Namu to Port Hardy

(click on images to open larger in new window)
Saturday, August 12, after stowing the prawn trap, we headed for Namu, a quaint little dock side respite. We motored down Fitz Hugh Sound in a drizzling rain and arrived at Namu under clear sunny skies mid afternoon.

We were fortunate to get dock space as there were many commercial fish boats – gill netters – rafted 4 and 5 deep. They were waiting for the fish buyers to come in on Sunday and were repairing seal-damaged fish nets in the meantime. We were invited by the harbor master to share clam chowder and her cinni-buns. The clams were dug and put into a chowder by one of the gill netters. Both offerings were delicious. It gave us a chance to visit with the gill netters and hear stories of the trials and tribulations of making a living at sea.

This was a thriving fish cannery town which, like Ocean Falls, was really booming in its day.

The houses on the hill looked livable, but sit empty rotting away.

The wharfs are crumbling, like all else around the place originally made from wood.

Rene the harbor master told us if we wanted to take the boardwalk – which once serviced the part of Namu that is built back in the cove - we should step where the nails hold the boards together, not in the middle of a board, and to walk 20 feet apart so if one of us fell through the other could pull them out. We stepped gingerly as we went and didn’t walk very far before coming to a section that had completely collapsed. This is unfortunate because there are archeological digs that we wanted to visit back in the valley behind the town where habitation has been traced back 10,000 years. Rene says she plans to work on improving the boardwalk so folks who can get along with grizzly bears can get back to that trail.

Rene and her husband Pete were involved with the final logging operation in Draney Narrows that we talked about earlier. When they were hired to be caretakers of Namu, they brought their own floats and docks. One of the docks brought from Draney is covered and set up for cooking and feeding large groups of boaters. They have built a large kettle-shaped fire place that is used for doing salmon on a plank. The large table they have built is a long slab cut cedar log that shows a friendly amount of stress.

The big float holds their house, which they live in during the summer. In winter, the winds blow thru at 125 kts, so they move the floats around the corner, and live in the old concrete block building that once housed the post office, pub, and other businesses.

Rene told us that during lunch one day last winter, they opened the door to get some fresh air and one of the grizzly bears from up the hill popped his head in to see what was cooking. Pete said he just yelled at him and the bear lost no time getting out of there. Life in this part of the world requires a cool head and a good grip on reality.

We visited with Teresa, a lifelong friend of Rene and Pete’s who helps out during the busy season.She showed us thru the old cannery site and the new gift shop and we discovered that in addition to her beach coming and wood working, she is an avid oil painter.

The next morning we headed for Millbrook Cove in Smith Sound to stage our rounding of Cape Caution. We entered the anchorage to find two boats at anchor and two more sailboats came in during the evening hours. After a peaceful night we pulled the anchor at 7am, and we were the last boat to leave the anchorage.

Our passage around Cape Caution was in light wind but was lumpy. There are two opposing currents that come crashing together right at the Cape, and the water has no where to go but up.










After we rounded the Cape we took the picturesque passage through the Southgate Group that gave us flat smooth water to make crab sandwiches for an early lunch.
By the time we got through the Walker Group and Gordon Channel the NW winds had built and we enjoyed a nice off wind sail across Goletas Channel, through Hardy Bay and into Port Hardy.
We are regrouping here for the rounding of Cape Scott and our cruise down the west coast of Vancouver Island. We’re catching up on our Blog posting which we have been unable to do until now.
We don’t know what the internet availability will be until we get further south. Please be patient for future postings.

The material on this log is protected by copyright
© 2006 George Benson. Reproduction of any of the material on this log without written permission from George Benson is prohibited.

Kiltik Cove to Codville Lagoon

(click on images to open larger in new window)
The morning of August 8 we headed for Shearwater working our way around half-dozen gill-netters patrolling their nets. The Canadian government only allows these guys to fish on Mondays and Tuesdays during their short season. And sometimes they have to wait til the following Sunday for the fish buyers to come, as we found out in Namu further on in our trip.

We arrived at Shearwater Marine Resort to find the docks full of very large motor yachts. After our visit to the fuel dock, we worked out a spot with Caroline, the Harbor Master. She put us at the commercial dock without power.

We were looking at the probability of having to stay another day just to recharge our batteries. While walking the dock to stretch our legs we came across the M/V Mist Approach and Emerald Sea that we had met at Duncanby Landing. And Brian and Patti on Mist Approach offered to let us raft to them. A very considerate gesture. We appreciated the visit and the chance to charge our batteries at the same time.

