Much as we enjoyed Montague Harbor and Salt Spring Island, we did have a master plan for this trip, and that was to visit Butchart Gardens and Victoria. After a few false starts and plan changes, we thought we saw the weather we wanted to make a nice comfortable trip.
DAY 9 – Montague to Tod Inlet
Leaving behind lovely Montague, we sailed / motored southwest then west toward the Saanich Inlet (on the west side of the Saanich Peninsula which is just north of the city of Victoria). With the wind dying we motored the rest of the way to the Tod Inlet, a narrow arm tucked up next to Butchart Gardens. In our planning we saw that Butchart has its own inlet just north of the park, but we’d read that it was quite tight and had no real shore access other than the gardens themselves. The Tod Inlet, on the other hand, is surrounded by the Gowlland Tod Provincial Park which had loads of trails to walk the dog on.
Motoring into the Tod we found ourselves in a beautiful little inlet, with only two other boats in it, surrounded by pines and hardwoods changing with fall color… just gorgeous and very peaceful. Finding a nice spot, we dropped our new 45 pound Mantus anchor (remember, if people don’t laugh at your anchor in the marina, it’s too small) and 100 feet of chain in 20 feet of water. A few pleasant walks on shore on the many (deserted) trails, a cockpit sundowner cocktail and we were snugged in for the night. Weather was quite benign overnight, but sure slept soundly with that big beefy anchor buried in the mud!
DAY 10 – Butchart Gardens and some weather
Early ups this morning, quick brew of some coffee into travel mugs and we rowed to shore with Hobie to get a little run around before the gardens open. After a nice 30 minute walk on the Gowlland Tod trails, it was a simple 5 minute stroll to the entrance gate to the Butchart, right at opening time. Walking in to Butchart – which is generally reached by bus tour and car after car – from our boat was a great way to arrive… and had the added bonus of some Hobie lovin’ from the employees; in fact, all of Butchart made Hobie feel very welcome (how sweet!).
The gardens were spectacular, both for the more horticulturally inclined (Brig) and less so (Bass) and the straight up people watcher (Hobie). Very impressive layout, great variety, early in the morning not a lot in the way of crowds, altogether a wonderful visit. The “Sunken Garden” (just another named spot on our map) turns out to be a giant old quarry completely filled with spectacular plantings and wild rock formations… truly fantastic. For others considering arriving here by boat, we did scope out the Butchart Cove and it has basically no shore access that’s not part of the gardens, and the dock has a locked gate on it when the gardens are closed… sure could be a nice spot but definitely would not recommend it to anyone with a dog or those who want to walk a bit after hours.
The end of our Butchart tour wrapped up with a gift shop stop for Brig, while Bass took advantage of the free wifi to check the weather… yep, we’ve got weather. As we’d seen approaching for a few days on Windfinder we were due for a good blow, with gusts into the high 40 knot range predicted. While we love our new anchor, this sounded like marina weather to us! A quick look through the Waggoner’s Guide had us on the phone making reservations at Van Isle Marina. With time before the arriving weather getting tight, we chose to motor the ~14nm from the Tod Inlet to Van Isle, arriving around 4:30PM with our slip already assigned and waiting for us. Taking a little time to tighten things up (strap on the furling headsail, sail cover onto the main, extra fenders out) we hunkered down and did get our promised winds that night… let’s just say Hobie’s nighttime walk, in gusts into the 40’s with tree limbs and leaves blowing everywhere, was a bit of an experience, although she handled it like a trooper.
DAY 11 – Van Isle rest day
Phew… just writing about Day 10 tired me out a bit… so no wonder the actual day was a long one. Based on a little fatigue, and a forecast that seemed more favorable to wait another day, we (again) changed out Victoria slip reservations and spent another day and night hanging out at Van Isle. It’s a very pleasant spot really, quiet, not a lot going on, but good places to walk the dog, extremely nice marina with very nice facilities, and all in all a good down day.
DAY 12 – Sidney to Victoria
The big push was on… for us, who are not that experienced yet, the run to Victoria was a little daunting as there aren’t many places you can tuck into if the weather is not as expected. Our day’s run to Victoria was wet… and cold. Not much wind and what wind there was was quite variable, but lots of rain, and the fluky wind made it seem even stronger. If only we could get out of the wind a bit and warm up… oh wait, we can. Three cheers for the pilothouse! With the diesel furnace running we spent most of the day navigating from the indoor steering station, staying warm and dry and keeping a lookout for any other traffic. Before long we were motoring into Victoria Harbor which, I have to say, is about as dramatic as you would expect it to be. We had a slip at the Causeway, which is literally right in front of the Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria… pretty sweet. Surprisingly, though, there were many pretty easy to access places to walk the dog, although long walks would require a little more investigation. It being still quite “snotty” out, we decided the better part of valor was, well, an Irish pub. After a quick walk for the dog, we left her settled in in her nice warm cabin and walked up to The Irish Times, supposedly one of the top 10 Irish pubs in the world (outside of Ireland, of course). Well, after a cold day on the water, it certainly didn’t disappoint. Great food, good draft beers, a little Irish whiskey… yep, that will warm you up. Fully sated we wandered back to the dock (again, the great feeling of punching your code into a marina gate and immediately feeling a little remove from the city), grabbed Hobie for a quick walk around the British Columbia Legislature building, and early to bed for us.
DAY 13 – Victoria
Our full day in Victoria was a blast. A little mayhem – and early start – caused by the Victoria Marathon that was going on, but otherwise we thoroughly enjoyed this city we got to explore on a beautiful sunny day. Long walk for Hobie took us down to Beacon Hill Park and the Dallas Road section of the park that faces the Strait of Juan de Fuca and, not coincidentally, is an off lead dog park. After getting a good romp in for the hound, we strolled along the marathon course for a while and then walked back toward the boat to do some provisioning. This was our first experience with significant provisioning without a car, so it was an interesting haul the 1/2 mile back to the boat with beer, liquor, staples and fresh produce, all with the dog in tow, dodging shaky and celebratory marathon runners the whole way. Back at the boat, a little football on the satellite radio and a little nap, and then, because this is how we roll, back to Irish Times for another round of excellent food and drink. All in all a great day in a great spot.
Coming up in the final installment, backing out of a really tight spot, checking back into the US and a last dash back to Bellingham in front of the next chunk of weather. Stay tuned!
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