Blizzard and sun, peace and joy at Portland Island, BC.

Just back from a wonderful four day trip. Since we had time, we took the chance to pop up into Canada and return to one of our old favorites just below Salt Spring, and that is Portland Island.

Owen at Arbutus Point, north side

The voyage to Portland on Monday was calm and easy. Gorgeous country rolling by and not a wisp of wind. There are two anchorages on Portland, like Jones. One south, and one north. The forecast was for stormy weather with SE winds, so we headed to the north cove called Royal Cove. For those that don't know, this island was given to Princes Margaret back during her visit to the province in the 1950's, and she gave it back in the 1960's to become a park. It is the largest island park in the Gulf Islands National Park system. A true gem.

So we tucked into Royal Cove, which is only open to the NE. You stern tie and make sure you have your bow pointed NE so the ferry waves cause you less trouble. After doing this, we were ashore for some exploration.

That night, a storm came up that blew strongly from the NE. Not the SE! We started getting 2-3 foot waves into he cove, and I was once again grateful for my Mantus Anchor and anchoring skills. We didn't budge, though our bow was doing the hobby horse all through the dark hours of the morning. It was blowing 25 or so. In the morning, I saw that the barometer had plummeted from 1019 to 1000.3 in just 6 hours. No wonder the wind was strong. We saw that it was also snowing, and during the downpours the snow was so thick it was a blizzard!