Archives for July 2019

I apologize for the delay in blogging but it sure is the wild west coast out here! This is the case for numerous reasons: watching the weather and route planning have become full time jobs, we are exhausted at the end of every day and there is barely any cell service or wifi to be found.

When we left Port Hardy, we planned to spend one night at Bull Harbour and round Cape Scott the following day.

As we were doing our planning to cross the Nahwitti Bar and round Cape Scott, we realized all the factors that had to align. We needed a weather window, calm seas and light winds. We needed to cross the Nahwitti Bar at either high water or low water slack. Finally we needed the conditions at Cape Scott to be reasonable for rounding.

A tricky part was that high water slack is the best time to cross the Nahwitti Bar but it was around 0200 or late afternoon. This means we would need to weigh anchor and head out in the dark around 0100 or wait around all day and leave at 1400. We didn’t want to leave in the dark but we also didn’t want to leave too late in the day because it was a 32 mile run to the nearest safe anchorage in Sea Otter Cove.

We ended up having two weather days before meeting two other sailing cruisers, Max on Maggie May II and Pete on Eagle Wing. We decided to try catching high water slack at 0200 and travel together with them around the cape. I guess you could say we were keen to get going. Bull Harbour is very protected but there is nowhere to go ashore so we all felt pretty cooped up. So we weighed anchor at 0100 and hit several logs in the dark as we headed out of Bull Harbour. We had just turned into the main channel when we decided to turn around as the seas were so very rough and unpleasant. We headed back into Bull Harbour along with Max and Pete who also turned around anchored once again and went back to sleep by 0300.

We woke up and decided to give it another go at low water slack this time, around 0900. Again, us along with Max and Pete headed out of Bull Harbour. It was better this time but once we were able to see the Nahwitti Bar, we were shocked to find big breaking waves straight across the entire channel. The other sailboats were ahead of us and we were watching them and chatting on the radio to see how they found it. This time we came just onto the Nahwitti Bar before we decided to turn around because the conditions were just too lumpy. We said goodbye on the radio to the other boats that were continuing on. At this point we thought we might not try again and ran east down Goletas channel and Bate pass.

Since we had attempted at low water slack, that meant once we turned around we had the current with us so we sailed downwind with the spinnaker, while the current helped us along. We decided we couldn’t stomach another night in Bull Harbour and we were not sure what our plans were so we headed to Cascade Harbour on Nigei Island, where we knew we would be able to get the kids out on shore. At this point, it had been 3 days since we had been ashore.

Once anchored in Cascade Harbour, we enjoyed a walk along a boardwalk across a small island to an unoccupied house overlooking Queen Charlotte Strait.

That night we looked at the weather for Cape Scott again and after some more planning, we decided that we would give it one more shot the next day. If the conditions were not good, then we would head back down through the inside passage. If it did work out, we planned to anchor in Sea Otter Cove on the west coast.

The next morning we were delighted to watch 3-4 Humpbacks as we headed through Bate Passage towards Goletas Channel. Both girls were napping so I took the opportunity to get out our good camera with our zoom lens to attempt to get some photos of the whales. I was in my element here and decided that no matter what happened that day, it was going to be a good one!

When we came to the Nahwitti Bar, it looked manageable so we kept going and ended up crossing it no problem, all while the girls were still sleeping.

We had 3-4 foot waves on the bow as we approached Cape Scott but once we were off the cape, it was glassy and sunny! We finally had our chance and picked the right weather window!

It turned out the wind was too light to fully sail so we motor sailed most of the way. It was beautiful and we continued to have calm seas all day so we passed Sea Otter Cove and continued onto Winter Harbour.

We were grateful to have Ellery’s father Bob onboard as he helped with cruising duties and with the girls. I’m not sure we would have even attempted this without him.

We were pretty excited to get to Winter Harbour because we would be able to tie up to the dock, go ashore, have showers and hopefully find some wifi.

