Crossing Queen Charlotte Sound in calm seas and almost zero wind

The midden at Green Island Anchorage

Cruising up a glassy calm Fisher
Channel

Looking up Cousins Inlet at the village of Martin River, just outside Ocean Falls

Approaching Ocean Falls

The "Shack" at Ocean Falls
There was no one home

Outside the courthouse, now a medical clinic
once a month or so

Ocean Falls is known for the amount of rain.

The old fire station, in better shape than many of the buildings

The dam and Link Lake, still producing power for Shearwater

and Bella Bella

Green Island Anchorage and Ocean Falls

May 9, 2010 – Mother’s Day

We celebrated Mother’s Day by leaving the dock at Port McNeill at 0458, being careful to minimize thrusters, even though we are side tied between “Raindancer” and a 47’ Bayliner, and need to get our bow out into the fairway before we can go ahead. It is not yet light, but we can see where we are going (somewhat). It is flat calm, and no wind as we head out around Neill Ledge and into Broughton Strait and the tip of Malcom Island. It slowly gets light, and we see our first two cruise ships moving North towards Queen Charlotte Sound, one Holland America moving at 22 knots, and the Norwegian Sun moving at only 15 knots. The Norwegian Sun finally passes us in Gordon Channel and heads up Hecate Strait, while we turn slightly to the North at Pine Island and head for Cape Caution. There is still no wind, just a low westerly swell that continues to build.

Our first gray whale sighting occurs just past Pine Island, the same place we saw gray whales three years ago. There is still no wind, and we decide to use the stabilizers as the four foot swell clocks around onto our beam heading past Egg Island and then past Cape Calvert into Fitz Hugh Sound. The swell quickly dissipates and we make the decision to go into Green Island Anchorage near Fish Egg Inlet rather than go into Pruth Bay. We are anchored shortly after 3PM.
Green Island Anchorage is beautiful, we are almost totally landlocked, it is calm and 30 feet deep, but we can see out into Fitz Hugh, where the afternoon westerly is now blowing and there are whitecaps showing. There are several bald eagles circling overhead, probably not happy that we disturbed their territory. Alongside us is the remains of an midden, a fancy name for a garbage dump of shells.

We have covered 80 NM today, on the GPS log, and have travelled 400 NM since leaving Anacortes. We are over halfway to Ketchikan!

May 10, 2010

After a quiet night at anchor, in the isolated calm bay, we headed back out into Fitz Hugh Sound and headed North, taking a detour into Namu Harbor to view the crumbling remnants of the cannery. Surprisingly, there was also some new construction going on. We continued up Fisher Channel and headed for Cousins Inlet and the deserted town of Ocean Falls. We called and called on the radio, no answer. There were a few boats at the dock, but we found no one around. Stopping at the Post Office to mail a letter (the only place open), we found that the harbormaster and wharfinger were both gone for the week, and both the store and the bar in Martin River were closed until Wednesday, as was the Café in the Coast Lodge. The Café is only open occasionally when work crews occupy the lodge, and the store is open a few days a week for several hours at a time. The power plant has been sold to a firm called Boralax, which has plans to sell excess power to “someone??”

Walking around Ocean Falls, one realizes just how fragile human structures are. The deserted town is crumbling into ruins and one can believe that in a few more years on the planet’s scale, there will be little evidence that humans ever occupied this place. It was eerily reminiscent of the “disaster” films where the human race is wiped out, and there is only one person left. One could image Charleton Heston lurking around somewhere!

No pictures today - slow internet connection! And also no cell phone service. Hopefully we will have both in Shearwater tomorrow so we can start arranging the repair of our cruising alternator.

Echo Bay and Port McNeill

The houseboat is still for sale, but looks abandoned

Pierre's was empty this time of year

This morning, after a leisurely wakeup, we left Echo Bay for a flat calm crossing to Port McNeill. We tied up behind the Selene 60 "Raindancer" that we had seen several days ago in Prideaux Haven.

Neil and Patrick drove to the Port Hardy airport to pick up the rental car, and by 2:30 PM our first guests (Neil and Noreen Millen) had departed for the long drive back to Sidney to catch the ferry back to their car in Anacortes.

