May 9 - May 14, 2006
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - We awoke to calm winds and sunshine and departed Naniamo at 6:45 am. We poked our nose out to see what awaited us in the Straits of Georgia. Much to our surprise it was almost like glass. Our original intent was to run up the coast to Comox but we decided to take advantage of the calm water and made the run all the way up to Campbell River. Philbrook's had forwarded a replacement filter to Discovery Bay Marina We arrived at Campbell River at 3:15 pm picked up our part and settled in for the evening taking advantage of internet for email and planning.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - We departed Campbell River at 8:30 am to take advantage of the slack tide at Seymour Narrows, the start point of our journey up the Johnstone Straits. Again we were extremely fortunate to have unusually calm waters and made another long run to Port McNeil. We arrived at Port McNeil at 6:30 pm and as we were tying up, we were greeted with "Hi, Bob - we were wondering when you would get here". We looked up to see Jim and Karen Eisberg, who we met at the Alaska seminar we attended in March. They live in Prescott, AZ and keep their boat the I.M.B. at Blaine, WA. The I.M.B (It's My Boat) is a Hampton 550. They had crossed the Queen Charlotte Strait the day before but were having some mechanical problems with their tender and had to return to Port McNeil for repairs. A 60' Hatteras had pulled in also having also made the run from Campbell River. He was obviously a Type A personality as he had run from Friday Harbor to Naniamo on Monday and Nainamo to Campbell River on Tuesday and was planning leaving at 5:30 am to cross Queen Charlotte Strait. He asked Bob if we wanted to cross with him. After two long days of running, I looked at Bob and said my half of the boat was NOT going. We were tired and needed to chart out our crossing.
Thursday, May 11, 2006 - We woke up to rain and wind and decided it was a good day to do boat projects. The storm front was predicted to pass by tomorrow. We chatted with Jim and Karen and met two other couples on the dock who owned Celine trawlers and discussed crossing over Queen Charlotte Strait early tomorrow morning as the winds were to be decreasing. It was early to bed as we would need to be up before dawn.
Friday, May 12, 2006 - We departed Port McNeil at 5:30am under relatively clear skies and light winds. The plan was to cross over the strait and position ourselves on the Mainland side just south of Cape Caution. If all went well (read: Relatively calm seas) then we would proceed into Queen Charlotte Sound and around Cape Caution. The forecast was for light winds and combined sea heights for West Sea Otter buoy was 1.6 meters and flattening. We proceed forward and were thankful for the light winds and our stabilizers. We had sea swells that approximated 6+ feet and we felt like we were on a roller coaster for awhile. The cats hunkered down and slept the whole way across. With that milestone behind us we proceeded to Goose Bay and Ducanby Landing at the entry of Rivers Inlet. We had planned to anchor at Fury Cove, but it sounded like it was going to be somewhat populated. We arrived at Duncanby Landing at 2:30pm and were later joined by the two Celines, Kasechuchen and Annaruth. The Marina was under renovation and not scheduled to open until June 1st. No telephone or internet available.
Saturday, May 13,2006 - Decided to sleep in (yeah!) as we were going to make a short run of approximately 40 miles to Pruth Bay. At our typical cruising speed of 8 knots it will be about a 5 hour trip. Plenty of time to take in the scenery and watch for floating logs and other debris. Pruth Bay has a wonderful anchorage if front of the Hakai Beach Resort, a luxury fly in fishing resort. Unfortunately the resort was not open as their season did not start until July 1st. That had it's pluses and minuses. On the positive side was the fact that we would not be have to deal with the constant coming and goings of seaplanes bringing in guests. The negative side was we were looking forward to dinner out in their restaurant and there was no telephone or internet available. There is a walking path from the lodge to West Beach which is a spectacular white sand beach on the west side of Calvert Island. It was truly amazing, with large ocean surf and pristine clear water.
Sunday, May 14, 2006 - We departed Pruth Bay at 8:00 and headed to New Bella Bella, Shearwater area. We are finding that a lot of the anchorages along the way up the BC main land side were abandoned milling facilities or canneries. Old Bella Bella on Denny Island is an abandoned site on the northeast side of the Lama Passage and New Bella Bella is located on the northwest side of the passage on Campbell Island. New Bella Bella is a major Indian village with amenities such as a fuel dock and store with a pay phone but no restaurant facility. Shearwater has a Marine Resort with 50 amp power and water on the docks (a luxury) a laundry, store, restaurant, post office, internet and email hookup. We are "buddy boating" with Jim and Karen Eisberg and as it was Mother's day, Karen and I decided we would opt for "civilization" and chose Shearwater as our destination. We arrived at Shearwater at 1:30 pm and again, as we are early and the "season" had not yet begun, everything but the Pub and fuel dock were closed as it was Sunday. We tied up and kicked back and decided to relax and enjoy the sunny afternoon.