Back in B.C.

Sunrise behind us as we set off to cross Dixon Entrance. 

FINAL DAYS OF S.E. ALASKA

Since I last posted we have been ambling South, as planned. We’ve discovered that the yacht-y crowds have dwindled. We’re bringing in the rear. The small communities with seasonal stores have let their vegetable stocks dwindle. By this time, we saw one other recreational boat a day while we’re underway. 

When our anchoring and marinas have synced, we have been meeting up with new boat-y friends, which is a great break from Mike looking at Elaine, looking at Mike, in the same pilot house, on the same boat. We’ve learned about about their home bases, Olympia, WA and Poulsbo, WA. We’re going to keep asking questions along these lines to people we meet. We will eventually need to nest somewhere during 6 months of the year in the U.S. 

NORTH COAST OF B.C.

We crossed around Dixon Entrance, piloting from Ketchikan, AK (U.S.) back to Prince Rupert, B.C., (Canada). By waiting an extra day or so to optimize weather, we were able to minimize swells. I didn’t need to Dramamine it.(1) 

Again, we cruised down long, narrow (about .25 mile/.4 km wide) channels that seem too straight to be natural. These are the same inside passage highways we took going North. Again, we watch beautiful, dense, green fir trees rising up moderately tall mountains with occasional waterfalls dropping back down, as we move through the water. We see fewer whales and sea otters. This makes a sighting more special. We sense our trip is coming to an end.

We’ve stayed in so many coves over these last few weeks. Each one was uniquely magical, often enveloped in layers of lacy fog. To keep things short, I’ve created a laundry list of stays below.

- Baker Inlet, anchor. Winding narrow, blind opening to a large inlet surrounded by tall, wooded cliffs.

Baker Inlet—dead calm, reflection of lacy, layered fog.

- Hartley Bay, marina. First Nations community with wooden boardwalks for roads—all had ATVs or golf carts to scoot around.

- Bishop Springs Provincial Marine Park. Natural hot springs with manmade, concrete tubs overlooking the bay. Lots of cheerful locals on weekend family trips. 

- Bottleneck Inlet, anchor. Same beautiful, convenient stop we stayed at on the way North, along a very long passage.

…At this point we watched weather forecasts to time our final Cape Caution crossing with minimal swell…

- Shearwater, marina. We returned to this First Nations village to get fuel.

- Codeville Bay, anchor.

We finally did some crabbing. Dinner: dungeness crab.

- Pruth Bay, anchor. We returned to the same island — the Haikai Institute with great beaches. Here’s a drone video of us walking (near bottom of screen).

One of the boardwalks on walk to the North beach at Haikai Island.

- Fury Cove, anchor.

Fury Cove—Mike’s drone shot of boats waiting for favorable tide the next morning. 

…Eight hour transit from Fury Cove, around Cape Caution, then down protected waters to our next one-nighter anchorage in Claydon Bay, in “The Broughton’s” islands. In the most dramatic parts we experienced a 5 foot swell with 2 foot wind waves. I decided before we left to take Dramamine, on top of my Relief Band, and I felt fine. This much up and down and back and forth is not uncomfortable or scary in our boat, but it demands our attention while underway. 

THE BROUGHTONS

- Claydon Bay, anchor.

- Viner Inlet, anchor. We left for Echo Bay, a small community, for a worthwhile afternoon at the locally famous Billy’s Museum. Billy is a retired fisherman who has a mighty collection of First Nations artifacts, old equipment, shells and even bottles. He’s an encyclopedia of local stories.

- Burial Cove, anchor. Not at all spooky, by the way. We departed as soon as it was light to make our way down infamous Johnstone Strait. It’s a wide body of water that is part of all Inside Passage journeys. It’s notorious for larger waves due to prevailing winds opposing currents. We found it fairly glassy, and we timed our passage with a flood, to give our slow boat a slight push. 

DESOLATION SOUND

- Campbell River, marina. It was time for a final provisioning, laundry and a beer at their pub at this large town. We ruminated on what we wanted to do with our final cruising days. Desolation Sound was a must—but it was starting to get a lot of wildfire smoke from the fires hundreds of miles East. We also started talking about logistics for selling Unwine’d and where we’d go next on our way to buying a boat for The Great Loop. 

- Roscoe Bay, Desolation Sound, anchor. Definitely not desolated—about 20 boats anchored as this is a day’s cruise from Vancouver. Pleasant afternoon at the freshwater lake, inland.

- Melanie Cove, Desolation Sound, anchor. Another pleasant afternoon at their freshwater lake. Lots of boaters from Vancouver and Seattle. Impromptu, enjoyable concert by a super-talented guitar-playing boater in the evening. We joined about 30 dinghy’s surrounding the performer’s stern deck.

Unwin Lake at Desolation Sound. That’s me, happily floating in the fresh water.

SUNSHINE COAST

We intended to return to Princess Louisa Inlet, where we last went in 1990’s. It would have been, a 2-day, out-of-the-way trek. This is a sort of Mecca for Northwest boaters because of its beauty, and the somewhat arduous journey it requires. In order to do this, we had to start from the small community of Egmont, which already took us 7 hours to get there. However, the Egmont marina was full and there were no nearby comfortable anchorages. So sadly, we scrapped our plans for Mecca. Perhaps we go there in a few years.

- Pender Harbor, anchor. This is a large town, but we really didn’t need to provision, get fuel or water, so we just dingy’d to shore for a dinner. It was also a protected spot to endure a night-long lightening storm. Don’t you worry—we were cozy inside Unwine’d. It wasn’t terribly windy, either. 

- Smuggler Cove Provincial Marine Park, anchor.

WHAT’S NEXT

We’re going to be tourists at Pirate’s Cove Provincial Marine Park, Decourcy Island, a.k.a. Home Sweet Home!

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) I’m using something new: a Relief Band. So far, I’m a convert, although I don’t think it will get me through the biggest swell days. I definitely recommend it for anyone who has to deal with nausea, for whatever reason.