Just as we were coming into the harbour, the two cruisers we had met in Bull Harbour and attempted the Nahwitti Bar with, saw our boat and radioed us to say hi. It can be a bit isolating out here so the VHF radio is our lifeline to connecting with other boaters and we love running into familiar boats and faces.

A couple of minutes later, we saw SV Cariba, a boat we were actually hoping to meet up with in Winter Harbour. We met Sue and Brian on Cariba a couple of times last year out cruising and then we saw them in Poet’s Cove on Pender Island at the beginning of our trip this year. They planned to sail around Vancouver Island clockwise by going up the west coast first. We were following their progress on their blog S/V Cariba up the west coast and hoped to meet up with them at some point and were so happy to see them in Winter Harbour!

Needless to say, we had a great couple of nights at the dock in Winter Harbour. We joined Sue and Brian onboard Cariba for an evening of drinks and salty tales.

We also met another cruising boat, a catamaran called SV Kyrie. More about this boat in the next post because we ended up cruising with them for a bit because they have kids on board!

We have spent the last week and a half exploring the North Island. Our first visit to Port McNeill We arrived after a dense fog crossing from Hanson Island. At the worst, we had only 1-2 boat lengths visibility. I found it a bit nerve wracking but there was no wind, the seas were calm, it was early in the day so there was not much boat traffic and we sounded the sound signal every 2 minutes. Amelia actually slept through this which was amazing! The fog finally started to thin and lift as we came into Port McNeill harbour.

We tied up to the public dock for 2 nights so we could do all our reprovisioning and a few repairs. Port McNeill is an excellent place for provisioning as the grocery store is only a short walk and they let you roll the cart back to the dock. There is also a marine store and a cafe close by. We stocked up on dry goods for the next 4-6 weeks. Ellery repaired the hole in our dinghy for the third time and did an oil change on our engine. We also dealt with our garbage, recycling and filled our water tanks.

It was a busy couple days but we did find some time for fun with the girls. We walked up the hill to the pool one warm afternoon last week and enjoyed a swim in the outdoor pool.

We did take the ferry to Sointula on Malcom Island from Port McNeill as well. It’s a short 30 minute ferry ride and we were lucky enough to see a Humpback Whale breaching multiple time right in front of the ferry! Once in Sointula we asked at the visitor centre where the closest playground was and we headed straight there. It was a large fenced area with heaps of different play toys and climbers. The girls played for over an hour and we met a couple local families as well. I love talking to other parents and getting the scoop on the area. We had just enough time to find lunch before getting on the ferry back and we enjoyed delicious fish tacos at Coho Joe’s.

After our busy couple of days in Port McNeill we headed back out to our favourite anchorage on Hanson Island. Here we spent more time out in the dinghy looking for whales and saw Humpbacks, Transient Orca whales and more Dalls Porpoises. We also had another beach fire one afternoon. The girls are loving being on the beach. Amelia spends her time at the waters edge while Maddie is always off in search of treasure. There continued to be fog every morning so we enjoyed slower mornings.

Our second trip to Port McNeill we left after the fog had already started to lift and had better visibility. We headed to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island and tied up to the visitor dock for a couple of hours. We walked to the First Nations Burial Ground to introduce the girls to the history and culture of the area, including seeing the Totem poles. We found lunch and then headed back to Arctic Loon so we could make it to Port McNeill in the mid afternoon.

We anchored on the north side of the bay for three nights. It was a short dinghy ride across to Port McNeill so we went into town to do more errands and visit the local playground, pool and the library. The main reason we returned to Port McNeill was to get Amelia her 18 month immunizations at the health clinic. These few days in Port McNeill were cool, rainy and we used our diesel heater often to keep the cabin warm and dry.

Our last day in Port McNeill we ran into our cruising friend Victor and we invited him to come over to Arctic Loon later that evening. He did and brought us a bag of frozen prawns he had caught! It was great to catch up and the prawns were sure yummy when we cooked them up the next day!

