Summer charter destinations

[ScottMeilicke]

Originally Posted by ahencke

Looking at desolation sound! Intriguing. San Juan islands seemed becalmed (med/high chance). Anyone comment on desolation sound for late June? Wind to sail? Weather?

The entire Salish sea is wonderful. The wildlife, both sea and land is abundant. Hiking is good too. When my wife did a week in the San juans, it was July, and they always had a reef in the main. They sailed a Jeanneau 39. My advice if you do the PNW is to get a boat with the highest sail/displacement you can get. You can always reef.

The sailing is fun and requires attention as you move in and out of wind shadows. Forecasts are taken with a grain of salt. We left a harbor in the gulf islands last July with all sails up, and a forecast of 10-15. As soon as we got out of the lee of the island we hit 20-25! That was a fun day.

[Macblaze]

We cruised Desolation May to mid June last year. Our last sail across the strait of Georgia was 16-20 knots...I think that was June 20. The biggest difficulty we had was what someone termed "the noserlies"—no matter what direction you are going the wind is on the nose. So if you are intent on making miles you end up motoring. That said we spent a few days beating back and forth in 10-20 knot winds just for practice. Other days we were motoring on glass, like on our trip up to Princess Louisa.

The odds are good you will get a good sail or three but equally be prepared for some calm days. So be a little different and hang on the hook in some secluded cove on the calm days and venture out into the straits on the windy ones. And June is a great time: for example we were in Squirrel Cove in late July 2015 with over 100 boats; when we pulled in late May 2016 there were less than 10.

[Macblaze]

Oh ya, weather. It's like the winds. Some sunny hot days, some misty cool days. You will likely see both.

This is me on June 7th in Grace Harbour...one of my favourite places in Desolation.


IMG_7344 by MacBlaze, on Flickr