Background

Jim Ferguson and I have now embarked on 3 cruises in the Puget Sound region: He on Esmeralda, his Potter 15, and me on El Nino - my Potter 15 on the first year, and for the past two years on Hamada my HMS-18. Our past two cruises were in the San Juan Islands of northern Washington and the Gulf Islands of southern B.C. While these groups of islands offer nearly unlimited opportunities for exploration, I wanted to try out an area north of Vancouver B.C. called the Howe Sound. Besides being an area that I had never explored, it presented a unique opportunity to trailer our boats into Canada and launch out of downtown Vancouver.

The Howe Sound is an inlet just north of the city of Vancouver B.C consisting of a deep fjord surrounded by fairly high mountains and sprinkled with a smattering of islands, the largest of which are Bowen and Gambier Islands. If anyone has driven the "sea-to-sky" highway in B.C. on their way to Whistler, then they have transited the entire eastern shore of the Sound. The Sound itself is quite close to the city of Vancouver B.C. and thus it made a good launching spot for the boats, and allowed us a couple of nights in the False Creek area for some city cruising. If the weather had been a little nicer, it would have been fun to anchor out in False Creek and take one of the frequent water taxis that ply the waters all around the harbor.

The Cruise

My timing for the cruise was very inflexible due to my occupation. I'm a stay-at-home-dad for my two daughters, six month old Ellyse and two year old Sydney. It's a great job, but it's hard to ever get a "real" vacation away from the kids because I don't have easy access to full time care for the both of them. The solution I've been able to work is to have my mother fly up and take over for me, and luckily she is more than willing to take on the task. The timing for the cruise was officially Friday Sept. 10th thru the Friday Sept 17th, but I was able to slide out of the house Thursday evening on the 9th and knock off much of the drive north.