Before heading to Port Hardy we anchored for one night in Beaver Harbour which was beautiful and calm. We had a view out to Queen Charlotte Strait and to a couple shell beaches nearby.

We spent the afternoon at the beach in Beaver Harbour and really enjoyed ourselves. The girls find things on the beach like shells or crabs and are entertained for quite a while. This gives us a break too!

Now we are in Port Hardy to get some final provisions before we head around Cape Scott and down the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

Ellery’s father Bob is meeting us in Port Hardy and will join us as far as Ucluelet. We are excited to have him onboard to help with all parts of cruising, including taking care of the girls.

When in Port Hardy, we walked from the public dock in Hardy Bay to the main street in Port Hardy. We passed the elementary school on the way and stopped so the girls could play. Afterwards we continued into town and found Cafe Guido, an eatery, gallery and bookstore. Best part was the bookstore had a kids area with a bin of duplo! Maddie was content but Amelia just wanted to play with all the books.

We have a few more errands to run but we are almost ready to round the cape!

I will update you with our progress down the coast as much as I can, as wifi and cell service allows.

– Chari

We made it to the Broughton Archipelago a week ago. This is much farther than we went on Arctic Loon last year and we are so excited and proud to be here.

It is now day 45 of our sailing trip. We have covered 485 nautical miles. We have spent 35 nights at anchor, 9 nights tied up to the dock and had 15 rest days.

It took us 3 days to get to the Broughton Archipelago from Refuge Cove and a bit of planning beforehand so we could navigate the various rapids and narrows safely.

We left Refuge Cove early on the morning of June 25th to head up through Lewis and Calm channel to the Yulculta Rapids, Gillard Passage and then through Devils Hole at Dent Rapids in Cordero Channel. We had made friends with another couple on SV Aeolian back in Lund and they met us in Refuge Cove the day before to head up to the Broughtons with us. We choose this day to head up through the rapids because slack current (when the flow of water changes direction) was late morning and because it was during a neap tide cycle so the max ebb and max flood would not be as strong and the period of slack tide would be longer. Together Ellery and I checked the currents, tides and the weather to come up with a plan. Ellery went even further to figure out time gates so we knew whether or not we were on time. Our planning worked out well and we went through the rapids when they were almost glassy.

We finished this day in Shoal Bay, which had a large grassy lawn that the girls could run around on and Maddie tried flying her kite. We also joined a group of cruisers who were playing music and singing on the dock. I love spontaneous moments like these and I know Maddie loved hearing the music.

The second day, we had to make it to Greene Point and Whirlpool rapids near slack to go through safely. These two rapids are ten miles apart but slack current happens at nearly the same time for both. This meant we had to hit Greene point rapids an hour early pushing into an opposing current, then at Whirlpool rapids we were an hour late and got pulled through with the strengthening ebb current. We anchored in Forward Harbour that night and rafted up stern to bow with our friends Todd and Maya on SV Aeolian. We spent the afternoon at a beach near the boat with the girls and they were so happy just throwing rocks in the water and looking for treasure.

The third day of our transit up to the Broughtons would mean going north up Johnstone Strait for 12 miles and then transitting the narrow and shallow Chatham channel, followed by the Blowhole (another narrow and shallow pass), which would take us to Lagoon Cove for the night. Lagoon Cove Marina had a neatly manicured grassy lawn with a few games to play and a swing so the girls were happy to have some more freedom to move their bodies.

We anchored in Lagoon Cove for one night and then headed to Village Island the next day. This is when we really felt like we were in the Broughtons, it felt very familiar from our days of sea kayak guiding.

Village Island is the former location of a First Nations community called Mamalilaculla (‘MI’MKWAMLIS) during the late 1800s and early 1900s it was a thriving village with a schoolhouse. The village has been continually inhabited for many thousands of years as is evident by the large midden. However in the 1920s most of the village relocated to Alert Bay. It is very overgrown now and the totem poles have fallen over but from the water we could still see the old house posts. We did not go ashore because we did not see anyone around to ask permission from first. We did enjoy exploring the area at low tide in the dinghy and listening to all the bird songs and raven calls.

