Waiatt Bay & Octopus Islands

We woke up to a beautiful clear day. We took the kayaks into the Octopus Islands. Near the shore in shallow water we say many starfish, sun starfish, crabs and sand dollars. I thought sand dollars were unique to the east coast since I've never seen them in California or here before. We think they are sand dollars anyway. They look just like the ones I've seen in novelty stores. Many of them are black and they look like velvet. After viewing sea life we went to look for the rock that hit us yesterday. It is low tide and saw it and the blue-tinged scrape on the top. There is a scrape on the bow at the waterline from our encounter. Thank goodness their was nothing seriously damaged.

Blind Channel Resort to Waiatt Bay - 3½ hours, 23 miles

Labor Day

We decided we didn't want to stay on this inside passage through two more rapids. The weather report shows rain and light wind. We had choices as to which slack time we were going to take through Okisollo Rapids. One was around 3:30 PM and the other at 9:15 AM. We really didn't want to go out into Johnstone Straight in the afternoon when the wind usually builds. So we bit the bullet and got up at 5:30 this morning. It was still dark, and foggy and rainy. We were out of the slip at 6:00 AM to make it to Okisollo for the 9:15 AM slack. We had good enough sight to be able to see two tug boats with barges in the Straight. Even as it got lighter the fog and rain continued. A bit of a nerve-wracking trip for Fred. He does almost all of the driving now. I usually sit with Merlin in my lap. This time I lay down on the sofa to try and go back to sleep. It didn't work very well. We passed through Okisollo Rapids with relatively calm water. There were a few whirlpools. We entered the Octopus Islands at low water. We usually anchor here because it so beautiful between the islets. Boy there are a lot of rocks at low water! Fred passed the helm to me so he could start setting up for anchoring. I was looking at the boat in front of me and not at the chart plotter. Too late, as Fred hollered and took control back, we hit (very softly) a rock… Boy do I feel like a fool. Fred checked and there doesn't appear to be any damage (except to my pride). We went in to look but two boats were already there so we went out to Waiatt Bay to anchor in deeper water and more safety. The only bird I saw here is a loon. Their call is very sad sounding and quite beautiful.

Blind Channel Resort

Today we took a hike to see the 800 year old cedar tree. It is about 16 feet in diameter. We were reassured again so we took Merlin with is as well as our bear bell and air horn. We put the bell on Merlin and he wasn't too crazy about it. I also think he may have smelled the big scary animals that live in the woods. He stayed very close to us. The hike wasn't too strenuous although my heart rate really got up there. It is so beautiful here. We have no idea how deep the forest floor is beneath us. We are walking much of the time on a cedar path which is spongy and soft. The old cedar tree is magnificent. We marvel at how it survived all of the lumbering. There are three cemetery markers on the tree of past Richter's with flowers around them. We wonder if their ashes were spread here. There are no actual grave sites. We got back to the resort in time to have a barbecued lunch on the patio. Again, overpriced ($15 for a cheeseburger), but delicious and in a lovely location. The rain started in the afternoon and got quite hard by dinnertime.

Beaver Inlet to Blind Channel Resort - 1 ½ hours, 12 miles

This a new port for us. I called yesterday and made reservations for tonight. This is popular, if expensive, destination. When we arrived after passing through Green Point Rapids at 12:45 PM. The dock has seven fingers with docking on both side of a finger. There is only one boat there. It is a beautiful 60 foot sailboat. Our reference books refer to a lot of tidal action in this marina but we must has gotten in still at slack water. Fred had no problem. We had lunch on the boat and then went wandering. This marina was started in the 70’s by Annemarie & Edgar Richter. Edgar designed and built the buildings and the artwork of Annemarie's is everywhere. There are quilts, crocheted afghans and fantastic mosaics. The mosaics are on the dock, outside of every building and the most beautiful is in the restaurant. She everyday things to make her works of art. Most of the them have a lot of shells and broken pottery. None were for sale or I might have made a dent in the budget. The marina is now run by the second and third generations of Richters. I think marinas always look better in the beautiful sunshine like we have today. We went to check in and then look around. There is a small grocery store, some gifts and crafts, a laundry room and a fancy dining room. We made reservations for dinner tonight at the Cedar Post Inn. I asked and was told that it was safe to let Merlin run around and even for a walking the woods. Well, that sounds nice. As the afternoon wore on we saw about 10 more boats come into the marina. The dining room is lovely and looks out at the marina. I have schnitzel and Fred had goulash. His was better than mine. The dinner with 1 beer and 1 iced tea came to over $100!

