Pacific NW Cruise 2013

C

conepatus

New member
Thought that I would post this here with the C-Brats group on a Pacific NW (PNW) cruise for 2013 and beyond.

I opened a bit of correspondance with some of the PNW cruisers and have received some starting ideas, ideas that will be real adventures.

The more I look at the whole adventure of the PNW, it appears to me that it will
take at least 2-3 years to do a good cursory cruise of the area, including from
the San Juans north to Alaska. Lots of miles and lots of adventures.

Since Sarah & I do not have a "home" base in the USA, we leave the boat & truck
where ever we can find a reasonably secure place. That allows us to take a good
look at an area over multiple seasons without doing lots of long trailer hauls
back and forth.

In 2013 we will return to the USA on the 24th of April and spend a week or two
getting Conepatus ready to go. In early May will will start the road trip to the Pacific NW.
So by late in the 1st week of May we should be moving again in the direction of the PNW. We will cruise till
the weather and cold chases back south.

Depending on who is traveling with us, we can adjust the route to accomodate
stops or enroute adventures. The plan is to go along I80-I90 to Seattle
hopefully the snow will be gone by then on the mountain highway .... if not some
good reading time while the roads are cleared. Or if it looks really bad in the
north, we can route via Salt Lake City on I84. Overnights will be travel trailer
parks, truck stops, or Walmarts as we find them. Traveling speed will be limited
to 55 or less, depending on the needs of the group.

Where we will launch will depend on where we can find a secure place to leave
the trailers & trucks. Depending on how far we venture into Canada in 2013, it
might be better to public transport back to the trucks/trailers at the end of
the cruise, and drive the vehicles back to the boats.This will allow us to spend
more time exploring all the nooks and crannies of the area. It is always cheaper
to cover miles with the truck/trailer than on the boat's bottom:)

Sarah & I are avid gunkholers so we like to poke around. I am told by the folks
up there that fuel & propane are not an issue, just need to plan around fueling
points.

So if any one from the group gets a case of wanderlust this winter, feel free to
plan a trip to the PNW for 2013 and beyond if you want. More the merrier:)

Let me know if there is some interest via PM.

Craig
RHIB Conepatus
 
It is not clear where you are starting your road trip from--but since you were doing the Erie Canal in Sept--I assume it is somewhere near there. There are always C Brats criss-crossing the US, but it would be unlikely to find more than an occasional person who was taking the same route/time frame as you are.

It would take many years to cover all of the PNW. We have spent over 6 seasons cruising up there, and still not seen all of it (including 5 trips to AK). I would suggest that you cull out some of the highlights that you want to see, decide how many miles you want to travel this year, and then plan a route from there. With the speed capable with your boat, you can cover a lot of territory if you so desire.

There are few if any truly organized C Brat trips into this area, other than the many gatherings, but always C brats going this way and that way.... Often some go to the Broughtons, to Princes Lousia Inlet etc.

Generally fuel is not a problem--propane might be a bit more problem if you are using it for heat. We prefer diesel heaters for a number of reasons. Others can give you a better idea for storage; we have left our rigs in friends yards in Sequim. In Prince Rupert a commercial storage yard. We did have an RV broken into one summer in a secure storage yard in that area, so nothing is really 100% safe.

Questions: Do you deflate the pontoons, to get the trailering beam down to 8.5 feet? If not you may want to look into the costs of taking a wide load on the ferry, which may be necessary if you end up on Vancouver Island or in AK. Driving to Prince Rupert, or Skagway/Hanes, may be more expensive than bringing the boat back on its own bottom, if you do go that far. The ferry trips are not cheap, especially with a long load, and oversize.

Do you know if the new owners of Rosborough company (I was told that Rosborough recreational line was acquired by the builders of Seaway and Eastern boats) are making this model? I see that a new one appears to be for sale in Nova Scotia for $159,000 on Yacht World. This is certainly a very unique and practical boat for serious cruising! Does you boat had the marine head between the forward bunks?

