BC – Riveted

Mitlenatch Island | BC

Laura Domela — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 02:28:53 +0000

We left our anchorage at Rebecca Spit around noon and headed for Melanie Cove in Prideaux Haven (Desolation Sound). It’s a little out of our way (and NORTH!) but hard to pass by when the weather is this great.

A little bit into our cruise, we opted to make a detour and stop at Mitlenatch Island. Mitlenatch Island Nature Provincial Park is home to the largest seabird colony in the Strait of Georgia. The island is a nature reserve and an important nesting colony for Glaucous-winged Gulls, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Black Oystercatchers and many other species of birds. Marine life around the island includes river otters and harbour seals throughout the year, and Steller’s and California sea lions from late fall through to summer. [source]

Mitlenatch is here, in the middle of the map image (the small green island). Campbell River on Vancouver Island is over on the left side. Here’s a link to the actual Google map, if you want to zoom and stuff.

Steller sea lions, harbour seals, and a cormorant on our way into the cove:

The conditions were calm so we easily snuck in and anchored in the shallow cove (in about 15 feet) and then went ashore to explore.

The “Volunteer’s Cabin” (there was no one there right now, but I believe there’s someone here most of the summer):

There are all sorts of little collections of shells and bones around the cabin, as well as a little stack of pamphlets about the BC parks and wildlife. We looked around and then headed down the trail.

On the other side of the island there was a group of harbour seals hanging out in the sun at the water’s edge. We were pretty far away (and really quiet) but I think they still figured out we were there and after a couple minutes, some of them decided to get in the water.

On our way back across we went to check out the Gull Blind:

All we saw was one lone gull and a couple cormorants, but I’m guessing during the spring and early summer there are a lot of cool nesting gulls and baby birds to watch.

We did manage to spot and snap a photo of a neat Black Oystercatcher though:

After hiking all of the trails (except the one that went to the outhouse) we headed back to Airship.

The water here is so clear!

We had some lunch and then continued on toward Melanie Cove. This was a great stop, and highly recommended on a calm day.

Octopus Islands to Rebecca Spit | BC

Laura Domela — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 02:26:24 +0000

Last night just as we were eating dinner, guess who pulled into the cove where we were anchored? Thomas, Lars, and Urban…on Dawnbreaker! After dinner we had them over for some brownies and wine (and stories, and laughing, and planning the next anchorages….)

This morning after breakfast, Kevin took the drone up for some aerial photos, because look at this location!!

We took the dinghy out for a little exploration before we left. We beached it on Octopus Island and walked around a little.

Oops…someone lost an anchor:

I found a couple of large beds of sea asparagus on the beach on Octopus Island, so I harvested a couple of handfuls and will probably cook it up or put it in a salad. There are tons of recipes online for things to do with sea asparagus.

Both Airship and Dawnbreaker left around the same time…to hit Surge Narrows around slack this afternoon at 2pm. Slack was…slack. Uneventful in Surge Narrows…

Looking out into Sutil Channel:

Gorgeous anchorage at Rebecca Spit:

We dinghied over to the Heriot Bay Inn & Marina and then walked up to the market to restock on veggies and wine. If we didn’t feel so much like grilling back on the boat in this gorgeous weather, we’d have tried out the pub or restaurant at the Inn…

Back on Airship we sat on the top deck with a beer and some snacks and watch the light from the sunset over the spit. Not sure where we’ll go tomorrow yet, but here’s the view from right now:

There’s good internet here (and there has been since we left the Octopus Islands) so we’ve been working all along the way as well…it’s not just as interesting to write about work!

Echo Bay to Port Harvey | BC

Laura Domela — Sun, 18 Sep 2016 02:43:11 +0000

We arrived at Echo Bay early in the day yesterday (since we got out of Booker Lagoon by 7:30am). It was rainy all day.

Dawnbreaker arrived later on (still pouring rain). Luckily, they had these fancy umbrellas onboard:

Thomas and Urban, above…doing the umbrella spinning thing for drama. Not pictured, Lars at the helm, being serious (but probably not really).

It rained all night. But hey, that means nice freshwater wash down for Airship, so it’s okay.

