Surprisingly sunny weather as we leave the shelter of Pender harbour. We are making good mileage up the Coast along the B.C mainland past Powell River, Lund and the Copeland Islands reaching Sarah Point in good time. By then, some wind has come up and we are under sail, mostly wing to wing, all the way through Desolation Sound. Wing to Wing means that we have the main sail and the big genoa set opposite to each other using a light pole to hold the genoa. The two sails act like a giant running spinnaker and keep us going well when the wind is DDW (Dead Down Wind or just from behind us). With a 2 man crew, this is much easier than running a spinnaker.

We were supposed to overnight at Squirrel Cove in Desolation to wait for a slack in the Yuculta Rapids. The next opportunity is not until Monday at Noon, so we decide to put in a long day and go through the Yuculta and Dent Rapids at 6:15 about half an hour before the high slack, so we reach the Dent rapids at slack. This all goes very well, we have good speed through the eddies, but it’s not so fast that we loose control of the boat. We reach Shoal Bay on East Thurlow Island at 8:05 pm. Shoal Bay is a sheltered anchorage at the site of an old mine. Mostly a swamp with some bugs.

The whole coast is very quiet, very few other boats. Desolation Sound (aptly named by Captain Vancouver)  feels  desolate although we manage to avoid all the big rain clouds.

Dinner is a pork filet mignon in mustard sauce with potatoes and peas, lunch was a kind of cobb salad with mesclun leaves, tomato, corn, red cabbage, Kalamata olives, pecans and ham.