THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2006 - First Salmon! & Pruth Bay to Codville Lagoon

John & Josh were still hot on the salmon trail and wanted to troll in Hakai Passage for the elusive fish. Hakai Passage is open water to the Pacific (as in swells beginning in Japan) so, we were up by 0630 and lifting the anchor by 0700 to try and troll before the swell and winds got too large. Odlam Point is supposed to be the hot spot so we headed straight there after clearing the channel.

The day was very gloomy and grey with low overcast and marine layer dampness. As we approached the point, the rolling started. When we troll, as I mentioned, we use the get-home engine and troll between one & ½ knots to two knots. It is very slow and we basically just wallow in the swells. The boat and the guys do fine. It is Kathy in the galley trying to prepare cassoulet for lunch who has issues. I finally stuck everything in the sink and gave up for the moment, returning to the pilothouse to steady myself. We made several (several) passes on the point while John tried gamely to keep us out of the beam-to 4 to 6 foot swells. I wandered back and forth from pilothouse to galley, cutting a few carrots, mixing spices, etc. as we’d level out then roll again. John did turn on the main engine to use our stabilizers, but the truth is, they are just not that effective at such low speeds (although they were working their little hearts out.).

Finally, a shout of “Fish On!” from the cockpit. Woo-hoo!! Josh & John have landed a spring salmon! Really nice looking fish and we will have more than enough for several meals. At last! The elusive salmon is ours!! Sorry Josh F. only missed it by a day!

At that point, after really getting rolled while we corralled the fish, it was generally decided to move up the coast and troll the next few points in hopes of getting our beam our of the swell. And eventually, it did work, although we rolled almost the entire 5 hours we trolled. I was exhausted, but the cassoulet did get put in the crockpot and we almost landed another salmon in the meantime. The eagles were in attendance, as always and enjoyed the couple of rockfish that snagged our lines, too.

By 1230 we knew it was time to move on, so we pulled up the downriggers and motored down Hakai Passage and into Fitz Hugh Sound. At long last, the clouds burnt off, the sun came out and we were enjoying lunch in the pilothouse as we motored. All of a sudden, Josh shouted “Whales!” and we glanced out the window just in time to see a humpback tail flip up and disappear in the water. We cut the engine and waited in vain to see him surface again. Oh well, it was still a thrill – first salmon and whale!

We anchored in Codville Lagoon, a very pretty inlet that has excellent protection. There was one other boat when we set the anchor, but by the time we were enjoying our salmon, two more had come in. What a great day!

FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2006 – Codville Lagoon to Shearwater & Bottleneck Cove

At 0810 we had pulled our anchor and made our way out of the entrance of the lagoon and were heading for Shearwater to do a little reprovisioning. The water was calm and quite beautiful, in spite of the usual early morning marine overcast.

By 1030, we were tied up to the dock in Shearwater and the sun was brightly blazing. Shearwater was a bit of a disappointment. I had hoped to pick up some fresh veges, but their supply barge comes on Mondays, so they had very little produce or fresh dairy. We did pick up a few things, though, and the guys got some new fishing lures. We also ran into some friends of Bob Comb’s at the dock. They were the Witters on Lemollo, and were also meandering up to Alaska. We had a brief but very pleasant conversation with them before they shoved off.

We had finished all our business by 1220. We made our way through Reid Passage and Perceval Narrows without event. As we cleared the narrows, we realized the sailboat we had been following was Lemollo and hailed them on the VHF. They came back and asked us if we’d seen the dolphins on our bow. Racing to the bow, we found a pod of Dall’s Porpoise playing in our wake. Dall’s are not as acrobatic as the Pacific White-sided ones, but they look like baby orca, with the same coloring. They are very beautiful and graceful creatures.