We slept in this morning (after a not-that-late-but-still-kinda-late evening hanging with the Dawnbreaker crew). After dinner last night, Thomas, Lars, and Urban brought over a homemade apple pie (and a bottle of wine) and we got out the pint of vanilla bean ice cream we brought from home (and still hadn’t eaten yet! How did THAT happen?) … fun conversation, stories, dessert, wine, espresso…

It was great catching up with Pierre, as always. He’s making some expansions and improvements to the store and the restaurant, and he’s got a new, darling cabin for rent (plus suites in the lodge) so if you don’t have a boat but want to come to Echo Bay, there are options!

We wandered around a bit this morning chatting with the other boaters (there were 7 boats at Pierre’s last night…that’s a lot for this time of year!)…and then made breakfast before heading out. (Our default breakfast is…breakfast tacos. Today’s were the last of the chorizo scrambled with some eggs, sliced avocado, homemade salsa, a dash of habanero hot sauce in flour tortillas…yum!) We left around 10am and headed over to see George and Gail at Port Harvey. The rain came and went, but it was a beautiful cruise:

We went around the west side of Gilford Island through Cramer Passage and Retreat Passage to Knight Inlet (bottom of Gilford Island) and then through Chatham Channel to get to Port Harvey. We were timed to hit Chatham Channel at max flood, so the current would be going with us, but at potentially 7 knots. We read up on Chatham Channel, and nothing sounded too dangerous (no whirlpools or eddies or overfalls), and it’s a smooth-bottomed channel, so the flow is laminar which is just fast, but not turbulent. We went through with no issues at all. We had 4.5 knots of current with us at the narrowest/fastest part, but that’s it. Nothing weird or nail-biting or anything.

We dropped our crab pots just west of Range Island on our way into the dock at Port Harvey and then caught up with George and Gail here for a bit. The rebuild of the store and restaurant are coming along nicely, and should be fabulous and better-than-ever for next season!

George said they’d seen a big grizzly on shore near their house next to the apple tree for the past two days, so to keep an eye out. We did, and then there he was!

George waited while I took a few photos before he fired his rifle to scare the bear away.

Now, we’re just hanging out on Airship (one other boat here tonight, the Jacari Maru, a Puget Trawler) and about to make dinner. We aren’t sure of our plans for tomorrow yet. Maybe Shoal Bay, and then the Octopus Islands…and then maybe Heriot Bay or Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island (in the spirit of trying to also go some places we haven’t been before). I could explore like this indefinitely.

Booker Lagoon | BC

Laura Domela — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 06:51:40 +0000

After provisioning and filling up with water in Port McNeill, we left after breakfast and headed out into Queen Charlotte Strait with Booker Lagoon as our destination…20 or so nautical miles across. The fog was back, but it came and went until we were out in the middle of the strait:

Sea lion checking us out:

We kept hearing chatter on the radio about orcas near “the Fosters” so I looked on the chart and realized they were talking about the Foster Islands. It just so happened we were going to be going right past the Foster Islands. We kept an eye out toward the spot on the horizon where several boats were hanging out, and saw (between us and them, but closer to us) two humpbacks hanging out near the surface.

We watched the humpbacks pass and continued toward the other boats. Pretty soon, we too saw the orcas. These are the first orcas we’ve seen all summer! There were maybe five of them, a group of three and a group of two.

The orcas moved east and we continued toward Booker Lagoon. Booker Lagoon is accessed through Booker Passage, a narrow channel with a 90 degree left turn with currents that can run to 8 knots. You really only want to go through at slack, and so that’s what we did.

Nice and calm, just after high slack…about a half a knot of current noticeable.

Cairns on shore at the entrance:

After entering the lagoon, there are many places to anchor. We checked out three of the arms…the easternmost, and two of the westernmost. The one marked in Active Captain and the Waggoner Guide as the preferred anchorage also comes with warnings about some uncharted rocks near the entrance that really messed up someone’s boat…but we went in and out of that entrance on both sides with the sonar on (including 200 feet of SideVu on either side of the boat), we only saw what was already charted. We found no stray rocks hanging out other than the ones on the chart.