Enjoy this wonderful area of the USA.
 
Craig,

Welcome to the friendliest boating website in the world. Proven by the fact that they still tolerate me 5 years after we sold our C-Dory and bought the Rosborough. It appears that being a "Brat" is a behavioural trait based on being "Nice" and having fun.

We have exchanged a couple of e-mails with you and Clarice & Norman and will be happy to share our PNW experiences as, I am sure, will others. If you check out some of the threads on this site you will find a wealth of information on all areas between here and about as far as you can get in Alaska without having 4 paws.
Check out last year's trip by Sam http://samlandsman.blogspot.com/


With C-Dory being a local PNW boat there are many of them in this area.
As Bob said, apart from organized "get togethers" there are numerous loose associations of friends just travelling more or less together in the same area each Summer. Some of them get announced on here.

I would suggest that you let us know when you are arriving in the area and we can get together over a glass or two of "thinking water" maybe with some other Brats.
Not sure what we will be doing this Summer as we have a date with an RV to go back East and annoy the Grandchildren plus we intend to do more land cruising in the future so maybe even sell the boat :-(

We have a ton of books and paper charts etc.

Ditto what Bob said about Ferries. They are quite expensive but you do have the advantage of having the trailer closer to your cruising grounds such as The Broughtons if anything does go wrong and based on personal experience you may want to bring your boat back into the USA if you need any engine/warranty work done. BUT you can do as I did and fly home and fetch the trailer if you have to.

Merv Floyd
 
As others have already mentioned, there is a ton of cruising in the PNW. If I were in your position, I'd probably do a Seattle (or Anacortes, Bellingham, etc...) to Glacier Bay "overview" trip next summer, then figure out a plan for the following seasons depending on which areas you want to explore more.

The main Inside Passage route is generally well protected with tons of anchorages. Along the way you can choose to make trips along the "outside." These sections are exposed to ocean swells and weather, but with a good forecast and a fast boat they don't present too much of an issue. In BC you can check out the west side of Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii, or the west coasts of Princess Royal Island and some others up north. In Alaska, the west side of Chichagof, Baranof, and Prince of Wales Island are ripe for exploration. Jay and JoLee have done a lot of boating out there and would be good resources.

If Alaska is your goal, an alternative to trailering or boating up is shipping the truck and boat on Alaska Marine Lines or Lynden or one of the other barge companies. But part of the fun is getting there on your own, so if you have the time, I'd highly recommend the trip.

The San Juan Islands, Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound, and the Broughtons are all easy, protected cruising (but they can get rough!) and any one of them would be an excellent place to explore for the summer.

How long do you intend to be cruising on the boat in the PNW next summer? And any idea of how many miles you want to run the boat?
 
Craig:

If coming to the Pacific Northwest, you need to give some real thought to the weather. It is rare we have truly dangerous storms, but from roughly November through April the days are short and it rains a lot, making life aboard a small boat unpleasant.

Having lived here for 40 years, my thought would be, that from about the first of May through the end of October is the time you want to be here. If going to Alaska, I would delay my arrival there until July sometime, as the season starts later and ends earlier the further north you go.

We have boated (we think) just about everywhere from Washington State to Alaska, and having done that if I were going to offer once piece of advice it would be just go slow. This is a boaters paradise for about 6 months per year, and there is so much to see and do within quite short distances, that there is no need to rush...in fact by rushing you will miss seeing some really nice things.

Alaska does have a certain romantic attraction as a end point, but we have found the area between the San Juan Islands and about Prince Rupert to probably be the most attractive. Particularly so for the B.C. coast a bit north of Vancouver Island.

The occasional outboard gets stolen, but the entire area is quite safe, with violent crime involving boaters almost unheard of. Gas, food, propane, potable water and other marine items are almost never more than an hours range away with a 25 knot boat. The USCG and Canadian CG have patrol vessels or helicopters stationed from here to Alaska that can get to just about anywhere along the route within 30 minutes. Except for some narrow channels, Channel 16 will work throughout the entire route.