We had thought to go into Rescue Bay for the evening, but the fishing bug had bitten again and the group decided to just stick it out and make it a long day in order to get closer to the prime fishing grounds. We hung a left at Oscar Passage and transited from Mathieson Channel to Finlayson Channel. Finlayson was a little rougher than Mathieson, but it was beautiful and at one point we were traveling in 2400 feet of water! By 1900, we were the only boat anchored in Bottleneck Inlet. Bottleneck Inlet is a beautiful little anchorage that is entered through a narrow passageway. Once you get inside, you are surrounded by steep granite cliffs. It was calm and serene in there, our only other company a seal. We were all tired after our long day, so we reheated crab for dinner and went to bed early, not even bothering to offload the dinghy.

SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 2006 – Bottleneck Cove to Home Bay (Princess Royal Island)

When we awoke, the fog had come in and we could see it was quite thick in the channel, but we hoisted the anchor at 0800 and headed out anyway. The entrance to the inlet is fairly shallow and we were leaving just after low tide, so we held our breath on the way out and watched as our depth sounder got to 6.8 feet before going back up to more comfortable levels. The channel was very foggy, with sometimes less than ¼ mile visibility, so we ran with radar going, running lights burning, and foghorn blasting. The fog stayed with us until we entered Hiekish Narrows and then it started to break up and burn off with the sun.

Hiekish Narrows was very tame, although as Waggoner’s mentions there was a ton of debris, logs, and weed and kelp at the south end. We did our best to avoid as much as possible and scooted through. By the buoy at Hewitt Rock we spotted what we at first thought was a whale, but as we got closer it appeared to be a couple of Dall’s porpoises, swimming in a very whale-like manner. I’d never seen them go slow or dive like that before and I’m still not convinced they were porpoises. I wonder if perhaps they could have been Minke whales? At any rate, the current through there was giving us a nice push to about 9.5 knots and we continued on while the creatures ignored us.

In Graham Reach, we finally encountered some other boats. This waterway is used by many boats on the Inside Passage and we saw more boats here than we’d seen in days. The scenery, though, was just spectacular – 3000 foot snow-capped mountains rising from the sea, with waterfalls everywhere. The sun was ablaze, the wind was at our backs, the scenery stunning. This is what it’s all about! Mystic Moon had one happy, enthusiastic crew as our spirits soared with the beauty of this day and place!

We passed by Butedale and it looks exactly like all the pictures in the guidebooks, with the buildings gradually being overtaken by the sea. Waggoner’s says there’s a guy there now trying to make a go of it, but we didn’t stop in. Did see a sign boasting “moorage, ice, shower, ice cream” so it might be worth a stop in on our way back.

In the meantime we had been searching for an anchorage that would put us close to our favored fishing grounds of Gil Island. We finally settled on Home Bay on Princess Royal Island, even though Douglass was less than enthusiastic about it. At 1430, we were laying our anchor in the SW corner of a beautiful little cove with an idealic white sand beach at the head, a tall granite mountain to the north and rocky shores on the south side with a grass and forest backdrop. The cove was the view from the pilothouse and Whale Channel, with the other islands in the distance, was the view from the cockpit. It was quite lovely. The sun was still shining and it was very warm. The book had said it was open to outflow winds and northwesterlies, but the forecast was for only inflow winds and southerlies. It was dead calm in the cove. We anchored in 55 feet of water and the guys popped down the dinghy and went fishing while I enjoyed the view and quiet from the flybridge. After they returned empty-handed, we went to the beach and walked along its shores. We spotted quite a few fresh bear tracks in the sand but not the bear. Princess Royal Island is known for their Kermode bears, a creamy white bear that experts think is related to black bears, and we fancied that perhaps the tracks were Kermode tracks.

While we were preparing dinner, Josh spotted orca off the tip of the cove in the channel. We stopped what we were doing and dashed to the dinghy to try and get close enough for photos (they have very strict rules here as to how close you can get to marine mammals) but alas, by the time we got mid-cove, they had turned the corner. At that point, the wind just started howling from, yep, the northwest. It went from a couple of knots from the south to 18 knots from the NW. When we got back to the boat, we had done a 180 degree turn around and none of us were comfortable with our stern against the shoal of the cove (we had a predicted 17 foot tidal fall that night, with low tide in the early am), so we upped anchor and reset it in 70 feet of water, further away. About the time we were reset, the winds stopped and returned to their gentle breeze from the south. Oh well, at least we would sleep well this night.

We finally did get dinner on the table, and we enjoyed BBQ’d rack of lamb in the cockpit. A nice change from all the seafood!

SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2006 – Home Bay to Cameron Cove via Gil Island (& Salmon Frenzy!)

At 0800, it was anchors up and over to Gil Island to troll for salmon. We had had great success here before when we had chartered in this area some years ago. At 0900, we had lines down and were trolling. By 0915, we had caught our first salmon. By 0930, we had caught our second one. By 0945, we had our third, which we released. By the time we were done trolling we had caught 12 spring salmon (small Chinooks), and kept 3 of the largest ones. It was a blast! Josh would yell “fish on!” every few minutes and yet another one would be brought aboard. Thankfully, too, it was very calm and we had little rolling this time.

At 1330, we pulled up lines and traveled down Whale Channel to Cameron Cove in Barnard Harbour. Barnard Harbour has several floating fishing resorts in its cove (one of which is an upscale high adventure operation, complete with it’s own helipad) but Cameron Cove held only one other boat. We anchored in 45’ of water, quite pleased with our day. We got in the dinghy, checked out the camps in the harbour, talking with the friendly guides at both camps, and did a little tour of our cove. We came upon a loon in the water who was totally unafraid of us and got some good pics.

Salmon, of course, was the dinner menu and we used Paula’s famous recipe. It was delicious, Paula! Thanks!

While sitting in the cockpit after eating, we spotted a large black bear foraging on the shore. By the time we got over there in the dinghy, he had worked his way back up into the meadow, but stood up on hind legs to scratch a tree and impress us with his size. He was one of the biggest we’ve seen.

MONDAY, JUNE 12, 2006 – Cameron Cove to McMicking Inlet (Campania Island)

The day dawned bright and sunny. After yesterday’s success, the capt’n and crew were anxious to get back out and try again. We trolled off of the southern points of Princess Royal Island and by 0920 had caught and released two small springs. At 1130, the fog and marine layer started blasting in, so we pulled up the lines and crossed the channel to Campania Island and fished Eclipse Point. It was very slow. We only caught a few rockfish.

By 1330, we called it a day and motored around the southern rocks off Campania toward our anchorage for the night, McMicking Inlet.

McMicking Inlet is said to be very beautiful and pristine, but Douglass calls it “a navigational challenge” and sailing directions advises “local knowledge”. The KSP factor was about a 9 on approach to the inlet. After working our way through the rocks and shoals, though, we found the charts were accurate and Nobeltec was dead-on, so the ratio (Mark) was a very high 4.5 J.

It was as described, too. Tons of islands to explore, calm, and lots of birdlife back up in there, although we were surprised to find a floating fishing lodge tied up after the first narrows. We went on through, and anchored in 45 feet of water beyond the second narrows, the only boat there.

When we had chartered here before, we had been to a beach in this area and found the skeletal remains of a humpback whale washed up on the beach, so we lowered the dinghy to go search for the beach and do some exploring. Passing by the fish lodge, we stopped in and chatted with a friendly young woman who told us that the fishing had not been good for salmon for the last few days because the whales had been around. She was very personable and even invited us to join their guests for wine before dinner. We thanked her, but declined as we were on our way out the mouth of the inlet to look for the beaches.

Sure enough, as soon as we exited the mouth, we realized that the whole southwest shoreline was filled with whitesand beaches. We had entered at high tide, so most of the beach was under water as we came through the first time. The tide was still sort of high, but we beached the dinghy along one of the shores and walked the shoreline. It almost looked tropical, with the sand so white and the water clear and tourquoise. I definitely want to come back here and explore at low tide.