The evening we anchored it was still raining and I used the opportunity the scrub the decks. It had been bothering me for a while that they were dirty but it never seems like the right time. It was so peaceful and calm while it was raining and I was scrubbing the deck, when I heard a blow, the sound a whale makes when it exhales at the surface. I turned and saw the large back and small dorsal fin of a Humpback Whale. I quickly called Ellery to tell him to come up but the whale never surfaced nearby again. It felt like a gift, seeing that whale. It reminded me why we came to this area and what we want our girls to experience too.

From Village Island, we headed to Echo Bay on Gilford Island, another place we had been before. Echo Bay was occupied by First Nations people for thousands of years until the smallpox epidemic devastated the community and those who survived moved away about 150 years ago. Around 1910, pioneers and their families came and settled here, building a store and fuel dock. Today there is a busy marina with a store selling groceries, which is one reason why we came here.

We planned to anchor in Echo Bay but on arrival we realized how small and shallow the bay was and saw a sailboat washed up on the beach with a ‘no anchoring’ sign so we thought we better not chance it. We tied up to the cliffside dock at Echo Bay, which was slightly cheaper than the main side because it was not connected and we had to dinghy across. We were not bothered by this and were actually happy to be further away from all the hub-bub. While alongside Echo Bay we did some laundry, used the wifi and bought some fresh fruits, veggies, dairy and eggs.

Another reason we came to Echo Bay was to visit Billy’s Museum. Billy Proctor is 84 years old and has lived on Gilford Island his whole life while working as a commercial fisherman. He has collected a lot of stuff, or ‘junk’ as he calls it, over the years and has a museum for people to come and visit. Ellery and I had visited together about 10 years ago and we were excited to go back and see Billy again.

The morning that we planned to leave, we got up early and hiked about 25 minutes (toddler pace) over to Billy’s Museum. He wasn’t there when we arrived but we were able to look in a Trapper’s cabin that he had built and a cabin made to look like the old Echo Bay schoolhouse. Billy arrived as we were having our morning snack, we chatted with him and then went into his museum to explore. We found the history interesting and Maddie enjoyed looking at all of Billy’s junk. She has recently started collecting her own treasures everyday, she puts them in a yogurt container and pulls them out everyday to look at them. It must have been amazing to see all the stuff Billy has collected over his lifetime.

A sailing friend of mine said her husband tends to ‘work the marina.’ What she means is that her husband goes to help other boaters tie up their boat and then gets chatting and doesn’t return to his own boat for quite awhile. At the time I didn’t think Ellery did this but I realize now that he does in his own way. Ellery will see a boat he likes and then go chat with the owner. He loves to get invited onboard. If this happens, then Ellery can be gone for awhile. I have figured this out and now ask him to take Maddie with him, which actually seems to get them invited on more boats!

Ellery really wanted to do a spinnaker run so he suggested we head up to Tribune Channel and sail downwind to Kwatsi Bay. We had not planned on heading further north but we also love the fjords up here with the steep mountains that plunge right into the ocean. We had a lovely downwind sail with the spinnaker almost all the way to Kwatsi Bay. At one point Ellery jumped in the dinghy while we were sailing along and zipped around the boat a short distance away to take some photos of Arctic Loon under sail.

We were pleasantly surprised to see our friends on SV Aeolian tied up to the dock in Kwatsi Bay. We decided to anchor in the bay with a stern tie ashore but we went for a dinghy ride to the dock after dinner to say hi.

After Kwatsi Bay, we sailed into the wind back through Tribune Channel tacking back and forth into a fresh westerly breeze with full sail up. We wanted to anchor in the enticing Burdwood Group but there was just too much current running through the anchorage which made for tricky anchoring. After two tries we changed course and headed into the shelter of nearby Shoal Harbour for a peaceful night at anchor.

