Location: Tahsis, BC
Since leaving Shearwater
(the end of the last blog), we have been steadily making our way south and are
now cruising down the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Thursday, August 24th, Shearwater to Pruth Bay, Calvert
Island:
Rain. We left the Shearwater dock
at 8:45 and headed south via Lama Passage and Fisher Channel. The weather report said the seas on the
outside passage were 7 – 10 feet so, although longer, we decided to take the
calm, inside route and take advantage of the protection from the islands. We saw a few whales and a lot of small
fishing boats along the way. We arrived
in Pruth Bay at 14:00 and dropped anchor in the small lobe on the south side of
the bay.
Friday, August 25th, Pruth Bay to Millbrooke Cove,
Smith Inlet:
Rain. We were hoping the rain
would quit so that we could go ashore at Pruth Bay and walk the beach but the
weather report called for rain the rest of the day. We heaved anchor at 9:00 and headed east in
Kwakshua Channel and then south in Fitz Hugh Sound. As we reached the south end of Calvert
Island, we saw several sea otters floating on their backs in the deep
water. It was too deep for them to be
feeding, so they must have been moving between feeding areas.
Saturday, August 26th, Millbrooke Cove: Rain. We spent the day in Millbrooke Cove waiting
for a front to move through offshore. It
rained most of the morning and we did inside chores and projects. By mid-afternoon the front had passed through. Dave had made up two heaving lines earlier in
the day and we spent time on deck practicing our throwing techniques. We made pizza for supper.
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| Dave tying a monkey fist at the end of a heaving line |
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| Practicing throwing the heaving line |
Sunday, August 27th, Millbrooke Cove to Winter
Harbour, Vancouver Island: As predicted, the weather, wind and seas were
good for us to make the voyage around Cape Scott to the west coast of Vancouver
Island. We heaved anchor at 6:45 and
left Millbrooke Cove in a light fog. Seas
were calm with a long, low northwest swell and winds were ~10 knots. We made good speed and rounded Cape Scott at
12:00 in the fog. As we came around the
corner and turned south, the fog cleared and we had a bright sunny day ahead of
us. Cape Scott is the most westerly
point of Vancouver Island and rounding it is one of the challenges to cruising
the west coast of the island. We timed it well and had a smooth ride.
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| The Cape Scott lighthouse |
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| An ocean sunfish south of Cape Scott lighthouse |
Our original plan was to
anchor in Sea Otter Cove but the weather prediction was for the winds to pick
up overnight so we decided to continue south to Quatsino Sound. We turned into the sound at 16:30 and cruised
by the Quatsino Lighthouse on Kains Island.
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| Quatsino Lighthouse on Kains Island |
We headed up Forward Inlet
on the north side of the sound and pulled up to the Outpost Dock in Winter
Harbour. We walked up to the store to check
in and then walked the wooden boardwalk along the bay. On our way back, we stopped at the small hamburger/seafood
shack “Be More Pacific” to eat supper outside at their picnic tables. Back at the boat, we watched a sea otter
feeding on clams between the dock and the shoreline.
Monday, August 28th, Winter Harbour to Julian
Cove: I
could actually see stars when I got up in the middle of the night which was a
nice change from the overcast skies. We
pulled away from the dock at 9:15 for our voyage to Julian Cove. There were two sea otters feeding near the
dock and about two dozen of them floating together in the middle of the
harbor. In Kultus Cove, just south of
Drake Island and about 1 mile south of Julian Cove, there was a huge ship
loading logs. We dropped anchor in
Julian Cove, ate lunch and launched the kayaks.
We paddled around Julian Cove and to nearby Smith Cove. The water was very clear and we could see
lots of starfish, clams and jellyfish.
We glided over kelp forests where you could hear the water crackling as
the minnows fed near the surface of the water.
Back at the boat we barbecued chicken for supper and ate up on monkey
island.
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| Log boom near Julian Cove |
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| Dave kayaking Julian Cove |
Tuesday, August 29th, Julian Cove to Port Alice: This morning we launched the dinghy to try our
luck at trolling for salmon. We cruised
along the south side of Drake Island and caught a small rockfish but nothing
else.
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| Julian cove shoreline |
After lunch we heaved
anchor and cruised to the Rumble Beach Marina in Port Alice. We tied up at the end of the tee head; the
wind was blowing us off the dock and the harbourmaster, Page, helped us secure
our lines. I walked up the dock to pay
for our moorage while Dave helped three fishermen, John, Gary and Ed, tie up in
the slip next to us. Ed went to get gas
for their boat and John and Gary filleted the salmon they had caught. As Dave and I were settling in, we heard “I’m
going in” and a big splash. John had
fallen into the water as he was re-tying their dock lines. Dave went down to help Gary pull him in and I
grabbed a towel. With John safely on the
dock, Dave and Gary secured their boat.