Douglas Bay to Beaver Inlet, Loughborough Inlet - 2 hours 13 miles

There are four sets of rapids on our planned route. We must pass through each at slack tide. The rapids are; Whirlpool Rapids, Green Point Rapids, Dent and Yuculta Rapids. The water runs at up to 9 knots at times. Since we only go 6-7 knots, we have to plan carefully. We passed through Whirlpool Rapids at 20 minutes before slack and it was calm and easy. We are going to spend the night here before passing the next rapids, Green Point.

Lagoon Cove to Douglas Bay, Forward Harbour - 5 hours 33 miles

Our trip through Blow Hole and Chatham Channel was made easier by following a sailboat. We figured if there was water under him, we would have no problem. The weather is so pleasant and the seas calm so we extended our route today. We were going to stop at Port Neville, as usual, but continued on past it to tuck up into Havannah Channel. We are heading back up the inside route south. We found a lovely anchorage in Douglas Bay. There is a white shell beach, but we are uncomfortable taking Merlin there because of wild animals.

Lagoon Cove

It rained in buckets last night. After lunch the clouds looks better so we went off in the dinghy to explore. We don't always travel light. We each had a travel mug of coffee, bottled water and Merlin. I wore a poncho so I could keep Merlin & I dry. Halfway down Hole-in-the-Wall, the heavens opened up. Merlin & I were fine but Fred's coffee leaked and then his hat trying to blow off. Not fun anymore. The rain kept up so we didn't go to Happy Hour tonight.

Port McNeill to Lagoon Cove - 5 hours, 32.3 miles

We went up for a latte before leaving port. We headed over to the fuel dock. We took on 200 gallons of diesel @ 4.04/gallon. The price was a shocker. This is much higher than we paid in Anacortes in June. The sun is out and we are heading back into the Broughton’s today. We are taking a new route that will take us off of Johnstone Straight and into some lovely, small waterways. The weather was so nice that Merlin & I sat upon the bow and watched the world go by. About an hour from our destination we caught up with six trawlers that appeared to be traveling together. Sure enough, as we got closer to Lagoon Cove we heard on the radio that numerous boats were having a yacht club rendezvous there. As we entered the cove we really couldn't see how much, if any, dock space was free. Since this is a nice peaceful cove we decided to anchor instead of going on the dock. I made a fruit salad and we went over to Happy Hour at 5 PM. We had a nice time and sure enough the place was packed. We had a wonderful dinner of cheese, fruit, meatballs and fresh shrimp. As most of us were done eating, Bill got up and was telling some of his wonderful stories. Then it started to rain. We hung around until Bill finished one of his stories to pack up and leave. The rain was coming down harder so the party was pretty much breaking up. We were pretty wet when we got back to Aquila. However, we had a nice warm boat to dry us off.

Port McNeill

We were up at O-dark-thirty to board Code 3 for our fishing charter. The sun is out and the seas are flat. We have no idea if that is good or not for fishing. What we do know is that we will be relatively warm and definitely dry. Merlin stayed aboard Aquila as our guard dog. We dressed warmly and brought our fishing poles that John gave us last year. Barry gave us quick orientation to this 26’ boat. The boat is great because it has heat inside and a stand up head. It was fascinating watching Barry showed us his gear and he explained why he used each gadget. He used salted herring as bait. He has two downriggers and rod holders all over the boat. He placed three lines in the water, each at a different depth. We just sat back and waited for a tug at a line. It wasn't too long before Fred caught our first fish. Unfortunately it was a small flounder that got thrown back. The second tug turned out to be a small rock fish…he went back in too. We waited…and waited and finally got a really good tug at a line. Fred reeled the fish in as Barry got the other lines out of the way. This was a beautiful wild Coho salmon. It is not allowed to keep a wild Coho in this area, only hatchery ones. This fish had a small dorsal fin which is cut off on hatchery salmon.

Shawl Bay to Port McNeill - 5 hours, 36.6 miles

No journal.

Burly Bay to Shawl Bay - 2 ¾ hours, 16.5 miles

No journal.

Jennis Bay to Burly Bay - 2 ½ hours, 14 miles

Fred pulled the kayaks up on to the dock and emptied the water out of them. In between the rain clouds we took a nice long kayak trip at low water. It is easier to see the starfish, crabs and little fleeting fish at this time. The seats in both our kayaks stayed damp but we ignored this discomfort. Merlin was a perfect gentleman in the kayak today. I hardly knew he was there and we were out for 90 minutes. On one of the islands we say a mink scurrying on the rocks and then disappearing. A mink looks like a ferret, but a little bigger. We were waiting to leave the dock for the high slack at Stewart Narrows at 2:30 PM. Phyllis came to say good by and to take our photo with the boat for Allyson's album (Fred warned about his ability to break cameras). We couldn't decide where to go next so we went back to Burly Bay. This time we anchored near the outlet of Hopetown Passage. The water was like glass the entire time. It was particularly serene.

