Yuquot to Ucluelet

We left Santa Gertrudis to travel south around Estevan Point at the crack of dawn. As Estevan Point in another headland that can get windy and rolly. And – Lilly ….. we did give her a Gabapentin in the morning. The weather forecast was getting better with the wind and the seas decreasing. Although it was pretty rolly with seas around 1.5 meters. Lilly did barf anyway even with the Gabapentin in the morning.

It was a fairly long trip to the anchorage we planned to stay at – Bottleneck Cove. We stayed there in 2023 and thought it was a lovely little spot.

Bottleneck Cove was full of herring. Jim thought he might try to catch a few but by the time he got organized and put down his special herring lure they had moved off.

I don’t know what we would have done with herring had he caught some. But they were pretty cool to watch.

The next day we went from Bottleneck Cove to White Pine Cove.

We were in a stretch of good weather with the wind decreasing daily but the forecast was for an increase in wind a few days out. We did not want to go into Tofino. Our next planned stop was Ucluelet. We were thinking of going to a few places around Meares Island but decided we would take advantage of the good weather. Seas around one meter on 7 seconds.

When we were in Winter Harbour – the couple we met on the SV Dark Star – Melissa was a vet. And she suggested giving Lilly Gabapentin the night before and then again in the morning before going out on one of these long rolly trips. So we decide to try that this time. Lilly was definitely pretty chill the whole trip !

We left White Pine Cove at 5:45 am and headed south.

The waves and swell and surf between Tofino and Ucluelet were pretty consistent at one to 1.5 meters. It’s a good 3-4 hours of open ocean.

We had a moment of excitement/ terror. Just around Radar Hill we caught a crab pot on one of the paravanes – the crab pot line wrapped around the paravane chain ! And there we are motoring along at 7 knots dragging commercial crab gear. Jim puts the boat in neutral and we are looking at this situation on the port side and the boat is being tossed around in the swell. We are rocking pretty hard ! Luckily Lilly is pretty drugged!

Jim’s plan is to go to the port side deck with the pike pole and a knife and try to catch the line and then cut the crab pot line free. My plan is to just freak out ! Sorry. No photos. I’m too busy panicking! The boat is rocking. I’m trying to think what I would do if Jim gets tossed into the ocean.

As we are both getting ready. Jim looks out and the crab pot floats are floating away from the boat. The drag of the pots maybe on the chain? The paravane is still there – it didn’t get pulled off – that was another bit of a panic. But it seems we survived that ordeal. Thank goodness!

Back on track to Ucluelet. Once we get close to Ucluelet and turn into Ucluelet Inlet we stop in a little bay – Stewart Bay and dropped the anchor and pulled up the poles and the paravanes. we arrived about noon.

We called into the Ucluelet Harbour and Kevin had a spot at the dock for us. Kevin is great. Best Harbour Master on the west coast ! We had to wait until after 1 pm for the boat to leave the spot. So we ended up just waiting in Steward Bay. A big group of kayaker came very close to the boat. Some going right under the anchor chain!

And then some other boat motored in went about 10 feet behind the swim step – took a big deliberate circle around our boat and motored out. It was very odd.

Once we got to the dock we wandered off to look for the taco truck – Flaca’s.

The daughter of a very good friend of Jim’s owns this little taco truck in Ucluelet. Her name is Robyn Lord.

Great tacos! We each had a fish taco and a pulled pork taco. And bought some of her very tasty hot sauce.

We spent 4 nights in Ucluelet. More to come.