As we were leaving the beach in the dinghy (which got slightly buried in the sand because the tide was going out so quickly) we spotted whale blow way out in the channel. Dinghy flying, we shot out there, but it really was too far away. We watched the whale blow several times, identifying it as a humpback, and hoping it would come our way, but it must have been feeding as it stayed in the same area. Sure would like to really see some whales and orca before Josh has to leave us on Thursday.

We had hors d’oeuvres in the warmth of the sun in the cockpit, and I made crabcakes for dinner. Yummy! One of my favorites!

TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2006 – McMicking Inlet to Low Inlet – Verney Falls/Nettle Basin

When we went to bed last night, the marine layer had already started to come in. By the time we awoke, it was thick as pea soup. Naturally, it was near low tide as we left, so the KSP factor was again relatively high. As before, though, our transit was uneventful. At the mouth of the inlet the fog lifted a bit (had about ½ mile visibility) and we were able to see the white beaches we had visited yesterday. Except now, it appeared as one, very long beautiful white beach. At the end near us, a huge eagle was standing on the beach eating breakfast. Shortly after we passed that, another bald eagle flew right across our bow with a hapless seagull clutched in his talons. Busy place!

After some discussion last night as to whether we should stay here another day or move back to where the fishing was better, we decided that since Josh only had another couple of days, we’d do the fishing thing and then go up to Verney Falls in Lowe Inlet. He was interested in the river there, and I wanted to see the scenery and wildlife. John & I decided we’d come back through Principe Channel and spend more time here as we return south later this summer.

Well, as fate would have it, the fishing really wasn’t all that good. We trolled all day and only caught 3 spring salmon which we released because they were on the small side. We’d started in Otter Channel and worked our way around and then went across the channel, back over to Gil Island and worked the points there. The saving grace was that we weren’t totally skunked, and….. we spotted a wolf walking on the south shore of Fisherman Cove! It was about 1530, right before we were to give it up when Josh spotted him from the cockpit. He was quite tall and lanky, with a very dark grey coat with some brownish mottling in it. He casually walked the full length of the shore along the rocks, pausing to look at us before he disappeared around Blackfly Point. It was too cool!!! And of course, we were all so excited about seeing him and engrossed behind our binoculars that no one got a picture. (Sorry, Roseanne – I’m still just the rookie photographer!)

So now I’m sitting here in the pilothouse writing this, looking out at beautiful Grenville Channel. We’ve only seen one other boat, probably because it’s already after 1700. The south winds today have been strong, and now they’re about 20 knots and giving us a push to 9.3 knots through the water, in spite of the ebbing tide. By the way, for those of you reading this who will be making this trip, you should know that two anchorages near Gil Island have been boomed off. Fisherman Cove, which was never recommended to be a great anchorage, is not even accessible at all because of the boom, and Curlew Cove on Fin Island has been boomed off at the entrance. Also, Hawk Bay (also on Fin Island) has the sister operation to the floating fish camp we encountered in McMicking Inlet and thus that Bay is no longer good anchorage either.

So now I know why we weren’t seeing any other boats – they were all already anchored in Nettle Basin, the area adjacent to the falls. Ok, I exaggerate, but we were surprised to see 4 other boats already in the anchorage. Nettle Basin is quite large, but the shallow areas do not extend very far off shore and those spots were already taken, so we anchored in 95 feet of water towards the middle of the basin and let out a bit more than 300 feet of chain.

A quick word about our anchor system. We had been told that many of the anchorages are very deep and to be prepared to anchor in lots of water. Last year, the maximum we ended up anchoring in off the west side of Vancouver Island was a little over 50 feet. You can see how our attitude has changed! (Oh what the heck! It’s under a hundred feet – no problem!) We have 2 different anchors on the bow, a 110 lb. Bruce anchor and a 105 lb. CQR. Both have 400 feet of chain rode. We normally use our Bruce and feel very secure with it. Mark & Roseanne use their CQR and have had great success with it. And, we always use a snubber to keep the stress off the windlass and catenary in the chain. So, I guess the take-home here is that you really need a good, heavy anchor and lots of chain (with a good windlass!) up here. It certainly helps you sleep well at night!

