There’s a moment in one of Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe stories (and don’t we all dearly miss Stuart McLean?) that is stuck in my head at the moment. He was talking about summers at the cottage, or cabin here in BC, and “that most Canadian of lies… ‘it’s warm once you get in!’
One of the upgrades we made to the boat this spring was replacing the old depth and speed transducers with a combined depth, speed, and temperature transducer. This allows us to check the water temperature on the instruments. Yesterday, for example, the water temperature at Sidney Spit was 15°C. That’s pretty chilly and a simple dip of the toes certainly told us we probably didn’t want to go for a swim. Today, we sailed up through Samsun Narrows and anchored in Preedy Harbour on Thetis Island. As the crow flies, it’s 24nm from Sidney Spit.
The water temperature here? 25°C!
Sidney Spit is near Haro Strait, and the Pacific Ocean tides flooding up through the Juan de Fuca, where Preedy Bay is more isolated up in the Stuart Channel. Amazing to see the change in ocean temperature in such a short distance. What a difference, though… and it felt great to go for a swim when we arrived in Preedy Harbour. No lying… it was warm once we were in.