We anchored in about 50 feet in the arm just south of the noted/preferred arm and it’s lovely. Seals on the shore, lots of birds around, and quiet.

We took the dinghy out to explore and set crab traps (no clue if there are crab here…will let you know later). (Update No. 1: no crab.)

About half way between high tide and low tide, we went into a little spot just before the narrows. The water wasn’t flowing through this part anymore and we were able to go ashore (walking on barnacles and seaweed and rocks) and to the other side to see what the rapids looked like. It looked like one big whirlpool of turbulent water! Cool! Hard to show in these photos, but yeah…I wouldn’t want to do that at any other time besides slack.

Here’s a section of the chart, so you can see what I’m talking about. The narrow part is Booker Passage. The red X is where we’re standing to view it (beached/rocked the dinghy just north of the X…the green part is now “land”). When we came in with Airship, we entered from the south through Cullen Harbour, made the left turn through Booker Passage, and into Booker Lagoon:

Looking toward the narrows. When we came through a few hours earlier, this was filled with water, the land on the right was an island, and on the other side of that island, more water (you can see this on the chart above…the green part is water at high tide):

Getting a view of the rapids out in Booker Passage from here:

Looking back at where we landed the dinghy:

Walking on barnacles:

The water in Booker Channel is flowing rapidly and from here it appears to be one big whirlpool…water flowing fast right to left on one side, and fast left to right on the other:

It’s super interesting to see these caution areas at their worst. If you plan correctly and always go through narrows and rapids at the recommended or slack times (as you should) you’ll never know what the conditions look like that you’re trying to avoid. (very helpful).

Back at Airship we decided to make some homemade pizzas for dinner.

I got the dough mixed and resting and came up with some ingredients for two different pizzas. We did them on the grill just like Deke and Tiffani taught us and they came out great! Pizza leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

We’re getting a little bit of intermittent data/internet in here, but it’s slow and unreliable. Our plan is to leave on the early low slack tide (minimum depth at zero tide shows 21 feet on the chart, so we’re fine at low tide) in the morning at 7:35am. We’ll head over to Pierre’s at Echo Bay, where we’ll meet up with our new friends on the S/Y Dawnbreaker.

Update No. 2: We got to Booker Passage this morning right at the published low slack time for nearby Sunday Harbor (7:35am) but there was still some current in the narrows. Two knots of current, in fact. We (I) did some quick maneuvers (a tiny bit stressful) but made it through fine. Though it’s also nice to know how the boat (and the skipper) handles conditions like these, it’s nicer to just theorize about that part.

On to Pierre’s!

Crossing Cape Caution | BC

Laura Domela — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 01:46:39 +0000

This was our fourth crossing of Cape Caution. The first one was the only one that was a little bit uncomfortable (6 foot swells at 4-5 seconds apart). The rest have been relatively calm and uneventful. (When you have the time to wait for a good weather window, you can be picky about when you do your crossing.) This one was boring. I napped for the actual crossing of the Cape. Yawn. Sleepy. There was no land in view, barely any water in view, and only an occasional other boat on AIS (also not in view). We had radar going but mostly the screen was blank. See? Boring. (Wind was 5kts or less, swells were around 3 feet…around 8 seconds or more, and as you can see…visibility sucked. We’ll take it!)

While Kevin was napping I passed an otter chillin’…he was only about 25ft from the boat as I went by and he just floated there watching me pass. I said hello (actually I said “Hey buddy!”) and took his photo.

As we got a ways into Queen Charlotte Strait, the fog started to clear and we could see land.

Behind us, out toward the Pacific (that dot is a fishing boat):

Ahead of us, toward Port McNeill (today’s destination):

It was sunny and warm as we arrived. We got settled at the North Island Marina and then walked (T-shirts only, no jackets!) up to the IGA market to stock up on veggies and a few other things. Our plan is to head back across the strait tomorrow and hang out in the Broughtons a bit…maybe go to some places we haven’t been yet (along with a few repeat favorites).

They had giant bunches of fragrant (local) fresh basil at the market, so tonight we’re going to make some tortellini and toss it with fresh basil, grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a little olive oil and salt.

