Day 6 Crossing the Straits of San Juan De Fuca

Weather has been nasty with small craft and gale warnings. Saturday from midnight to 7 am the West wind howled through the night while tied up to the Dock. Off and on sleep thinking about the Passage. At 7:30 the wind suddenly went calm and at 7:40 let go lines and with the last of the ebb tide headed out Admiralty inlet passed Pt Wilson to Port and set course 300m for Oak Bay on Vancouver Island a near 30 nm motor into west winds of 8-10. The departure music was “Victory at Sea” by Rogers and Hammerstein used in the epic WWII movie history of the war in the Pacific. The ebb current provided a one knot boost. Lumpy first third and then winds calm and waves subsided as did my heartbeat. Here we were in the middle of the Straits and could not be on a better boat than our Dana 24 for us. We encountered a strong flood current just off our approach to Oak Bay in the Haro Straits and like a cross wind landing found ourselves moving north of target at the whim of what appeared to be a 3.5 knot current. Had to terminate my tiller auto pilot and take the helm changing course to due south. Lesson learned. Arrived Oak Bay which is just east of Victoria in a high brow neighborhood and very nice marina. Met by our friends and stayed over two nights leaving Day 8. We were happy to say that we had made safe passage on our maiden voyage across the Straits. Ensign Wilson provided security watch and fortunately no big ship traffic encountered in the Vessel traffic lanes. . Beautiful day and friendly seas. Pictures later as having wifi issue. Kestrel out.