Cascadia Cruising Rally

With the increase of cruising sailboats in the Puget Sound and many new boat owners joining the cruising world, 48 North and Ullman Sails joined forces to help new Northwest cruisers enjoy the many great places and things of Northwest Cruising.

The concept came from noticing that many boat owners, some new, some owning boats for a while, had not anchored overnight or taken their boat across the border.  This limited them to only the busiest and most built-up parts of the most beautiful natural cruising grounds in the world.  So with the boating knowledge of people from Ullman Sails and 48 North, there would be some guidance and learning of the most enjoyable part of cruising these waters.

Joe Cline, Chuck Skewes, Sabine Suessmann, and Vince Townrow led this inaugural group on the first ever Cascadia Cruising Rally.  Taking the boats from Anacortes into the San Juan Islands, then across the border through customs, and then back to Anacortes.  Taking a week with 3 stops, 3 travel days, anchoring in quaint little spots, daily weather and tidal briefings, knot tying, anchoring advice and help, navigation, music, and hikes.

The Cascadia Cruising Rally started at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes with a sendoff party at the Ullman Sails loft in Anacortes.  The first day under sunny skies, the rally goers were immediately challenged with dense fog in Rosario Strait.  Blackbird the rally leader a CS 40 used radar and navigated the fleet through the fog to a safe crossing into Thatcher Pass by staying in communication by radio and insight for a few of the rally goers.

Once inside Thatcher Pass, the sun was out and the water smooth for a simple trip into West Sound on Orcas Island. Most of the group anchored up at Massacre Bay and Skull Island while a few went to West Sound Marina.  With a roll call over the radio (one each morning) the group then assembled on Blackbird for a briefing on the next location, the route to take, potential hazards, and weather.  Once everyone had this information the rally headed to Pender Harbor in B.C. to clear customs.  Within a half hour of arrival, all boats were cleared and a majority of the boats anchored up in the Northwest corner of the bay at Medicine Beach while two boats stayed at the marina Poets Cove as one couple celebrated their anniversary.  At this location, the group had a hike to the top of Mount Norman for stunning views over Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands with the rally boats safely anchored in the bay.

Two days after arriving in the Gulf Islands the rally had another morning coffee brief for the next location and headed to Winter Cove on Saturna Island.  The cove has one main entrance and a small boat pass on the East side.  The entire rally rafted up at this location for most of the two-night stay.  There was a hike and dingy trip to Lyle Harbor for a group lunch and blackberry picking one day and a short hike to Boat Pass on the other day.  At this stop, the group got a chance to anchor with tides and wind opposing each other without incident, learned basic knot tying, and was capped off by a music night with 3 musicians that were along on the trip.

The Final day was an easy trip back to Anacortes with the only clouds on the trip and good sailing for much of the passage.  Once in Anacortes the fleet met at the local Pizza shop and told stories and ideas and all signed up for next year’s Cascadia Cruising Rally.