Notes of Grace | Summer 2025
During our summer trips, crew members take turns blogging about their adventures while they're at sea. The following is an excerpt from the Pacific Grace's blog, written during Trip 5.It is Day 3 and yet it feels we have been together much longer. Friendships, shared laughs, and familiarity already flourish on the Pacific Grace. There is a strong sense of ‘we,’ a community is becoming.
Dories are being raised after a delicious lunch of “sushi/noodle bowls” with all the fixings, and an incredible morning spent at Chatterbox Falls, a stunning water fall at the very end of Princess Louisa Inlet. A pretty walk through the forest took us to cold, freshwater pools where we played, rinsed, sat, and enjoyed the warm sun. At anchor, steep cliffs tower around us with snow visible on the higher peaks. The silence and the star-filled sky at night are truly memorable.
We left Victoria at 1430hrs Wednesday, motoring through the night to early morning, through the Gulf Islands, across Georgia Strait, and up Malaspina Strait to Jervis Inlet. In Jervis Inlet we tied to a large mooring buoy in Hotham Sound until morning. We woke to stillness, no one else, and the natural beauty. After dishes, the ‘Pool’ was opened and nearly everyone swam off the boat. Later, after a terminology lesson, we swam again. We have a group of eager swimmers and lovely personalities on the ship. Very pleasant. We spent the rest of the day under way, with no wind whatsoever, up the Inlet, to arrive in time for high slack water at the entrance to Princess Louisa Inlet, a very narrow opening for our sized ship.
This part of the coast is magnificently stunning, one never tires of looking. In the hour before slack, we opened the pool for yet another swim. The water in the inlet is surprisingly comfortable for ocean water, 19-20 degrees Celsius and trainees swam for a considerably long time. After anchoring with a stern line attached to the beach, close to the Falls, we played group games on deck, and then sang below, with song books, 3 guitars, a violin, and a mandolin, the voices becoming slightly louder and surer this second Mug Up (the boat term for games/singing/snack). Lessons happened during the day with most trainees working through Junior Seamanship Requirements. Basic knots were taught the first day as we use them daily and they are useful for the rest of one’s life.
Now we have an hour of Chartwork after dishes, followed by another swim and then we will raise anchor to catch the evening high slack out of Princess Louisa Inlet and returning the way we came, out to Malaspina Straight, alongside eastern Texada island. From there we head deeper into Desolation Sound. Already we have experienced and seen so much . . . so much beauty, so much fun. Until next time, Bonice
Photos by: anonymous Summer 2025 participants
Continue reading the Summer 2025 Newsletter