Thanksgiving weekend sail: Clam Bay (Gulf Islands)

October 7-10, 2011: 
Fall sailing means decent winds and empty anchorages.

Left VRC home dock (Vancouver) on Friday morning, motoring out to Point Grey bell buoy. Winds were accurately forecast to be NW 10-15 kn, giving us a great sail (averaging 7kn) the 20 nm from Point Grey across to Porlier Pass in the Gulf Islands. We arrived a bit early at the pass, which was ebbing about 2 knots -- no problem for us -- we shot through into the Gulf Islands.

Crossing Georgia Strait

Approaching Porlier Pass

We had hoped to meet up with friends over in the Gulf Islands, but they had to cancel. So we decided to spend the weekend at Clam Bay. We motored the few miles from Porlier Pass over to Clam Bay and dropped anchor. A favourite anchorage of ours, there was only one other boat anchored.  Ahhhh, the joys of off-season cruising! Although it always has room (it can easily hold 20-30 boats), Clam Bay is often pretty busy in the Summer. But not this Thanksgiving weekend -- never more than 4 boats anchored the whole weekend.

Clam Bay

Preedy Hbr (Thetis Is.) looking towards Vancouver Island

We had some great weather through to Sunday eve. We had planned to sail back Sunday before 20-30 kn SE winds forecasted for Monday, but the forecast changed to sunny with no wind Sunday, and SE 15-25 kn Monday. So, we opted to stay an extra night and get a good sail back Monday (albeit, in the rain). Sunday turned out to be a classic beautiful southwest BC Fall day -- sun!.

Monday proved boisterous (up to SE 23 kn with bouncy seas in Georgia Strait) and wet/rainy, but a good sail until the winds died at Pt. Grey.

Always a great weekend sail when we can sail across the strait there and back!
All in all, an excellent B.C. Fall sail!

What's in a name? Pelagia

From Agia Pelagia (Greek: Αγία Πελαγία, "Saint Pelagia") 

Also, Pelagia means "of the sea"; it comes from the Greek word “pelagos”, which means the “open sea”. It was, therefore, an appropriate name for women born on the Greek islands.

Agia Pelagia was from the Greek island of Tinos, which we finally visited in 2022

 

We pronounce Pelagia with a soft  <g> (i.e., /dʒ/), as in "Pe-la-gee-a"  

(In Greek,  pronunciation is Pe-la-yeé-a)

According  to http://www.greek-names.info/pelagia/:   

Pelagia is a wise and strong woman, ready to deal with the misfortunes of life. She is a capable and very intelligent woman, dependable but sort of introverted.

We agree!

Pelagia: Sceptre 41

Pelagia is a Sceptre 41 Pilothouse sloop/cutter, Hull #10 built in 1983 by Sceptre Yachts in Richmond, BC.

Bob Perry reviewed the Sceptre 41 in 1992: http://www.sceptremarine.com/s41perryreview.pdf


 

Interested in Sceptre 41 specs? Click on the picture to the left.

Statistics:    

LOA     41’0”

LWL     36’0”

Beam     12’8”

Draft     6’1”

Headroom     6’5”

Vertical Clearance     61’0”

Displacement            21,500 lbs.

Displacement/Length Ratio 201

Ballast (External Lead)      8,700 lbs.

Fuel Capacity    105 US Gal (397.4 litres)

Fresh Water Capacity    166 US Gal (628.8 litres)

Holding tank: 18 US Gal (68.1 litres)

Main Sail     306 Sq Ft.

100% Fore Triangle   468 Sq. Ft.

Sail Area    774 Sq. Ft.

Sail Area/Displacement Ratio        16.01

Theoretical Hull Speed    8 Knots

Provisional PHRF Rating     110

Designer      H. Driehuyzen

Sails: (as of Summer 2011)

Main (2011)

125% Furling Genoa (2011)

70% Furling Yankee (2011)  

Staysail (pre-2008; near-new condition)

Asymmetrical cruising chute (pre-2001; from 38' boat)

Engine Systems:

56-HP Yanmar Diesel Engine with 70-Amp Alternator

Heating & Hot Water Systems:

Heat: 

Dickinson "Antarctic" Diesel heater

Espar "Hydronic" with passive radiators throughout interiors

Engine-heated anti-freeze to heat exchanger for passive radiators

Water:

Dual-coil system in Dickinson diesel heater (heats up water in hot water tank)

Espar "Hydronic" with heat exchanger in hot water tank

Engine-heated anti-freeze to heat exchanger for heat exchanger in hot water tank

Electric (110 V) heater element in hot water tank 

Ground Tackle: (as of summer, 2011)

Primary: 25 kg Rocna, 300' 5/16th" G4 chain
Second: 44 lb CQR, 250' 1/2" rope rode (with ~20' 3/8th" chain)
"Stern": Fortress FX-23 (15 lb), ~200' 1/2" rope rode (with ~20' 5/16th" chain)


Electronics/Navigation: (as of November, 2011)
Hardware:

Tacktick wind/speed/depth
Stowe depth (backup)

Furuno NavNet2 1724 Colour Plotter/GPS/Radar with C-Map
3 backup GPS
Wagner S50 Autopilot
Uniden class D VHF with "wired" wireless WHAM4x mike
ICOM M-802 SSB



Software:

OpenCPN
OziExplorer
Sailcruiser

Some photos of Pelagia (from forward to aft)

Pelagia on the TravelLift

V-Berth/forward cabin

Forward cabin storage

Head

Shower

Main salon

Port settee & inside steering

  

Inside steering

Nav Desk (starboard)

Quarter berth (starboard, aft of Nav Desk)

Galley (port)

View forward from cockpit

Pelagia's skeg-hung rudder

Pelagia on the TravelLift (stern)