Northern BC Coast

Location:  Prince Rupert, BC

It was all anchorages between Shearwater (the end of the last blog) and Prince Rupert.  We finished re-provisioning and doing chores and today we head to Larsen Harbour before we cross the Hecate Strait to Haida Gwaii. 

This is a video of the pacific white-sided dolphins riding our bow wake near Echo Bay in the Broughton Islands.  

Thursday, July 20^th, Shearwater to Rescue Bay:  The voyage from Shearwater to Rescue Bay was uneventful.  We went through Perceval Rapids with about 2 knots against us but it was short and benign.  We arrived at Rescue Bay about 14:30 and dropped anchor in 35’ of water.  We were the first boat into the anchorage, followed by three boats arriving shortly after we did and then three additional boats arriving later that evening.  We spent the afternoon moving “stuff” around in the steering flat, putting heavy stuff low and aft and moving electrical and electronic stuff back into the climate controlled atmosphere of the cabin.  We moved our snorkeling stuff out from under the settee and dedicated a storage compartment to fishing stuff. 

Welcome to Shearwater sign and carving of a grizzly.

Friday, July 21^st, Rescue Bay to Culpepper Lagoon (Kynoch Inlet):  Our original destination for the day was Windy Bay via Fiordland but we studied our charts and guidebooks and decided to go up Kynoch Inlet and anchor in Culpepper Lagoon instead.  In the guidebooks, Culpepper Lagoon is described as "off the beaten path and rarely visited but amazingly beautiful".  It’s located in the Fiordland Recreation Area and is surrounded by steep granite cliffs.  On the voyage up Mathieson Channel we spotted a whale feeding.  Shortly after that, Dave spotted a bear swimming across the channel.  We had read that bears were good swimmers and this proved it.  The channel was about 1.5 nm wide at the place he was crossing.  We spotted him about mid-channel swimming from the east bank to the west bank.  We slowed down and as we approached, he started back to the east, then changed his mind and continued west. 

Kynoch Falls is on the north side of the inlet just past the entrance.  There are numerous water falls coming down the rock walls on both sides of the inlet all the way to the head of Culpepper Lagoon. 

Kynoch Falls

Snow field and tunnel, Kynoch Inlet just before the rapids into Culpepper Lagoon

To enter Culpepper Lagoon, you have to transit a short rapids which we did near slack water.  We dropped off our prawn and crab traps and anchored at the head of the lagoon near the creek.  Most of the lagoon is very deep, greater than 100 feet, and it shoals quickly at the head near the creek making anchoring tricky.  There was 60 feet of water below our keel where we dropped the anchor and as we backed to set it, it shoaled to 4.5 feet.  Another boat came into the lagoon, nosed around, didn’t find any place to anchor that it was comfortable with and went back out the rapids.  We launched the dinghy and trolled around the perimeter of the lagoon for salmon.  Dave caught a small rock fish, which we released, and nothing else.  We studied the shoal area near the creek as we came back to the boat, decided our fathometer wasn’t lying, knew that the tide was going to fall at least another 10 feet and, if we didn’t want to end up on high ground, we needed to re-anchor somewhere further away from the shoal area.  We nosed around and finally decided on a spot in the southeast corner of the lagoon in 100 feet of water.  The water was like glass, there was virtually no wind and we had a peaceful night.

Reflections of the surrounding mountains and shoreline in Culpepper Lagoon.

Saturday, July 22^nd, Culpepper Lagoon to Windy Bay:  To time the rapids leaving the lagoon, we didn’t heave anchor until after lunch.  The morning was rainy and overcast and we spent the time doing boat chores.  We pulled our traps on the way out of the lagoon; both were empty.  It was a short run to Windy Bay.  We arrived about 15:30 and anchored in 65 feet of water in the northeast corner of the bay.  There were no other boats around and we had the whole bay to ourselves.

Windy Bay the morning we left.  Another calm, mirror-like anchorage.

Sunday, July 23^rd, Windy Bay to Bishop Bay Hot Springs:  We heaved anchor at 7:15 to catch slack water at Hiekish narrows and to ride the flood tide north up Princess Royal Channel and into Ursula Channel.  It was close to the new moon which means higher high tides, lower low tides and stronger currents; it also means that the logs and debris that has been up high on the shore floats free.  We saw lots of logs and rafts of flotsam.  The fog closed in as we neared the narrows.  We used our radar and sounded our whistle as we went through.  Because it had been rainy and overcast the last few days, our solar hadn’t been charging the batteries.  We have an aftermarket alternator on the main engine that we can clutch in to charge the house battery bank and that we can use to run the oven while we are underway.  We clutched in and used the oven to make bread.  I’m trying out a new cookbook “The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” that was recommended by a couple who I met at The Latch in Sidney.  I’m pleased to say that the first loaf turned out nicely.  As we turned the corner from Fraser Reach to Ursula Channel, we slowed down to 3 knots and tried trolling for salmon but no luck.

A tree floating by just north of Hiekish Narrows.

We turned into Bishop Bay and while I was setting up the crab and prawn traps, Dave saw a humpback whale breach just off the bow.  The whale breached a few more times than swam to the north side of the bay and slapped his flipper on the surface of the water.  We watched until he stopped, dropped off our traps and anchored to the south of the hot springs dock. 

From the dock, a ramp and a boardwalk lead to the hot springs.  The hot springs are two small pools.  The inner pool, covered with a lean-to type structure, is filled from a hot water pipe.  The uncovered outer pool is filled from the overflow of the inner pool.  The inner pool is about the temperature of a typical hot tub and the outer pool is a little bit cooler.  We sat in the hot springs for about 40 minutes and chatted with a couple from Vancouver.