Between Washington and about mid Vancouver Island on any given cruising day you will generally have a choice between truly isolated anchorages to relatively populated small towns with marinas. North of mid Vancouver Island, the population will thin out quite a bit, and you can spend days in certain anchorages withou seeing another boat, but lots of bears.

You will need a decent dinghy to get about that can be launched easily. The tides are significant and the shorelines usually rocky and steep. Anchoring off the bow and tying the stern aft to a tree is a fairly common practice. A couple hundred yards of line on a roller makes this easier.

You should have a great time.

Kevin Ware
TC25.5
El Gato Tomas
 
We're fond of taking it relatively slow as well - we're likely to average only 30-45 nautical miles/day. After many 2-week to 3.5-month cruises in BC and/or SE Alaska, I'd suggest spending your first summer doing a pretty thorough job of BC, then the next trailering up to Prince Rupert and giving SE AK a good exploration. We've started in Everett WA in early May, or in Prince Rupert in early June, getting back off the water in late August or early September.

We like both very much, but in recent years tend to pick SE AK for the majestic scenery, including glaciers and huge mountains, the abundance of whales, bears, sea lions, sea otters, eagles, etc. and for the great fishing crabbing and shrimping. All more than BC in our experience. There are some longer stretches between fuel in SE - some as far as 125-150 NM, not including side trips. And the big long wide channels make you want to have a pretty good handle on the weather forecast.

It's all great!
 
I have to disagree with Kevin on several items: We always Started North in our displacement sailboat in late April, and early May--if you wait until July, there will just not be enough time in AK. We have had some great weather in April and May. And some fog/rain in July and August--just the nature of the area. July and August are the best in AK, but Sept you want to start heading back.

We far prefer AK for cruising--even with higher tides, there are less passages, and many alternative routes. Also far less boats. Not that BC isn't nice, because it is!

Once you get North of Port Hardy, until Prince Rubert, the supplies are scarcer. Shearwater/BellaBella is a good stop, and Bella Cola can have supplies. Range at 25 knots may be an issue.

Unless the Canadian Coast Guard has increased the number of larger cutters, there may be some areas where you will have to rely on other pleasure boaters or commercial fisherman (who can and will charge you for a tow). The cutters have good size RIBS--like yours, or a bit smaller, but if it is really choppy, the guys cannot go 50 knots! On a number of occasions we have answered distress calls from lighthouse keepers which were relayed from small boats which were in distress, and no cutter nearby. One took us 5 hours at 8 knots to get to the boat in distress, we had to launch our RIB (12.5 feet) to get the boat out of shoal water, and then we towed the boat and family of 5 back to the nearest Indian village where they could obtain some food and shelter at about 11 PM....!The next day, the natives towed the boat back to the ramp where they came from)
 
We're in our ninth year cruising and living up here. We have not made it to Alaska yet, its on the list. We much prefer cruising in the Gulf Islands and further north to the San Juans. The San Juans are beautiful and interesting but we feel we get more of what we want, solitude, quirky places, wildlife, and beautiful things to see, across the border; the geology and towns are quite different. It is, however, more expensive for fuel and supplies. We try to cruise all year and have spent many pleasant winter days or weeks on the water, it is rarely below freezing and with our Webasto is warm and cozy in the cabin. You just have to watch the weather more carefully and plan for safe havens to duck into. Note that quite a few island moorages remove the docks for the winter beginning in late September so have a plan B. Fuel docks have fairly short hours even in the summer, often closing at 5PM so one must plan ahead. In the summer it is light until after nine PM, more so the further North you go so planning for a day of cruising is really more like a day and a half if you need to get from A to B. Conversely, by October it is nearly dark by 5PM and not light until about 7AM so the cruising days are much shorter. Cruising after dark is generally unsafe and to be avoided because of debris in the water. In summer bad storms are fairly unusual, there are many more in winter. Fog becomes an issue beginning in August (sometimes called "fogust" up here); we consider radar essential and AIS quite desirable.
 
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