Circumnavigating anyplace anti-clockwise: the earth, a continent, or Vancouver Island is metaphorically provocative, and Jupiter’s summer orbit carried the little ship backwards to remote places moored firmly in past times.

On the wild coasts of Vancouver Island the crew often found themselves detached from familiar shores, and attached to an immensity where the ocean rolls across a vast fetch onto a thinly populated region rich with ancient homelands, historical sites, and uncommonly welcoming islanders.

Long journeys made to small settlements, sometimes dwindling, were ever rewarded by meeting hardy, happy and curious residents.

Lovely small passages through rocky indents, ended in comfortable anchorages secure from the unrelenting action of the western sea.

We had friends aboard, made friends ashore and found satisfaction and abundant contentment rewinding an island already unwound.

Exploration Vessels

Harbors & Anchorages

During our journey around the island we spent eighteen nights on anchor in quiet coves and protected inlets, and twenty-four moored in sheltered harbors. The weather at sea and ashore was unexpectedly excellent with generally light winds. Rain fell on only three occasions.

Failures and Fixes

Mechanical issues aboard were few and minor. They included a freezer refrigerant leak, broken cap on a watermaker filter, two minor engine oil seeps, an inoperative rear view camera, and a leaky backflow valve at a sump pump. Most problems were quickly resolved by Jupiter’s engineering department.

Companions of the Sea, Land and Sky

Ground Cover

Sidney to Sidney, Jupiter’s circumnavigation during 44 days in June and July covered 869.8 nautical miles.

Full House: Fourteen harvests of micro-greens were reaped and consumed during the circumnavigation.

“There is little habitation in those waters, beyond a logging camp or trading centre hidden in some sheltered bay. The Indians living among these islands have the same setting that they have had for hundreds of years, and cling to many of their old customs. It seems to give the region a peculiar atmosphere belonging to the Past. Already we could feel it crowding closer. And the further we penetrated into these waters the more we felt that we were living in a different age – had perhaps lived there before…perhaps dimly remembered it all.”

M. Wylie Blanchet, The Curve of Time, ca. 1930