The following day we motored through Arrow Passage to the open waters of Queen Charlotte Strait. We were hoping to sail down to Hanson Island but the wind died just as we were approaching open water and we were left motoring on glassy calm waters. This enabled the girls and I to hang out on the bow of the boat while Ellery navigated. It wasn’t long before we were seeing blows from Humpback Whales all around us. We kept watching and finally they were close enough that we could see their backs with dorsal fin when they came up for air and we were able to point them out to Maddie. We saw a couple tail flukes and that was easier for Maddie to pick out so she was happy to see those! Amelia was more interested in walking around the deck. After seeing quite a few Humpback Whales, we headed to Hanson Island where we planned to anchor for a few days. We were in need of a couple rest days and hoped to see more whales.

The morning of our first rest day we had a slow morning before heading out in the dinghy to explore around Hanson Island. We saw a couple of Dalls Porpoises not far away but when they did not come closer Ellery started up the dinghy and we headed back to Arctic Loon. Then out of nowhere, 2 Dalls Porpoises started bow riding and surfing in our wake. It was amazing! We could clearly see them swimming in the water under and beside our boat. Maddie was pretty excited about this and afterwards kept asking, where are the Dalls Porpoise? Like they were going to be with us for ever now!

In the afternoon we circumnavigated Hanson Island in the dinghy. The first 15 minutes or so the girls were pretty fussy and would not sit still but then they fell asleep and napped for a hour while we enjoyed the beautiful Broughton Archipelago.

It is noticeably cooler up here and we have enjoyed returning to our boat and turning on our diesel heater to warm up the cabin.

Our second rest day, we took the dinghy across Johnstone Strait to Telegraph Cove in the morning. I had really wanted to go to Telegraph Cove with the girls because we have been there many times before and I thought Maddie would really enjoy seeing the Whale Interpretive Centre. We did not want to take Arctic Loon because it is a very small harbour with little room to manoeuvre and we would have had to call ahead to see if there was a slip available big enough for our boat. It was just as easy to dinghy the 5 miles over there and the wind was calm so it was a pleasant ride. Amelia napped almost the whole way.

Telegraph Cove was almost the way we remembered it. We tied up to the dock and called the Dockside Marina to see if that would be ok. We ended up paying to tie up for 4 hours so we could do laundry, have showers and dispose of our garbage. It worked out super well because at the top of the ramp, there was the Seahorse Cafe, which had a kids area with a bunch of toys! I got a coffee and watched the girls while Ellery did the laundry.

We all went over the Whale Interpretive Centre and I am so glad we did. They had done a bit of a reno but they still have quite a few cetacean skeletons, including a large Fin Whale skeleton that hangs from the ceiling. Maddie was interested in all sorts of things. We were able to show her the skeletons of the a Dalls Porpoise and a Humpback Whale, which we have recently seen in the wild.

Then in the afternoon, we went to a beach not far from where Arctic Loon was anchored and made a campfire on the beach. It was such a good time. Maddie collected treasure (mussel and crab shells, rocks) and tried catching fish in her net. Amelia threw rocks into the water and tried to chew on some driftwood. Ellery stoked the fire, while I got out the snacks. Ellery and I took turns chasing Amelia because she kept trying to walk a bit too deep into the ocean (she was wearing her life jacket of course) but we did not want her to get too wet.

We had already found some garbage on the beach and picked it up when Ellery had an idea that every beach we go to, we should do a mini beach clean up. I bought a children’s book for Maddie in Lund called Ocean Champions by a local author Michelle Mech and the book is about the problem of plastic garbage in the ocean. We ended up finding a fair amount of garbage on the small beach. Maddie now wants to pick up garbage everywhere!

Check back in to hear about our adventures as we continue to head north to Port Hardy.