Once More Back to False Creek

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Tue 11 Aug 2015 04:38

Position: 49 16.15N 123 07.31 W
at anchor False Creek
Wind: calm morning, light nor-westerly mid-afternoon.
Weather: mostly sunny
Day's Run: 48 nm

Having successfully collected my passport complete with US visa, my next mission is to help Harald obtain his US visa. I rang him yesterday to find out whether he had his new passport back, and it turned out that it had only taken a week to process and that he had picked it up on Thursday. Consequently I decided to head back to False Creek today to give him a hand with the process on Tuesday.

The nearest pass to where I was anchored at Ganges was Active Pass some seven miles away. Slack water was at 8.30 so I weighed anchor at 6.30. I tried sailing in the light morning breeze but this quickly disappeared as the sun rose and we had to motor to get through the Pass on time. Once through to the other side a very light breeze teased us for much of the morning. Fortunately the tide was in our favour, which ran at up to a knot, so this helped us maintain some semblance of progress towards our destination. Eventually we sailed and drifted over to the other side of the Strait of Georgia, almost straying into US waters at one point, when the wind picked up to a steady light breeze. We had to remain close hauled as it was from the north west, but it had enough west in it to allow us to lay Point Grey without having to tack. At 19.00 we rounded the Point, gybed and eased sheets onto a broad reach into English Bay. As I approached the entrance to False Creek I spotted Harald's boat at anchor out in the bay. I sailed close by, running wing on wing at the stage, and gave him a hoy. A moment later he popped his head up and shouted out that he would see me tomorrow.

Once in the narrow channel leading into False Creek the wind died, so I handed sail and started the motor. The anchorage was pretty crowded and I worked my way into tight spot where I thought I would have enough room to swing, but as I lowered the anchor down into the water, a motor boat anchored nearby complained that I was too close, saying that he swung all over the place and pointed to a yacht on the other side of me saying he had almost hit it. This rather surprised me as it was at least sixty meters away from him. I asked him how much chain he had out. He replied, eighty meters. Well, this is an awful lot of cable for a crowded anchorage with a depth of less than ten meters. I suggested he might like to shorten in his cable a bit. He churlishly agreed, but rather then disturb the peace, I upped anchor and moved to another location. It is a bit on the shallow side, but hopefully we will have enough water at low tide. And I would rather touch bottom than annoy a Yankee motor boater.

All is well.