John came aboard for a cup of hot tea and to warm up and dry off. We chatted while Gary and Ed fueled their
boat. As they were leaving, they invited
us to join them for supper at The Killer Whale Café in Telegraph Cove on the
east side of Vancouver Island near Port McNeill. Telegraph Cove is a picturesque tourist
destination. It has a boardwalk lined
with cottages that can be rented, whale watching tours, grizzly bear tours,
fishing charters, a motel and an RV park.
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| Ed, Gary, John and Dave, Killer Whale Cafe, Telegraph Cove |
We sat outside on the patio
for supper; the guys all had seafood chowder and fish-n-chips and I had
barbecued salmon. We enjoyed hearing
their fishing stories and told a few of our cruising stories. As we were finishing supper, two river otters
came up to play on the docks. We rode
back to Port Alice, along the winding, bumpy road, in the dark.
Wednesday, August 30th, Port Alice to Pamphlet
“Quiet” Cove:
I walked up to the grocery store to get a few things before we left the Port
Alice dock this morning. Page gave me a
few salmon fishing tips and made up a jig for us to try. We cast off the lines at 10:45 and cruised to
Pamphlet Cove on the north side of Drake Island. It was rainy but we had internet and phone
service so we did a few things on line.
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| Rainbow near Port Alice |
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| Sunset, Pamphlet Cove |
Thursday, August 31st, Pamphlet Cove to Klaskish
Basin:
The weather looked good for leaving Quatsino Sound and traveling south
towards Brooks Peninsula. We heaved
anchor at 7:15. The ride was uneventful
with overcast skies and very little wind.
We saw a few sea otters. There is
a lot of active logging in the Brooks Bay area but Klaskish Basin, on the
northeast side of the Brooks Peninsula, is still pristine. After entering through the narrows, we
anchored in the middle of the basin at 11:45.
That afternoon we launched the dinghy and went fishing near McDougal
Island. We started off jigging and
caught a small halibut and several small rockfish but nothing worth
keeping. We trolled for a while but
didn’t catch anything. The wind started
to pick up so we went back to the boat and spent the rest of the afternoon
scanning the grass flats for wildlife.
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| Looking out the Klaskish Basin narrows |
Friday, September 1st, Klaskish Basin to Scow Bay,
Bunsby Islands: We left the anchorage this morning at 7:00 to
make our way around the Brooks Peninsula.
The peninsula is another challenge for traveling the west coast of
Vancouver Island and it makes sense to wait for the right weather. The winds were 5 – 15 knots, predicted to
increase to 20+ in the afternoon and the seas had a long, low swell. Our original plan was to anchor in Columbia
Cove but the winds were going to change to the southeast and we decided Scow
Bay, in the Bunsby Island Group, would be more protected. We tucked into the bay and dropped anchor
just before lunch. It was a rainy
afternoon; we did inside chores, baked cookies and read our books.
Saturday, September 2nd, Scow Bay: Another
rainy day. We did inside projects and
read our books. The rain finally quit
late afternoon and we did a few outside projects. We watched a bear turning over rocks on the
beach and a sea otter making his regular round inside the cove for a snack of
clams.
We never realized the
difference between sea otters and river otters until we had a chance to watch
them within a day of each other. Sea
otters are much larger, rarely leave the water and spend most of their time
floating on their backs while they eat and groom. The river otters usually swim or float on
their bellies and spend much more time on land.
Because of their fur, sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction; the
last known sea otter in BC was shot in 1929.
Sea otters were re-introduced into British Columbia in 1969 – 1972 when
wild otters from Alaska were released in the Bunsby Islands. The re-introduction has been a success and
sea otters are now a common site along the west coast of Vancouver Island.1
1.
References:
Guide to Marine Mammals of the World, National Audubon Society;
and Exploring Vancouver Island’s West Coast, Douglass and
Hemingway-Douglass
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| Seabiscuit at anchor, Scow Bay, Bunsby Islands |
Sunday, September 3rd, Scow Bay to Columbia Cove: The marine
layer lifted about 9:00 this morning to reveal a bright, clear day. We launched the kayaks and paddled the
islands inside Scow Bay. After lunch, we
heaved anchor and cruised to Columbia Cove on the southeast side of the Brooks
Peninsula. We dropped anchor and settled
in for the afternoon.
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| Exploring a small creek near Scow Bay |
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| A view up a small creek, Scow Bay |
Monday, September 4th, Columbia Cove to Walters
Cove (Kyuquot): Another beautiful sunny day. This morning, we launched the dinghy and took
it up into the tidal flats of Columbia Cove.
There is a primitive trail in the southwest corner of the cove that
leads to the beach at Shed 4, the northern most of 4 “Shelter Sheds” along the
southeast side of the Brooks Peninsula.
We hiked the trail through the woods to the beach where we walked along
the shoreline, between the rocks, up the creek and amongst the driftwood.