Jennis Bay

This is a very nice bay for kayaking. Merlin was my copilot as usual. The most interesting thing we saw was near the area where a stream enters the bay. There is a huge amount of broken dishes in the water. Apparently in the old days of lumbering the folks had a habit of using the beach as a dump. The water is clear and beautiful now but interesting pieces of the past remain.

Muirhead Islands to Jennis Bay

We had a very short trip back down Drury Inlet to Jennis Bay Marina. They only have room for about ten boats here. There were five here. That is a nice amount for visiting. Allison & Tom, the owners, are not here. The caretakers, George & Phyllis, are very nice and interesting people. This is the place that their large dog was attacked by a wolf up near the building on shore. This happened last summer. Fortunately everything healed except the left eye. Phyllis also told us that a Portuguese Water Dog was walking on the shell beach (midden) at Blunden Harbour and the dog was grabbed by a cougar and disappeared. The BC coast is a rain forest and the woods and shrubs are very dense. Now, of course we are wary of taking Merlin in a place near the forest. We took him up to the head of the dock only. He did have fun running around on the docks. Of course we had Happy Hour in the Cook house. We ran into a couple who live in Alameda! George was very interesting. He comes from the middle of Canada. He told us stories about being a lumberjack and about his bull riding days in the rodeo.

Muirhead Islands

It started raining during the night. There is no wind and the water is like glass. How beautiful. Today is another day to catch up on chores and settle down for reading a good book. Merlin is funny. When we are anchor like this without a place to go for a walk, Merlin does “his business” on the foredeck. Well, not in the rain. He just poked his head out and had a few drops on his head and he was back on the sofa. Fortunately we have other options under cover.

Muirhead Islands

Well, no crab again in the crab pot. Fred moved it hoping for better luck. It is a spectacularly clear day. We took a ride in the dinghy to explore. We are close to another inlet that we have never explored. It is near high tide so we have plenty of water under us. We passed through Actress Passage and into Actaeon Sound. There are so many islets that I was turned around completely. Thank goodness that Fred has an excellent sense of direction. It is quite beautiful but not much different from where we are anchored now. On our way back to the boat we passed a rock that had about ten seals on it. I think they are harbour seals. It was interesting that they were several different colors. Some were dark and spotted and several others were a pretty brown. Maybe different ages? I will have to look them up. As soon as it was dark (about 9 PM) the moon came out. It is about half full and so bright it lit up the entire bay. The water was like glass and the mirror image of the hills and trees was lovely.

Burly Bay to Muirhead Islands - 3 hours, 20.5 miles

We planned out journey to arrive at Stuart Narrows in Drury Inlet at slack water. We passed Jennis Bay Marina and went back into the inlet and anchored in the Muirhead Islands.

Burly Bay

Today we are going for a dinghy ride in search of bear. We went down Mackenzie Sound to Little Nimmo Bay. We passed a very high end fishing lodge there. We didn’t see any action but they had a fast boat and a seaplane docked there. We went up to the head of the bay to check out the anchorage. The location is good but it is too close to the lodge for our taste. We looked everywhere but the bears are still hiding. Sunset is magnificent here. The way the sun lights up the granite walls and trees is really not describable.

Sullivan Bay to Burly Bay - 1½ hours, 11 miles

What a way to cool down. We woke up to heavy fog. By the time we left we could at least see at water level. We have had a lovely time on docks but it is time to head out and hang on the hook”. We experienced no turbulence as we passed through Grappler Sound and Kenneth Passage. We didn’t see any boats in Burly Bay and our favorite spot behind Blair Islet was free. We anchored without difficulty and were enjoying the serenity. One direction we look out a huge wall of granite and the other way we hear the water passing through Hopetown Passage. We were disappointed to see another boat enter our bay in the afternoon. It is a beautiful Selene called “Three Wishes”. It motored around Aquila and found that there was no room in our nook. It anchored across our little bay near the opening of Hopetown Passage. We will have to remember that that is a good anchoring spot.

Sullivan Bay

Another scorcher today with high humidity. Mama ain’t happy. Fred seems to thrive in this weather, I wilt. We saw and heard a great deal of sea bird action out in the water and we saw dolphins playing out there too. I'm glad the kids can add another mammal sighting to their list. Jason & Kelli were packing and we were saying our goodbyes when I heard the plane coming into the “airport”. It is a little early. They weren’t supposed to leave until 12:30. Fortunately the pilot wasn’t in a panic (is it because he is 15 years old…no only looks it). The plane was a XXX. We got a lot of photos of the plane and them leaving. It was bittersweet. Our guests are gone but now we have more space to spread out in. The storage that was in the second stateroom had to be moved to our room during the visit. Now we can move it back and be less claustrophobic when we sleep. Tonight the special at the restaurant is deep fried turkey. We made reservations and fortunately the weather cooled down enough that we enjoyed the dinner tremendously.