By the time we were eating dinner, 3 more boats had come in and anchored. This is the most crowded anchorage we’ve been in.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006 – Layover day in Nettle Basin

We had arranged for Josh’s floatplane to pick him up here in the basin on Thursday morning, so we took a day off to relax and explore the falls. Guess we needed it – none of us stirred til after 0930. By that time, all the other boats had left the anchorage except one other sailboat who was preparing to depart as John laid out the crab and prawn traps.

We dressed in our raingear (very gloomy, drizzly day) and took the dinghy to shore to take the hike described in the books up to the second falls. As we were securing the dinghy anchor high on shore (rising tide, this time) a big black bear sauntered out of the woods, completely ignoring us while he poked around the rocks on the tideline. This time, I did get a picture, although I was ready to head back to the dinghy til I realized he was a black bear and not a grizzly (which somehow, Josh found very amusing). The bear casually walked through the rocks and went back up into the forest on the other side of us – thankfully the side opposite of where the trail begins.

So…about this trail…..Douglass calls it “rough but passable” which I suppose is true, since we made it through, but a machete would have been very useful! Actually, the trail is well-marked (considering the thick rainforest foliage) with strips of orange vinyl tape tied to tree limbs, so we didn’t get lost (much) and it is very beautiful up at the top of the falls. There’s a pool right above Verney Falls and another falls and pool above that, then a really high falls at the very head. All of this is surrounded by steep granite peaks. It sort of reminded me of Lyell Canyon in Yosemite, where we have backpacked so much.

Josh had brought his flyrod and John had a light rod and reel and they fished the pools while I enjoyed the scenery and the various flowering plants growing near the pools. They both caught (& released) a couple of small rainbow trout. (There’s no fishing at the pool beneath Verney Falls because salmon gather there toward the end of the summer, but the pools above are fine.) One other note about this adventure….if you do this hike, be sure to take and use your bug spray. The mosquitos were little, but what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers and persistence.

On our way back, we noticed at least 6 or 7 little frogs in the path near the water. We had seen several on our way in, but all at once we saw all these other little guys. If amphibians are the bellweather for environmental health, I’d say things are ok here. We had to be careful not to step on them, although one of them got frightened and did an astounding leap in front of us.

Upon return to the dinghy (which was now fully afloat and the anchor under 2 feet of water – I am still amazed by the tides, but we’re learning quickly!) we checked our crab traps and were pleasantly surprised to find that we had caught 12 crab between the 2 traps, 7 of which were male keepers. We also were still the only boat in the anchorage….go figure. Don’t know what was so special about last night, but am glad to be out of the herd.

We made salmon pate out of the last of the cooked salmon for hors d’oeuvre and crabs in a vermouth, garlic and butter broth for dinner. (New recipe – really, really good. Anyone have any other good crab (or salmon) recipes out there???)

THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2006 – Lowe Inlet to Baker Inlet and onto Kumealon Inlet

Josh’s plane was scheduled for 0800, but showed up at 0745 because the weather was closing in on Prince Rupert and the pilot wanted to get back before they closed down due to fog. We said our hurried goodbyes, and with hugs and teary eyes (& a bagel with that leftover salmon pate on it!) we sent him off to be back in time for Diana’s graduation.

John & I planned to go to Baker Inlet for the evening and were waiting for the current to turn in Grenville Channel before we set out. Also, the entrance to Baker is a place called Watts Narrows, where currents can run up to 6 knots on a spring tide, so we were trying to hit that close to high slack, narrow being the key word here, complete with dogleg turn. (Are you seeing how this works? We are not masters of our ship, as it were…..weather is the boss of us, with tides a close second!) So, we putzed around, had a leisurely cup or two of coffee, read, showered, etc. It was very quiet aboard with just us!