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| The beach end of the primitive trail through the woods from Columbia Cove to Shed #4 |
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| Dave exploring the beach at Shed #4 |
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| Dave and B taking a snack break in the shade of a rock, Shed #4 |
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| Looking south down the beach, Shed #4 |
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| A track in the sand, wolf maybe. |
We heaved anchor after lunch
and cruised to Walters Cove (Kyuquot), just north of Walters Island. The entrance into Walters Cove is tricky but well-marked. As we were working our way inside, a young
local girl in her runabout passed us and then slowly led us around the buoys, into
the cove and alongside the public wharf where she met two of her friends for a
swim off the pier.
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| Local girls swimming off the public wharf, Walters Cove |
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| Float plane landing, Walters Cove. There are no roads in or out of here. |
Walters Cove is in a
beautiful location, tucked in amongst a smattering of small islands. After tying up at the dock, we walked through
the woods to the local coffee shop. The
trail leads through the old growth forest and we saw several huge spruce trees
that must have been over 500+ years old.
The coffee shop was closed; we walked back to the boat and watched the
folks at the fishing lodge nearby weigh their fish.
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| B in front of an old growth spruce tree, Walters Cove |
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| Hydrangea, Walters Cove |
Tuesday, September 5th, Walters Cove to Dixie
Cove:
We left Walters Cove at 8:30 and cruised north up Crowther Channel to
Dixie Cove on the east side of Hohoae Island.
We anchored in the inner cove.
The water was very clear and it was a sunny, hot day so we decided the
project of the day was to clean the bottom of the hull. Dave suited up, wiped off the slime, checked
the zincs and chipped off a few barnacles.
The transducer that measures water depth has been acting funny
lately. Dave scraped some barnacles off of it so, hopefully now that they are gone, it will
behave normally again.
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| Dave cleaning the bottom of the hull, Dixie Cove |
After lunch, we worked on
cleaning the exterior of the hull. I
removed dock streaks and rust stains from the port side and Dave primed and
painted rust spots on the topsides. We
sat on the stern and enjoyed the evening breeze for happy hour.
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| Dusk, Dixie Cove |
Wednesday, September 6th, Dixie Cove to Queen
Cove:
After coffee and breakfast, we heaved anchor and headed south down
Kyuquot Channel, into Kyuquot Sound and to Esperanza Inlet via Clear Passage,
inside the barrier islands. It was foggy
with the marine layer hanging low and the wind was blowing 15 – 20 knots. There was a swell from the northwest and wind
waves from the south and it was a little bumpy.
Being inside the barrier islands, protected us from most of the
seas. We entered Esperanza Inlet via
Rolling Roadstead, north of Catala Island, then turned north into Port Eliza
fjord and into Queen Cove. We dropped
anchor behind the island just inside the entrance. It was overcast and windy and we spent the
afternoon doing inside chores. After
supper, Dave spotted a mother bear and two cubs overturning rocks along the
shore.
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| Mother bear and two cubs, Queen Cove |
Thursday, September 7th, Queen Cove to Zeballos: We started
the morning by watching a bear walk along the shore. As we were heaving anchor, an ocean sunfish
surfaced near the boat.
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| Ocean sunfish, Queen Cove |
The salmon are running in
this area and there are lots of fishermen out.
We cruised north up Zeballos Inlet to the town of Zeballos and tied up
at the town dock. Zeballos is (was) a
small gold mining town which saw its heyday in the late 1930s. There are signs around town marking the sites
of old buildings and telling the history of the gold rush days. We walked the boardwalk trail through the
estuary and ate some ripe blackberries along the way. We stopped at the library where, Al, the librarian,
asked us if we were environmental activists because we both had on green
t-shirts. We went into both of the small
grocery stores and bought milk and soda at one and eggs, chips and bait at the
other.
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| Picking blackberries, Zeballos |
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| Boardwalk through the estuary, Zeballos |
Friday, September 8th, Zeballos to Westview
Marina, Tahsis: We left the Zeballos dock at 9:00 and cruised
via Hecate Channel through the Tahsis Narrows and then turned north into Tahsis
Inlet. Westview Marina, at the head of
the inlet near the town of Tahsis, is like an oasis. The docks are nice and the people are
friendly. They have a small
tackle/marine store, a café with great patio seating, laundry and
internet. We tied up on the inside dock
then had lunch on the patio. We spent
the afternoon doing laundry, using the internet and loading fresh water. Friday night at the marina is “Rock the Dock”
with live entertainment and a buffet supper.
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| Supper on the patio with Tom and Sue, Westview Marina, Tahsis, BC |
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| Friday night Rock-the-Dock, Westview Marina |
Saturday, September 9th, Westview Marina, Tahsis: It is
raining this morning. We plan to stay one more night here at the marina.
Until next time…
