Rowing and Sailing the Sea to Sky Marine Trail

Introduction

After building my nesting dinghy the Starfish, a bike trailer for it, and a sailing rig for the boat, I needed a new project. For several years I had been intrigued by the Sea to Sky Marine Trail, a collection of campsites in Howe Sound leading from Vancouver up to Squamish. There is no official "starting" or "ending" point to the trail, but I had decided to travel from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish, camping out four nights along the way at Ramilles Channel, Thornborough Channel, Zorro Bay, and Tantalus Landing. All told, this would be a trip of just over 45 kilometers.

I planned the trip to be going northwards, as Howe Sound has a very reliable southerly inflow most afternoons. This would mean that I should have good wind for downwind sailing most days. In fact, my concern was that conditions might be more than I could handle, as the sound regularly has forecasts of 15-25 knots of breeze and strong wind warnings. On the one hand, the Starfish is a very stable boat, and the sail is so small and maneuverable that it is difficult to overpower. On the other, the boat is tiny and has no internal flotation, and getting swamped or capsizing could result in a very challenging situation.

My friend Eamonn accompanied me on the trip in a sea kayak as a safety boat. He has years of kayaking experience, and I knew I would be in good hands should anything go wrong.

Horseshoe Bay to Ramilles Channel

Robyn kindly dropped the two of us off on a Wednesday morning at Horseshoe Bay near the ferry terminal. The weather wasn't looking good -- there was a rainfall warning out for southwestern BC for the next two days, but we had packed plenty of rain gear, and Eamonn brought an extra tarp. Half the gear got thrown in the hatches of Eamonn's kayak, and the other half got tied into my open boat. There was still a bit of room on board, but it certainly wasn't spacious. The Starfish is after all only seven feet long!

As we were assembling things, a passerby told Eamonn that there was a gale warning out (this was incorrect, there wasn't even a strong wind warning) and that he hoped he didn't read about us in the news. Undeterred, we launched around 11am and began the journey!

The wind was quite strong and gusty in Horseshoe Bay, and I was quite apprehensive that the conditions out in the sound proper would be challenging. But this was deceiving; once we got out of the bay, the wind became shifty and light, and I was forced to resort to rowing quite often. To row, I would leave the rudder down but tilt back the tiller, leave the leeboard down, and tie the boom to the mast to keep the sail out of the way. If there was enough wind that the tied up sail started flapping, I knew that it was time to start sailing again.

This day was our longest day, and ended up being a slog of just over 16 kilometers. We quickly learned that the Starfish (when rowed) is incomparably slower than a sea kayak. I could be paddling at full tilt, and Eamonn easily kept up by doing a single stroke for every four of mine. I guess that hull shape really does matter! A lot of the times, the wind was coming from our intended destination, making for even slower going.

We made it to the campsite at Ramilles Channel on Gambier Island around 5pm. Fortunately, the rain had held off so far. After setting up camp, we had a delicious dinner of ramen bowls, did a bit of bushwacking, and enjoyed marshmellows over a campfire.

Rain, Thornborough Channel, and More Rain

It rained overnight, but had mostly cleared up by Thursday morning, although more rain was forecast for later that day. Out in the Straight of Georgia there was over 20 knots of breeze, but none of it seemed to be finding its way up into Howe Sound. We packed up camp and launched, but again the lack of decent wind meant that I was rowing for over half the distance. The rain started coming in earnest in the early afternoon. Fortunately, this was one of our "short" days, with a distance of just 6km to cover.

I made it to the Thornborough Channel campsite on the west side of Howe Sound wet and cold. While Eamonn was enjoying the comfort of his dry suit, I was suffering in a wet suit with old foul weather gear. As soon as we stowed the boats, Eamonn got a tarp up, and I changed into some warm and dry clothes.

We went for another ramble in the woods, but didn't get far due to thick undergrowth and steep terrain. We spent a lot of time watching the rain from under the tarp. The constant rain became intermittent showers in the evening, but things didn't completely clear up until Friday morning.