The rain and low clouds were still with us, but John gallantly went out to retrieve the critter pots and we were rewarded with only 16 prawns (why am I starting to feel like Forrest Gump here?) and only 2 keepers in our crab traps. After yesterday’s haul, it was a little disappointing, but I suppose I’m being greedy now – there’s crab in the fridge that needs picking.

At 1300 we pulled our anchor, only to find that at the hundred foot marker on the chain we had snagged an old, rotting crab pot. Luckily, I was able to unsnag it and push it out of the chain without too much effort (although it was quite heavy) and it drifted back into the sea. Once again, I’m lovin’ our workhorse of a windlass.

We had timed the tide correctly, as we entered Grenville Channel and immediately found ourselves doing 10.3 knots SOG at 1600 RPM (had we been against the current, we could have had up to a 5 knot slowdown). By 1545, we were at the entrance to Watts Narrows (slack was at 1700) and we could see just a little boiling water through the entrance, so we negotiated (you’re probably also seeing how this works, too, huh?…..the KSP vs. the JPI [John Practicality Index] – somewhere in there, Mark, is a ratio or some other pertinent number J) and compromised on waiting another 15 minutes to go in (yeah, I totally lost that one, but truth is, it didn’t look too bad).

Baker Inlet was written up in all of our cruising guides as a pristine, hear the howl of the wolves at night kind of place, with breathtaking scenery and old growth forest where bears roam the shores, etc., etc. That was one reason we both were so anxious to check it out. Solitude and serenity were on the agenda, so at 1600 we headed into the narrows and I held my breath as the walls and trees closed around us. It truly was beautiful. Magical, as Douglass describes it.

As we exited the narrows and made our way down the inlet, the first clue were the shrimpers laying their prawn pots willy-nilly across the fairway. One of them almost ran into us, as he was practically doing donuts while tossing out pots with no one at the helm. Fortunately, he returned to the helm and we were able to avoid him and he us. When we got down close enough to the head (about 3 nm down) to see the recommended anchorage, we were devastated to see a logging operation going on in the anchorage behind the islet – a massive clear-cut on the side of the mountain, complete with 2 barges for towing logs, a barge for housing off to one side and believe or not, even a helicopter was in operation moving the logs from mountainside to barge. So much for wolves and bears, not to mention “silence broken only by the rushing creek water” [Douglass]. I’ve never really considered myself a “tree-hugger”, although I suppose I’m a little bent toward the green side, but I found this really depressing. I know these guys have a living to make and the timber industry is vital in BC, but of all the forest there is still to choose from, why this special place?? Without this operation, I’m sure it would have been today as it was when these cruising guides were written. Surely, there were other places to log besides this???

Ok….I’m off the soapbox. We were both a little disheartened and decided not to try and anchor in the inlet. The shores are steep-to, and even the shoaling areas are on a slope, and we are just not yet comfortable with that so we left the inlet and Watts Narrows (at slack – very benign) and went down to the next cove, Kumealon Inlet.

Ironically, Kumealon Inlet is written up as having a logging operation in the entrance, but I guess they’ve finished here and have moved on to Baker Inlet, because the logging operation is gone, leaving behind a rusting, half sunken barge and deteriorating buildings ashore (fine….guess I’m not quite done!). On the upside, the second growth has already started to fill in, although it’s still pretty obvious. The inlet has good protection past there, further in the basin, and there was only one sailboat anchored toward the shore, so we found good anchorage in 80 feet of water behind the islet. We laid out 250’ of chain (we were at high tide, with a 17’ tidal drop) and ate leftovers for dinner. The scenery was actually very pleasant. We were watching Dick Van Dyke Show videos (please, no snide emails….John & I have a history here J) when Mark and Roseanne called to catch up. So good to hear from them! And all is well in their camp, too….

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