It has become a tradition. Every June 30 at noon I'm officially off work for the summer. I call my husband Rick from the office and tell him, "start the engines." I arrive 15 minutes later, step off the dock into the pilot house, throw the lines and away we go. Our two-month summer cruise is officially underway – but not without some serious advance planning.
Summer is the best season for wildlife watching in our marine world in British Columbia's Inside Passage, offering us a chance to see the mother of all creatures – the whale – from May to August. We want to make the most of it.
Planning a successful summer cruise means addressing many important questions beyond choosing a destination. Which routes will you take? Where will you overnight? What about fuel and water stops? How will you monitor the weather – and what will you do if it turns rough? There are also questions about how to provision your boat, what personal gear to take with you and which safety procedures to put in place.
RICK LEBLANCA Humpback whale with its mouth wide-open.
Obviously, the answers will depend on where you cruise, the type of boat you have and the crew you have onboard. What follows is a bit about how we handle things aboard Sea Foam, our 40-foot Eagle Pilothouse Trawler. Of course, you won't do things exactly the same way. But it should get you thinking.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
Once we've decided which area of our beautiful and vast coastline along the Pacific Northwest we want to explore, we start by reading as much as we can about the area. Several of the cruising guides that we use frequently have extensive bibliographies and additional resources, such as books that have been written by area locals. The internet is also a valuable resource for information about travel, attractions and activities. And talking to other boaters about their experiences is invaluable.
We plot our daily routes using our electronic charts. We study the route and check for any areas that may need careful maneuvering or have specific water conditions. The Pacific Northwest has many inlets and narrow waterways that need to be negotiated with care in order to access the areas we most enjoy. Cruisers from these parts refer to these significant bodies of water as "gates." Others call them "rites of passage." Each gate defines your experience, skill and confidence level. Once beyond each gate the waters are protected and generally summer weather is less threatening. The more time and experience you have, the farther north up the Inside Passage you can travel and the more gates you might be willing to pass through.
The first time we rounded Cape Caution, a major "gate" because you are in the open water of the Pacific Ocean, unprotected by the 30-mile-long Vancouver Island, we thought we wouldn't see many other boaters. We couldn't have been more wrong. We met experienced boaters who have been boating all their lives, many of them retired with lots of time to cruise and the experience and skill to do so. Some of the folks we have met were in their early 80's, and still cruising all the way to Alaska.
I have wholeheartedly embraced the position of navigator onboard our boat and am always checking and re-checking the course we have chosen and our progress while underway. As we move into an area where the weather conditions might be "iffy" we like to have a plan "B" just in case we have to turn around or move to a protected anchorage rather than go into nasty weather.
