam says Washington is 60' foot limit. (RV Trip wizard says 70' another site 75'?) Figure the 25, with tongue, hitch, and outboard over the end is going to be well over 30 feet--and as much as 35 feet. If you only have a 35 foot motor home (measured length, often is longer than stated length), you might possibly be under the 70 feet. Sort of a "pays your money and hope that some cop is not having a bad day..

With our RV plus the C Dory22, we are 75 feet. Many states don't seem to worry about this, and we always are taking our Yukon XL also so we can pick up the tow at any time, if we are stopped. So far, with many trips thru the South, we have not had an issue. California is very strict about the limit, and we have seen RV's stopped and measured. If this happens, you have to arrange for some vehicle to then tow the boat the rest of the time you are in that state. When we get to the last stop in AZ, we hitch the boat to the Yukon XL, and drive thru the Western States towing the 22 behind the Yukon. Also is the issue of both rest stops and camp sites if you are a lot over length. Many camp grounds cannot handle 75 feet, so occasionally you have to unhitch (or bend the train).


You probably know this, but only one version of the GMC series can be towed flat down--and you do have to remove at least one fuse. (Prior to 2014, no fuses had to be removed). The only version is the one with two speed electronic transfer and neutral transfer case. The standard 4 x 4 and all wheel drive are not towable. It was hard to find a vehicle which had the electric neutral case, unless you special order it. Towing, you put the transmission in "park", with the transfer case in neutral. Only takes a minute!

The Canyon is a bit smaller and lighter than the Yukon. You probably will be OK for short hauls. I would want electric / hydraulic brakes (which we have) on the boat trailer.

The Yukon with heavy duty tow package (same as full size 1/2 ton pickup) will tow the 25 OK, except on grades. We towed my son's 25 over the Grapevine, and the transmission overheated. (Hot day also) No harm since I run synthetic fluid--but changed it out any what. If I was hauling the 25 behind my larger truck, I would put in a second transmission cooler. The Denali with 6.2 liter engine, has that extra cooling capacity and is rated higher tow capacity.

You will know that the C Dory 25 is back there behind the Canyon... One of the reasons we have not gone back with the 25 are those issues noted above. RV has 10,000 lb tow capacity--Yukon is marginal, but "fixable with extra tranny cooler".
One of my friends who has a 25 and 38 foot pusher, just bought a Ford 2500 as his C Dory tow vehicle, rather than use the RV.

If you want to launch with the RV--consider putting a trailer hitch receiver on the front of the RV.