While we couldn't fully enjoy this campsite because of the rain, it was absolutely lovely! A bit away from the landing site, there was a nice overlook with a tent pad and a picnic table. We opted to stay in the woods to get a bit more cover. Dinner was wraps with beans and rice. We filled up on water at a nearby stream.

Here Comes the Wind -- Zorro Bay

By Friday morning, we had made it through the bad weather. We would be travelling from Thornborough Channel to Zorro Bay, about 10 kilometers away. When we launched in the morning, there still wasn't much wind and I again rowed quite a bit. As we were launching, we had our first human contact on the voyage, meeting some members of SkaBC who were out to do work on some of the sites. The "typical" inflow of wind finally started filling in just after noon after we passed the northern tip of Anvil Island.

As any sailor knows, wind and waves look bigger in real life than on camera. On the above video, we are looking at wind of 15+ knots and waves of over two feet. In a seven-foot-long boat with freeboard of under two feet, that's a big deal! The Starfish handled herself remarkably well, though. The short length can be an advantage at times, with the boat easily riding over the top of bigger waves.

After a bit more than an hour of adrenaline-pumping sailing, we had reached our destination of Zorro Bay. I was perhaps more mentally exhausted than physically exhausted, as I was fearing the difficulties that a capsize or swamping would bring. Fortunately, neither occurred, and we arrived intact. The only damage was that the cleat for the Cunningham had snapped off, so I got to make use of my emergency epoxy repair kit.

Later in the afternoon, we went for a brief swim on the beach, then set up camp. Eamonn decided to try sleeping under his tarp instead of in the tent. While playing some two-handed skat, we were greeted by a large black bear not more than thirty feet away. After making ourselves known, the bear kindly turned around and disappeared back into the woods.

Dinner was gnocchi with pesto, with chocolate mug cake for dessert. We took another stab at a campfire, but rain-soaked wood made things hard, and a surprisingly high tide put the end to our fire not too long after it had started.

The strong inflow died around 6pm, but it turned to an even stronger outflow around midnight. Winds were howling all night! This made things a bit chilly for me, since my tent site was a bit exposed to the north.

Tantalus Landing

When I awoke Saturday morning, the wind was still howling from the north, and the fetch had created waves that were crashing right into the launching area. Things weren't looking good for further travel to the north. However, around 8:30am the wind mysteriously vanished and the water calmed down quickly.

After launching, I was again stuck rowing, until the inflow started to fill in again around 11am. It was much more moderate, however, than the previous day, allowing me to do some filming while sailing.

The scenery on Saturday was absolutely stunning, with glorius views of the Tantalus range, Mount Garibaldi, and later on Shannon Falls and the Stawamus Chief (a giant granite monolith). We eventually reached our final campsite at Tantalus Landing, after a combined row and sail of 9 kilometers.

This was another beautiful campsite, with views of the Chief, Shannon Falls, and the clear view down the sound to the south. We went for two swims, had a meal of chili with fried apples for dessert, and enjoyed a final campfire.

Arriving in Squamish

Before launching Sunday morning, Eamonn went for a quick dip in the ice-cold waterfall near the campsite. Launching was a bit tricky as the tide was still high, and there were quite a few large pointy rocks in the way.

The wind was disappointingly light, and I rowed almost all of the remaining 6 kilometers to the Squamish boat ramp.

While disassembling the boat and packing things up, we met the Squamish-based carpenter who had built all the composting toilets used at the campsites on the trail. At the end of our journey, it felt appropriate to meet the person responsible for such a useful contribution to the trail.

We had a bit of time to kill before Robyn picked us up, so we went and enjoyed a beer and meal at the nearby Howe Sound Inn and Brewing.

All told, I was very satisfied with the adventure. What perhaps amazed me the most was that we were the only overnight guests at all the campsites we visited. While this is understandable during a rainstorm in the middle of the week, I was pleasantly surprised that we were not fighting for a tent spot on Friday or Saturday evening.

The Starfish did very well on the trip with no major damage or problems. Although I was disappointed at her slow speed compared to a sea kayak, I was very proud to have completed a journey like this in a boat of my own building. What adventures await the Starfish next? Only time will tell.