Khutze Bay and Klemtu | BC

Laura Domela — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 08:37:20 +0000

Our cruise from Farrant Island Lagoon (just north of Hartley Bay) through the last bit of Grenville Channel, then McKay Reach, then Fraser Reach, then Graham Reach…was a slog. It rained all night in Farrant Island Lagoon, and continued all day today. Oh also, the winds were 20-30 knots. For as much as the wind was gusting, the only really gnarly part was out in the part between Grenville Channel and McKay Reach (where Douglas Channel, Grenville Channel, Whale Channel and McKay Reach all meet up). It was here that we saw several humpbacks breaching. Those breaching whales happened to be about 50 yards from the boat! It was so rainy and windy and bumpy, however, that I took no photos. It was cool though, trust me.

Here’s me trying to get a photo of a whale breaching (no whale…it was off to the right):

I did manage to get this shot though (before I fell over and my shoe came off)…some fin-slapping between breaches:

Later on though, we saw MORE whales breaching (on both sides of the boat!) and it wasn’t quite as bumpy, but it was still pouring rain, so no photos of that either. At one point as we were cruising along, we had to do an emergency shut off stop because a humpback surfaced RIGHT in front of the boat. Whew…glad we were alert for that one!

It was not a nice weather day, at all. This whole route is just lined with waterfalls on both sides. We probably passed a hundred waterfalls. Here are two (through the pouring rain, taken through the window):

Considering how strong the wind was blowing, the sea conditions weren’t all that bad. A little bumpy, but nothing too terrible.

We arrived in Khutze Bay and there were maybe 5 or 6 boats there! We’ve only ever seen one other boat there, so this felt packed! As you can tell, the weather did not improve:

Another waterfall in the rain:

At least three of the boats here were big Canadian charter cruise boats full of people (complaining on the radio about how many boats were here). Their passengers needed to see some bears, so crewmembers were taking loads of people out by the dinghy-load over to the shore and up river a bit so they could see some bears (and they did).

We, however, have both (a) been here before and seen bears, and (b) have seen a lot of bears this summer, so we stayed warm inside and cooked dinner (fresh halibut, lemon risotto, and zucchini).

This morning we could see blue sky from the stateroom hatch! We opted to head out (and not go see bears again) and left our anchorage around 9am.

The conditions out in Graham Reach…beautiful:

Boat Bluff Lighthouse, on the south end of Sarah Island, almost to Klemtu:

Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians (originally from Kitasu Bay), and the Xai’xais of Kynoch Inlet, a subgroup of the Heiltsuk people. The name Klemtu comes from the Coast Tsimshian language, and means “impassable”.

Here’s some fun folklore, from Wikipedia:

Around 1968 Sasquatch were reportedly seen by people from the village of Klemtu. Bigfoot researcher John Green and Bob Titmus visited Klemtu to investigate the sightings. Their findings indicated that the villagers rarely traveled inland. In older times there was only one trail on the island, across one end of it. The people went everywhere by boat, even hunting and trapping on the beaches, and told stories of apes in the islands. A Klemtu villager named Joe Hopkins reported seeing a Sasquatch on a clam beach. Others encountered Bigfoot when they hunted or fished. A crew of men from Klemtu who were building a dam on a lake above the village had seen tracks on a beach. The varying size of tracks indicated to John Green that a family of Sasquatch were present. This is the first report of a family of Sasquatch. The natives reported stories of the apes swimming from island to island. Sasquatch prints were also reported found in snow on the boardwalks of the unused bunkhouses behind Klemtu Cannery.

In late 2014 Survivorman Les Stroud did a special on Klemtu where he searched for Bigfoot. The special aired in April, 2015.

The Big House, from the water:

The Big House is one of the highlights of Klemtu, we hear. We walked a lot of the village, and then up to the Big House. We passed a woman in a car on the way up and she stopped to ask if we’d been able to get in touch with anyone about a tour. We told her no, and she said she’d see if she could get it arranged for us. How nice! We walked around and looked at the outside…

The “Dreamcatcher Trail” is just around the other side of the Big House, so we walked that (short, but very cool) trail:

Textured so the step doesn’t get too slippery:

The trail ends at a small cemetery (I only noticed two above-ground tombs).