Dave sitting in the inner pool at Bishop Bay Hot Springs.

Monday, July 24^th, Bishop Bay to Lowe Inlet/Nettles Basin:  Monday morning we heaved anchor about 7:30.  We pulled up our traps, both empty, while listening to the whale spout in the background.  We spotted two whales feeding as we exited the inlet and saw a pod of porpoises feeding as we turned into Ursula Channel.  Fishing was open for purse seiners around Gribbell Island and we watched a few of them setting their nets as we entered Wright Sound.  We turned into Lowe Inlet about 13:00, set our traps and anchored in front of Verney Falls in 50 feet of water.  The current flowing west from the falls holds the bow of the boat pointing towards the falls so we had a great view.  After lunch we launched our kayaks and paddled around Nettles Basin.  We went up to the falls to watch the salmon jumping; we could see hundreds circling in the pool just north of the falls waiting to go up the creek to spawn.  While we were there, we saw a bear come down to fish for his lunch. 

Dave in his kayak at the base of Verney Falls.

We paddled over to the old fish weir on the northeast side of the basin and then crossed and explored the areas on the west and south sides.  It was high tide and we glided over areas that were dry at low tide.  After supper we sat up on monkey island to watch the falls and to look for bears, but we didn’t see any.

Stone wall around a clam garden, only visible at low tide, on the beach to the north of Verney Falls.
According to one of our books, clams were a primary food source for the people who lived here
thousands of years ago.  Clams were also a status symbol.  People with high status were allowed
to dig clams on the main clam beach.  People with lower status had to dog clams on lesser
beaches.  This is where the clam garden came in.  Rocks were gathered from the sandy beach area
and piled in a ring along the low-tide perimeter.  The removal of the rocks from the beach made
more room for the clams and the rock wall prevented the beach from eroding.
Reference:  Full Moon, Flood Tide by Bill Proctor and Yvonne Maximchuk

Tuesday, July 25^th, Lowe Inlet to Pillsbury Cove, Prince Rupert:  A lazy morning as we waited for the current to change so that we could get a push north.  We watched two kayakers from a sailboat go ashore just north of the falls, and while they were looking around, a bear came out of the woods.  They waved their paddles around to scare him away and worked their way back to the kayaks as the bear disappeared back into the woods. 

Bear on the clam beach near Verney Falls.

We heaved anchor about 10:00 and went to pick up our traps.  The crab trap was empty but the prawn trap had about 15 large prawns in it.  We drifted while we stowed the prawns then headed out into Grenville Channel. 

B with the prawn trap in Lowe's Inlet.  We caught about 15 large prawns.

The currents in Grenville Channel meet about 2/3 of the way north of the south entrance.  This means at the south end of the channel the currents flood north and ebb south and at the north end of the channel they do the opposite – they flood south and ebb north.  In the narrow part of the channel, just south of the meeting point, the currents can run up to 9 knots.  The entrance to Lowe Inlet was south of the narrows and the meeting point, so we timed our exit to get to the narrows at slack water, catch the last of the flood up to the meeting point and then catch the ebb up the north end of the channel.  Our original plan was to stop and anchor in Lawson Harbour, a run of about 40 nm.  We were making good time and decided to go ahead and continue on to Prince Rupert, another 20 nm.  As we got closer to Prince Rupert, we picked up a cell signal, checked our e-mails and caught up with the electronic world.  We called two marinas in Prince Rupert to see if they had dock space but both were full.  We decided to anchor across the channel in Pillsbury Cove.  The water wasn’t deep enough for the prawn trap, but the crabbing is supposed to be good.  We dropped off the crab trap and anchored in 35 feet of water on the north side of the cove. 

Wednesday, July 26^th, Pillsbury Cove:  It rained most of the night and almost all day so “Rainy Rupert” is living up to its reputation.  We decided to stay on the boat to do boat chores.  We spent most of the day studying the charts and our guide books for our trip to Haida Gwaii / Gwaii Haanas and came up with a rough itinerary.  We ran the generator to charge our batteries so I made bread and baked a homemade pizza for supper.

Home made pizza is a success.

Thursday, July 27^th, Pillsbury Cove to Prince Rupert:  I called the Prince Rupert marinas this morning and the Yacht Club had space at the dock for us.  We launched the dinghy to go check our crab trap:  one crab, one starfish and one rockfish, we let them all go.  We went ashore to look for the petroglyph The Man Who Fell from Heaven but we never did find it.

Dave measuring the crab we caught.

We had lunch then heaved anchor to move across the channel to the yacht club, about 4 nm, 30 minutes.  We spent the afternoon wandering around town, doing some shopping and Dave got a haircut.  The guy who waited on us at the marine supply store is married to the daughter of the couple, CoCo and Walter, who own the Italian Restaurant in San Sebastian, Mexico – we did some reminiscing and sharing stories with him – just goes to show what a small world it is. 

Friday - Sunday, July 28 – 30, Prince Rupert:  We’ve been spending our time in town running errands, buying parts, getting groceries and supplies and checking out the local community, restaurants and bars.  We’re waiting for a weather window to cross the Hecate Strait to Haida Gwaii.  It looks like it will be nice for a crossing on Tuesday.  Today (Monday) we’ll leave Prince Rupert and go to Larsen Harbour, on the north coast of Banks Island, to stage for the crossing. 

Until next time...