JULY 2018

T

he winter of 2016-17 was one of the coldest on record

in southern British Columbia. In June 2016 we had

sailed across from Hawaii to Sitka in southeast Alaska

aboard Distant Drummer, our Liberty 458. At er

enjoying a summer of leisurely cruising through the

Inside Passage in Alaska and British Columbia, we

reached Canoe Cove on Vancouver Island where we

had decided to haul out for the winter.

We lived aboard all through that winter, and as we shovelled snow

of the decks and slithered across the ice to the washrooms, it was

dreams of hot sunny California days that kept us going. We were wait-

ing for a big fat high to settle in the northeast Pacii c to give us a steady

northerly wind for the passage south. Our plan was to spend the sum-

mer following the sun southwards down the California coast.

FOG, FOG AND... FOG

Fog is a summertime hazard in the Pacii c Northwest. We encountered

it in Alaska and British Columbia, and it would continue to plague us

all the way down through northern California. PHOTO COURTESY OF

SUZY CARMODY

(LEFT)

The author and her husband, Neil, have

been cruising fulltime for more than a

decade

Sun