We walked the trail back to the Big House, and waited around a while just enjoying the view (in case someone was coming by to show us the inside…the timing wasn’t clear). There’s a guy mentioned in a guidebook who apparently gives tours of the Big House for ten bucks, so maybe this was who the woman was getting ahold of…in any case, they know where to find us…we’re the only tourist boat here.

Looking across the bay at the other side of town, and the public dock where Airship got the last available space:

No one showed up at the Big House, so we wandered back through town. A man in a car pulled over near us and asked if we were in the white boat that had come in earlier, and we told him yes. He introduced himself (I’ll call him “Jim”) and showed us some of his artwork..beautiful work, and if I hadn’t already bought too much art this summer I might have considered buying something. He chatted with us for maybe 10 minutes or so about all sorts of things. We asked if there was a way to see the inside of the Big House, and he said that sadly, there was no one taking care of it anymore…and that the guy taking care of it had been taking tourists’ money and not reporting it to the Band Office, so they let him go. (Oops!) We chatted a little more, then said goodbye to “Jim” and wandered up the hill to look at the school and the Spirit Bear Lodge (though we didn’t go in the lodge…I don’t know why because it’s probably cool, but we really wanted to see the Big House so didn’t want to stray too far from a potential tour).

On our way back along the waterfront, we ran into another local guy and he stopped us to chat for a few minutes. He introduced himself (I’ll call him “Bob”). It turns out that “Bob” was the very guy mentioned in the guidebook as the one who gives tours of the Big House. He told us all about meeting the publisher, and seemed quite proud to be “in the book!” However, with recent local knowledge learned from “Jim” of a scandal involving Big House tours, I did not mention that I knew who he was, in case he was the one ousted from the tour-giving care-taking job. We asked “Bob” if there was a way to see the inside of the Big House, and he said he worked over at the Spirit Bear Lodge and that he’d go talk to some people and see if he could arrange it. “Bob” also told us that sometimes they open the Big House up for dance and drum practice (“for the youngsters” he said) and that if such a thing were to be happening later this evening, we’d hear about it on VHF Channel 06 (the whole town monitors VHF Ch. 06, apparently), and that he’d reach us on Ch. 06 if he could arrange a tour.

We returned to Airship and figured we’d hang out and do some work and monitor Ch. 06.

We never heard from “Bob,” nor were there any announcements about the Big House being open, so we haven’t been able to see it. We did learn, however, that a woman had been waiting (for a while it seemed) for a man, and the man said he was coming, and the woman then told him that she forgot to tell him “not to talk to anybody.” Intrigue in Klemtu.

Tomorrow I think we’ll head over to Shearwater for some groceries (though we did pick up a few things here at the Band Store like milk, lemons, and tortillas…we still need more), some laundry, and perhaps some fuel.

Forgotten Black Bears

Laura Domela — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 16:24:30 +0000

I forgot to show you this photo of a black bear sow and cub that I took when we were transiting from Lowe Inlet to Khutze Inlet in BC, because that was also the day of a zillion bubble feeding humpbacks, so it got left behind. Poor bears. I'm trying to make up. (This photo is WAY zoomed and then way cropped…pretty good for my crippled camera!)

Also, we're home (you probably figured that, due to the last post and the lack of more posts since that last post) but we have some more posts we're working on about the trip in general, and about doing the Waggoner flotilla, so expect to see those in the near future. Also, expect us to be back on the boat soon, because this whole "land" thing is just weird. (And the house is too big, and there's too much stuff, and OMG mail! I hate mail! What is with all the magazines???)

We bought a WaterRower for home and have been using it every day. It's supposed to be one of the most whole-body workouts you can get next to swimming — the movement and the feel of the workout is very satisfying, and…"Hey neat! Water sounds!" I had a quick image of using it on the top deck of Airship as we cruised along, taking turns up there, pretending to power the boat. It's not marine grade though, so it's probably not gonna happen.