The commercial spot prawn season opened on Thursday, and every 300' depth contour seems to have a string of commercial pots in it.

The weather report continues favorable for a crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound in the morning. We intend to leave about 0500 so we get past Cape Caution before the afternoon westerly winds pick up.

The next post may not be until Prince Rupert, in about one week

Smoke, Smoke and More Smoke

Neil Cooking crabs at Lagoon Cove

Friday, May 7, 2010
Yesterday Neil was at the controls as we left Dent Island and was in command most of the day, including some tricky narrow channels and some rapids. We cruised 60 nautical miles from Dent Island Lodge, through Dent Rapids, up Cordero Channel, through Green Point Rapids and Chancellor Channel. We had intended to turn up Wellbore Channel and transit Whirlpool Rapids, but the weather in Johnstone Strait was favorable and the ebb tide was still helping push us along so we entered Johnstone Strait on the south side of Hardwick Island.
As we headed up Johnstone, we passed by Port Neville, one of our alternate stops in the event of bad weather and turned into Havannah Channel, into Chatham Channel, through the Blow Hole (it was blowing 20 knots from the west by then) and arrived at Lagoon Cove Marina. "Wild Blue", a Selene 53, (Alex and Pat Benson) was already there, and after docking and getting the indoctrination briefing from Bill Barber (the Lagoon Cove Owner), we exchanged notes with the Benson’s on the severe winds of several days ago. Benson’s had made it to Grace Harbor before the windstorm struck. It turns out there was damage almost everywhere from the winds, so we were fortunate we were well anchored in Pender Harbor.
Lagoon Cove is an interesting place. The totem pole is truly unique, as is the exercise station for arriving boaters to work out the kinks. We were able to avail ourselves of some free Dungeness crabs and Neil cooked them in the “crab shack” before setting down to dinner (our favorite chicken tortilla casserole).
This morning we woke up to glassy water and overcast skies, but the weather report continues favorable with light winds in the morning turning into brisk westerly winds in the afternoon. After walking around Lagoon Cove, burning the burnables, and having crab omelets and fresh cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we finally and reluctantly departed about 1130 am.
Under sunny skies, as we motored down Knight Inlet, we smelled and saw thick smoke from the engine room. The Balmar cruising alternator had fried and after clearing the boat of smoke (yes the smoke alarms worked), we verified the source of the problem and disconnected the belts and kept on going to Echo Bay. There were a few moments of panic, since fire on a boat is never good news.Echo Bay was deserted, no one manning the radios, but the caretakers were on the dock and said “take your pick of slips!” Pierre was gone for a few days, so we will miss that experience. Not long after we arrived, “Wild Blue” arrived and we enjoyed sharing sea stories over cocktails in the cockpit under glorious sunshine, until the sun went below the hill and the true temperature became very evident – chilly!!

Working out the kinks at exercise station #4

Miriam taking care of Burnables

Lagoon Cove Gertie

Departing Dent Island for the Broughton's

We just finished a great breakfast at the lodge (two kinds of smoked salmon, cold cuts, cheeses, juices, coffee to start then eggs, bacon, blueberry pancakes and hashbrowns) and are making final preparations to depart at high slack water for the trip into the Broughton's.

The dinner at the lodge last night was memorable, and we were the only guests so it was like being in your own private resort. We began with appetizers, including oysters baked on the half shell with parmesan cheese, then steamed clams or green salad, followed by Dungeness crab and then the main course of beef tenderloin topped with fresh BC spot prawns and bernaise sauce. We finished off the meal with strawberry shortcake and waddled back to the boat.

Dent Island

Getting ready to leave Ganges on May 2, Miriam's cousin Dean Sevold seeing us off.

Slack Water at Dodd Narrows was at 1300 today, so we did not leave

Ganges until 0900. Dean Sevold joined us for breakfast before we left. Weather was nearly flat calm, little did we know what was coming.

When we arrived at Dodd, we were still a little early, but there was no trafic and the current was down to a couple of knots, so we went ahead and transited. The day was still young, it was Sunday when the shops would be closed in Nanaimo, and the Straits of Georgia appeared calm, so we continued on to Pender Harbor.

