Ucluelet

30^th August. Quait Bay to Ucluelet. 37 miles.

The morning forecast was for SE winds 15-25 knots changing to SW 15 knots in the afternoon. We would have preferred the prevailing NW winds but we had to get moving, at least the SW winds would mean we could sail / Motor sail and make the passage less lumpy in the 2 meter seas. We bashed our way out into the Pacific. The swell was certainly higher than 2 meters at the channel entrance and when we turned south down the coast the winds were on our forestay. We could not even motor sail and the seas were on our beam. 5 hours of lumpy sailing to come.

As we entered Ucluelet channel the VHF radio lit up: “Sarita, Sarita. This is Cambria”  We responded and found out that David and Stephanie were about 1 mile up ahead on anchor.

We dropped the hook near Cambria, just north of the small craft harbour and I dinghied over to see David and Stephanie and catch up on events since we met before our departure.

 

Ucluelet

Ucluelet was actually a pleasant surprise. A pretty, clean town with nice cafés and a good store to re-provision. It also has a great walk, The Wild Pacific Trail, which we walked and enjoyed the rugged lava field coast line, collecting rocks and shells along the way for art project Katya was working on. David and Stephanie came over for dinner and we chatted into the early hours. It was great to see them again, although I was going to have a thick head the next day.