North Coast of BC to Rupert

Time flies when you're travelling, with no options to upload to the Blog! Lots of catching up to do, with our adventures and experiences for the past 10 days to relate.
We said our farewells to Ray and Kathy on "Summer Breeze", as they sailed off to the south out of Shearwater. They'd presented us with a lovely dome/puck light for our head, making our night trips to the toilet much easier. But now we were on our own again....so we untied the boat, and rounded the peninsula, crossing into New Bella Bella (a distance of just about 5 miles), where we topped up our fuel tanks with 32 litres of fuel, and our water tanks with very nice clean water (Shearwater had a boil-water advisory and very brownish coloured water). A quick look around town, however, made us decide to continue on, with little else to attract us to the village. So north and west we went, past Ivory Island lighthouse, and into Pierce Passage, where we found a very nice little anchorage all to ourselves, at Oliver Cove Marine Park. Although the day had started out a bit cool and cloudy, the sun greeted us as we anchored, and a juvenile eagle sat on the Marine Park sign, watching us.

This Eagle greeted us into our Oliver Cove anchorage

It was still early afternoon, with fair weather, so Shane and I launched the dinghy and headed back down the pass to have a go at fishing for dinner. We were successful in catching a rockfish and a ling cod, so supper was fresh fish. The heads and tails and offal from the fish were placed in our crab traps and set out for the evening....but although they resulted in several crabs, they were too small to keep. The days are getting noticeably longer now, and with a clear day, it was very evident at 23:30 that we are getting further north, and closer to the summer solstice - the sun was set, but twilight remained even then.
The following morning found us up and ready to go at 0730 with another pleasant day approaching....only scattered clouds, and light winds. We motorsailed out of the Cove and into Mathieson Channel, with no other boats evident for several hours. By 1100 we were turning west into Oscar Passage, with a moderate headwind developing, but an hour later, as we crossed out of Oscar Pass into Finlayson Channel, the wind was a brisk southwesterly 15 to 20 knots, and we sailed on a beautiful broad reach into Klemtu, a native village of about 150 souls. Here we tied to the town dock along with a couple of other sailboats, and walked up to the roadway. Some folks we met there suggested we visit the Big House, a ceremonial large house where the locals have celebrations and invite other villages to party. They called the local taxi driver, Shane, who promptly showed up and took us along to the Big House for a tour.....his grandfather had traditionally given these tours previously, but had died last January. It was a very interesting tour, with carvings and totems to represent the local peoples, a firepit in the centre with long benches around the walls, and drums and further totems at the head end of the building. Ceremonial masks, coppers, and photos were displayed in a separate area.

Totems guarding the entrance to the Big House at Klemtu

Following the tour, we walked around the village, admiring several totems outside of peoples' homes, and visiting the local general store, stocked with a bit of everything. Back to the boat for dinner, followed by a game of cards.
In an effort to catch the end of the flood tide, for a push up the channel, we left Klemtu at 0730 under a cloudy sky with little wind. By 1030 we were following alongside Princess Royal Island, looking closely for the renowned white bears, called Kermode or Spirit Bears. They inhabit this very large island, and often are seen along the shoreline. Alas, they weren't wandering along our shoreline. By 1200 the wind was up again, astern, and we were sailing quite nicely along the channel, on a broad reach bound for Butedale. But at 1330 the skies decided to close in on us, with a torrential downpour and fickle winds. We were approaching a point and inlet leading into Khutze Inlet, so motored in and anchored beneath a beautiful waterfall. Khutze Inlet is one of the more beautiful anchorages I've visited, and reminds me a lot of a cross between Princess Louisa Inlet with its waterfalls and high-sided terrain, and Glendale Cove in Knight Inlet, with a river mouth opening out on grassy flats (ideal bear terrain).

Anchored off the Waterfalls in Khutze Inlet

The skies had cleared again, and we were now experiencing alternating showers with sunshine. We set out in the dinghy to explore along the river and look for bears - none were spotted in our travels until we were returning to our boat and saw another sailboat at anchor watching something on the flats behind us....it turned out to be a grizzly, right where we'd been looking earlier. By now, however, we could only view the bear from a distance, through our binoculars.

Khutze Inlet Falls

It was another beautiful clear and quiet night at anchor, and after dinner we watched a movie before settling in to bed at 2330.
Fog developed overnight, and was thick around us when we rose at 0700. But by the time coffee was made, and anchor up, it had cleared into another nice sunny day. The wind was light northwest, against us, so we motorsailed up the channel, and by 1130 we were passing Butedale, another abandoned cannery.