By the time we arrived, the benign forecast had changed to a severe wind alert, so we let out more scope on the anchor. Also in Garden Bay at Pender Harbor was another Selene 55, Rendezvous. Their stern thruster coupling had failed, and we had a spare, so they were able to replace it. The wind gradually built to sustained winds in the mid-thirty knot range, with gusts to 47.2 knots. Spirit sailed around on the anchor over about 100 degrees, but the anchor was well set. Neil and I stayed up to watch over things, and is was 0330 before the front passed and we both got some sleep.

The next morning we listened to the weather forecast, and it seemed OK, with winds at Grief Point only 15 knots, so we left. We should have stayed. Malaspina Strait turned into a washing machine, with the winds building back to the mid-30 knot range and short steep seas. We ended up slowing down to 4-5 knots to keep from slamming too hard.

By the time we got to Grief Point, the weather alerts now called for waterspouts, and sure enough, we saw them on the horizon ahead. We dodged around the line of thundershowers and finaaly started seeing the winds decrease as we entered Thulin Passage.

At 1535, we anchored in Prideaux Haven. Raindancer, a Selene 60 was already anchored. We had been moored adjacent to Raindancer at the Selene Rendezvous the previous week.

At anchor, Prideaux Haven, Desolation Sound

The weather continued to improve, we set the shrimp pots, cleaned as much of the salt off the boat as possible and relaxed.

Noreen baked fresh cinnamon pull-aparts for breakfast.


Ladies Cocktail Cruise

Checking out our inflatable Kayaks.

Neil and Patrick enjoying the sun on the boat deck.

Miriam checking out the hammock chair suspended from the davit

Our spot prawn appetizers were worth the effort.


The weather was so pleasant we decided to stay another day, but today, May 5, we reluctantly departed Prideaux Haven and and cruised easily up to Dent Island Lodge.

Departing Desolation Sound, with spectacular scenery.

May 1, 2010

Approaching Ganges

It is 0515 and the sun is just beginning to light the eastern sky over the Anacortes refineries. The gulls have started making noise, so even those now asleep will soon be awake. Calm winds in the marina right now. Time to make that first latte and fire up the navigation electronics as we prepare to cast off lines and motor to Ganges, BC. There will be another minus tide later today, and we will be bucking it most of the way. Just the way it is this time of year, where the big ebb tides are in the middle of the day.
By 0530, most of us are up since Sean and Margaret need to be back in Seattle by 0815. We made a quick batch of breakfast sandwiches (rolls, Canadian bacon, eggs and Havarti cheese) to go with more latte’s.0650 – The last line is cast off and we motor slowly out of the marina, resisting the temptation to give our sleeping friends a blast on the airhorn. The tide has begun to ebb, so we get quite a boost down Guemes Channel. There is very little traffic, and we see only a few boats between Anacortes and Bedwell Harbor. May 1 is the first day Bedwell is open for customs, but it is telephone only, and we are cleared in just a few minutes.

Safely moored at Ganges Marina

Our crew near the Tree House Cafe

By 1315 we are tied up to the dock at Ganges Marina and shortly thereafter headed for the stores to stock the boat with all the things we could not bring across the border. Of course, the only rain was on the way back to the boat with the supplies.
The breakwater at Ganges Marina has been damaged by a large boat dragging anchor recently and drifting into it. There is yellow tape blocking access by foot, so until the breakwater is repaired, moorage may be limited.
We had a delightful lunch at the Tree House Café, with both good food (everything from monster burgers to open faced baked tuna melt sandwiches) and great Bloody Caesar’s. After we did some more shopping, we went back to the boat to log on and get our Canadian fishing licenses. We had a moment of panic when we found we needed login information from three years ago on our last trip to Alaska. Fortunately, we were able to reconstruct the information and print out new licenses.
Dean Sevold, Miriam’s cousin, came by the boat later in the evening. He lives on Saltspring Island and we have reconnected with him on our many trips across the border.

Neil keeping up Spirit's appearances.