Our days in the Broughtons have been lovely. We entered through Spring Passage on a fine, sunny, windy afternoon after a long day from Port Harvey. Leaving Port Harvey that morning, yesterday it was, we chose to leave somewhat later than usual so that current through Chatham Narrows was at slack. (As a side note… I found it curious that slack in the narrows occurs hours before or after high or low tide. This puzzled me for a while because we're used to thinking of the currents in Puget Sound going slack as flood turns to ebb or visa versa, roughly at a point in time that corresponds to high or low tide. Look for more on the reason this is not so in these channels in a future post.)
Chatham Narrows is, well… narrow, and can be quite shallow, so we wanted to hit it with both depth and slack. We were able to time it so we entered ten minutes or so before slack at about mid-tide height, according to the tide and current tables. Our recorded minimum depth through the narrows was about 28 feet, so there was plenty of room to spare (Quijote draws 6.2'). Kay spotted our 1st grizzly there! It was on the bank some distance away, but it was huge.
There are range markers on the far shore going both directions; it is possible to position the boat in a way that the far and near markers are aligned, one above the other, to keep the boat in the center of the deepest part of the channel. We also put way points in the chart plotter for redundancy.
We glided through the narrows and into Knight Inlet without incident. From there it was a few hours out in the direction of Queen Charlotte Straight, dodging Islets with a 15 knot wind on our nose all the way.
We intended to spend three nights in the Broughton archipelago on our way through to Queen Charlotte Sound, but since the weather is looking favorable for getting around Cape Caution, we decided to bank a day and just spend two. The first was in Wadington Bay where it started off quite windy, but settled down as the evening wore on. The book described the anchorage as protected in all directions, but it didn't feel that way at first.
There was a large cabin cruiser anchored near the entrance to the bay and we thought it an odd choice of places to lower their anchor, since there are better, more protected corners of the bay available, but eventually we came to the conclusion that they chose the spot for the convenience of getting their dog ashore.
Our furst full day in the Broughtons, we were witness to a wonderland of tiny islands, remote craggy rocks, boundless forested hillsides, with occasional evidence of logging, aquaculture, and many crab pot buoys scattered about the marinescape.
We targeted Claydon Bay for the second night's anchorage, but noticed a small trail in the description for the Turnbull Cove, so we made a temporary stop to stretch our legs. The trail was short and sweet to a small dock with a picnic table on a picturesque lake. Kay found an abandoned paddle board and paddled around the lake for a while; Bob and I poked around in the woods along the shoreline enjoying the time on terra-firma.
Returning to Quijote, we found the cabin cruiser had followed us, again anchored near the entrance to the bay. We were half tempted to leave Quijote where she was, since the day was sunny, calm and quiet, and the boat was already anchored. But tomorrow was to be a long day and we'd be adding to that by staying put. The book also promised wildlife in Claydon Bay in the form of loons, herons and seals.
So we moved the boat and were quite pleased we did because we had red breasted loons, bald eagles, seals, and ducks to share the anchorage with, but no other boats. The loons clucked away in pairs, but started up a chorus of wailing when a bald eagle or a hawk flew overhead. The evening was warm and the water glassy as we enjoyed a meal of barbecued sausage, mashed potatoes and veggies, with a variety of bird calls filling the air around us. Perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment