Crossing Georgia strait in small boat

I did it a number of times in a Campion 195 Allante bowrider with ease. One time I did duck in behind the Sidney Tsawwassen ferry from Mayne Island back to the mainland so it could beat down the waves for me. Skill and confidence level is huge, but also boat type.
 
Chasin' Dreams said:
I don't want to encourage anyone to go beyond their own capabilities or boat's capabilities but saying that, we used to cross the straight to fish Active Pass and around Cabbage Island when I was younger in 12' Lund with a 10 horse motor with my father in law who's family had a trailer on the water at Bells Point Roberts. The old timers over there were doing that for long before that as well going back to the 70's. This was done only on the calmest of days with the best weather reports. Would I do that again? No, never. I've seen the weather change much too fast over the years all around the coast and have been involved over the years seeing lot's of what can go wrong out on the water and have had friends lose their lives on the water for these exact reasons. Looking back I can't believe those old timers did it for so may years but they were seasoned fishermen that lived there for a portion of every year and knew which days were going to be good enough to cross on. I had heard too that on occasions some of them had to stay over or get picked up by bigger boats when the weather did change on them when they were on the other side.
When I owned my 15' K&C fiberglass boat with a 50 on it I used to cross from there as well a fair bit on good weather/water condition days but I was very used to the straight and only did that on very perfect days for it and never over stayed on the other side. Fishing was a lot better back then too around Active Pass which made it more enticing to go. We always went with other guys in their boats and we had 2 way radios back then and the VHF's. No cell phones back then. There weren't such things as safety beacons etc back then either.

Any mechanical problem and your stuck at the mercy of the weather/water conditions. And when the weather report calls for 15 Kn you can bet there will be gusts up to 20 for sure. Open bow, low stern, and non self bailing deck boats are going to be much more risky when the weather and waves pick up. And in the straight it's common to have stacking waves all mixing from different directions which makes it even harder to keep water out of your boat.
Only takes a split second for one good sized wave to come over into a boat that's not made to deal with it to sink it.

In this video I was crossing the straight after a bad storm that just started to brake up a bit. I was coming back from a trip up to Lund. I crossed over to use Texada as cover from the direction the wind and storm was coming from on my way back. By the time I came out of refuge in a bay from the storm to cross back over the winds were dying down to around 15 to 20 knots but you can get a decent idea here how the water can get a bit nasty even at 15 to 20 knots. The water conditions the morning before this was glass calm.

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Playing Primus!!!! Right on.
 
I wasnt going to post but I routinely ran my 175 Livingston viking over to thrasher. Numerous times, being followed by aluminum boats only to watch them turn around. A heavy glass boat in our waters is your friend. It can be done. Take it slow and work your confidence level up.
 
I have a clip from my first trip this was with no real wind and it was kind of choppy mid straight. The second time I went a log hidden beneath the surface got caught on the motor mount and scared the daylights out of me instantly shutoff the motor. luckily no damage
 
Fisherman Rob said:
Whalers are seaworthy boats, but with the open bow you have increased risk of taking a lot of water into the boat over the bow in steep waves that are tight together. This is common in strong tidal currents at river mouths, sand bars, and narrow passes (like Active, Porlier, Gabriola)
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Probably the most accurate advise you have received.
 
prodjsaig said:
I have a clip from my first trip this was with no real wind and it was kind of choppy mid straight. The second time I went a log hidden beneath the surface got caught on the motor mount and scared the daylights out of me instantly shutoff the motor. luckily no damage
Click to expand...
Great song for the moment!
 
prodjsaig said:
I have a clip from my first trip this was with no real wind and it was kind of choppy mid straight. The second time I went a log hidden beneath the surface got caught on the motor mount and scared the daylights out of me instantly shutoff the motor. luckily no damage
Click to expand...

Hahaha! How's your back?
 
Thanks for everyone who replied... Lots of valuable information that helped me.

I went through with the crossing as initially planned as the weather forecasts and reports seem to be consistent. I filled up on gas and made arrangements to stay at Nanaimo with family incase weather changed and I invited along a good friend who's crossed multiple times with a 16' double eagle. We tested our radio before crossing and had a very dry and smooth ride there and back. Fishing was good around thrasher rock, we managed to land a lingcod within 30 minutes of getting there. We're both in our early 20's and love to adventure but we made sure to understand our risks and made adequate preparations which made this trip very enjoyable. We plan on making the trip again sometime in the summer but to stay multiple nights before finding a suitable day to return.

I'd like to thank everyone again for giving their thoughts and wish everyone safe fishing :)

Screen Shot 2020-06-05 At 1.07.26 AM

Screen Shot 2020-06-05 At 1.07.26 AM

 
i cross all the time with this, 16.5 cuddy, when you launch from Tsawwassen to active pass is just over 20 mins at about 25 kts, lots of lings off mayne and Saturna when its open,, just pick your days, use your weather apps, i have windy on my phone.

218653508_10165044899630467_7695780333536428002_n.jpg
 
mac_davy said:
i cross all the time with this, 16.5 cuddy, when you launch from Tsawwassen to active pass is just over 20 mins at about 25 kts, lots of lings off mayne and Saturna when its open,, just pick your days, use your weather apps, i have windy on my phone.

View attachment 78046
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Love it when an old thread gets randomly brought back to the top by a new guy
 
Corey_lax said:
Love it when an old thread gets randomly brought back to the top by a new guy
Click to expand...
well two reasons, given the brutal restrictions most of us in the lower mainland have on us for fishing, will have no choice but to make the crossings, i suspect a lot more boats will do it. from the ferry terminal to active pass is eight KT miles and from sand heads to Porlier pass, is nine KT miles, its really not a long distance, i ran across three times from Tsawwassen to active pass in august last year when chinook and ling opened in 18 - 1 and 18 - 11. Like i said the DFO hate us in the lower mainland we don't have much choice
 
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