Butedale has seen better times


There is a spectacular waterfall beside the ruined docks and buildings, which still supplies electric power. There was no reason for us to stop, however, so we continued up Finlayson to cross McKay Reach, and into Ursula Channel, pulling into Bishop Bay Hot Springs/Monkey Beach Conservation Area. At the dock here, there was a 51 foot sailboat who offered to let us raft alongside (it's a small dock). The other side of the dock was the park ranger's boat, with the Rangers doing work on the facilities at the hot springs. So we visited with the family sailing their boat, "Northern Passage", back home to Seldovia Alaska from California, as the park Rangers completed their work. Our Alaskan friends had a quick soak once the work was done, and then left, leaving the dock to us. Interestingly, the Monkey Beach part of the name is from rumoured sightings and stories of Bigfoot living in this area......not that we saw him! So after our dinner, we wandered into the pools and soaked in the springs, joined by the Rangers for awhile, and then by the crew and several paying guests on the charter boat "Maple Leaf", which pulled up and anchored off nearby. Another evening arrival was a Kiwi, from Wanaka, NZ, who is kayaking from Haines Alaska, down the Inside Passage for Alaska. Amazingly enough, he'd only kayaked a few times previously, and bought the kayak for something to do while his girlfriend climbs Denali. He'd been averaging some 50 to 60 kilometres per day, which I find quite amazing.

Bishop Bay Hotsprings Pool

The following day, June 9, was a lay-day, with beautiful sunny weather, and a hot spring nearby. We opened up the boat and pulled out and aired out our bedding and cushions, to get everything nice and dry and aired out. We cleaned up the boat, and had a fire on the beach to get rid of some of our burnable garbage. We moved the boat as far back on the dock as possible, to allow a couple of fishboats to raft up ahead of us on the dock. Then, after a dinner of lamb chops, Shane and Kelcy enjoyed the beach fire while I soaked in the pools, and caught up on my log.
Moving the boat back on the dock hadn't been as good an idea as I'd thought - early the following morning, the tide was extremely low, and we were in danger of going aground at the dock....so we untied the boat and departed quite early (0530). We continued up Ursula Channel, into Verney Pass and Devastation Channel, to arrive at yet another Hot Spring, this one with a couple of mooring buoys. We tied up to one, which put us close to shore, so moved to the other buoy, and then enjoyed the WeeWanie Hot Springs, all to ourselves. The pools are warmer than those at Bishop Bay, and both places are unique in that there is no sulphur smell at all....just lovely warm spring water in pools.

Looking out from WeeWanie Springs Pool

I'd made some bread while underway to here, and had enough dough to make a pizza for lunch, utilizing some of our ready-to-use-up meats and veggies. By late afternoon the wind had picked up to Southwest 25, with a bit of a sea rolling by the bay. Even in our protected bay, some of the chop made us rock about a bit, but by bedtime all was again quiet.
We untied from our buoy the following morning and worked our way south, back down Douglas Channel, and against a bit of wind, to arrive at the native village of Hartley Bay by 1430. We'd done a bit of motoring in this last section, so refilled our fuel tanks (69 litres this time), and our water tanks, before moving onto the docks. Unfortunately, there was still no internet available here, but we managed to get a cell phone signal to call Linda at home and advise her of our position and status. By now it was quite cool and rainy, but we still took a walk around the village, with its boardwalks throughout town. Locals run golf carts and ATV's around the community on the boardwalks.

Enjoying the rain and the Boardwalks of Hartley Bay

After dinner we visited with Garth and Doris Riggin on their liveaboard boat, GD Riggins, from Comox....and called it a night at 2300.
Saturday morning, the 12th of June, was very wet and breezy. We left at 0630 in order to enter Grenville Channel at low slack tide, and we were rewarded with a lovely following wind and tide pushing us northbound through the channel. We made such good time, sailing at over 9 knots, that we passed by our destination of Loewe's Inlet, and continued a further 10 miles into Klewnugget Inlet, to anchor in East Inlet for the night. We had a further go at crabbing, with no luck, but had a quiet night at anchor.
To continue with our early morning theme, we again arose early, to catch the end of the ebb tide and then get a push from the flood tide later on (the tide changes direction in Grenville Channel, so it needs a bit of planning). We were off the anchor at 0530, and had a very nice sail with Southwesterly winds, clearing Grenville Channel by noon, and continuing on a very lively sail into Chatham Channel. Prince Rupert came into sight, and we arrived in town by early afternoon, tying up at the yacht club docks. First thing on the agenda was to find some showers, and then connect to the internet. We managed to link up with friends from Prince Rupert Coast Guard, Shelley Clark, and Art Statham, who joined us in the evening for a few beers and a pub dinner at the pub beside the yacht club.
Today is Monday, June 14. It was a very productive day, thanks to our friends Shelley and Art. I met up with Art at 0800 and rode into work with him, and then had the use of his van for the day. That allowed us to pack up our extensive collection of laundry, and take the lot to Shelley's place. It was several loads, with in-between trips to the grocery store for some replacement supplies, and a look around town. By late afternoon, we were returning the van, and Shane and Kelcy got a tour of the Coast Guard Centre. Shelley was working a night shift, so we joined Art for a delicious meal at a Chinese restaurant, and then Art showed us around some of the sights of the area.....made even better by a spectacularly brilliant sunny evening, and sunset. We ended up back at the boat by early evening, and had time to catch up on the Blog. More adventures to follow.