We tried to post the blog, but our very slow $7.50 an hour card ran out before we were able to finish. The wireless doesn’t necessarily work as advertised in these remote northern harbors. We were told Ocean Harbor had free internet so we opted to do it there rather than buy another card. We bought necessary groceries, propane. mailed a few post cards and called home from the pay phone. I did learn from a fellow boater that Verizon gives cell service as far as Shearwater at least and that’s pretty far north. We also did some research on Satellite phones and email from folks docked there. Next year things should be different in the communication arena for us.

Again we met the families from Port McNeill, doing laundry, shopping, and the kids running around the docks.

The next day most all the boats had left leaving the harbormaster wandering around wondering what she was going to do with all the dock space. She told us that the southeast winds the previous day blew all the big boats into Shearwater.

After leaving Shearwater, we worked our way through tricky Gunboat Passage.




Then on to Ocean Falls.

On the way we passed Teal Island which coincidentally is across from Georgie Point.

We really liked Ocean Falls, an old Crown Zellerbach company town which is celebrating their 100^th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1906 and thrived as a bustling community of 5,000 people, until when in 1972, the paper company pulled up stakes and left them pretty much to fend for themselves. The government stepped in and prolonged the agony until 1980, when they too pulled out. The little ghost town is inhabited by 35 year-round residents now living in nearby Martin Valley, the population is gauged by how many show up for the annual Christmas party.

Most of the original buildings are gone. But at one time it boasted the largest hotel north of San Francisco.

Their community spirit supported many organizations, cultural events (ie, plays, art etc), and sent swim champions to the Olympics. As we walked around the deserted, crumbling buildings, the energy that was once a thriving town could be felt.

The tag line for Ocean Falls is “Best Coastal Town by a Dam Sight”

The highlight of the area is the natural waterfall below the dam, which was the big draw for the paper company to build their paper mill there back at the turn of the century.

There is so much hard earned equipment left behind.

The harbor master, Sally Isaksen is very friendly and upbeat, as are most of the residents we met. Sally is the local artist and we saw her artistic touch in many areas of town. She reminded us of our friend Barbara Frese in Los Gatos, who paints on white walls and any blank surfaces she encounters. Sally has painted some very colorful water scenes on the electrical box covers at the docks. She told us that people have actually stolen those covers.We ate lunch at the old Catholic Church, which houses the restaurant Eva’s Holy Grill. Her dinners are excellent we are told. The hamburger we had for lunch was a 7 layer deal, messy but great!

When we were leaving we ran into “Nearly Normal Norman”, the town celebrity (featured in the travel guide most folks use up here) who lives in a abandon building (which he calls a museum – it’s really old junk left behind) and walks around with a wine glass in hand hoping for a refill. He tells people what they want to know about Ocean Falls, much to the consternation of some of the original residents Who told us no to pay any attention to him, “he is full of it”, he has only been there 21 years. (Which dates to after it’s demise.)

"The Port McNeill Bunch" made the scene and unloaded their ATV and motorcycle on the road with the lifting spar on Western Cloud. We ran into them several times during our walks around Ocean Falls and at the dam and lake where the kids motored up on the ATV and took a swim. They were really enjoying their time at every place they went. Perfect stops for active kids to play with all their toys.

Our last night at the docks, about 8:00 PM, after the wind calmed, we took Teal out to the old warehouse site which is renown for good crabbing.We set our crab trap.

The next morning on our way out, we hauled in 14 large crabs. We kept the six largest - all over seven inches, with the biggest one at 9 inches.

The 20 miles to Codville Lagoon was Teal-lightful, and we fished unsuccessfully the last couple of miles, then set our Prawn trap before we went into the lagoon

As we approached the anchorage there was a fawn swimming across the lagoon right in front of us.

As we rounded the island, we saw just two boats already in the anchorage. The night was quiet and the next morning we motored out to our prawn trap, which seemed to have drifted a way out into the inlet. A miss calculation on the depth. The buoy supported the trap, and when we hauled it, we had just one large prawn. He went back over the side and back to his home in the deep.

Next time, Namu to Port Hardy.

George & JoAnne

The material on this log is protected by copyright
© 2006 George Benson. Reproduction of any of the material on this log without written permission from George Benson is prohibited.

Ducanby Landing to Pruth Bay

(click on images to open larger in new window)

We went through Draney Narrows at the last of the flood current, about three knots, and trolled our way to Robert Arm. We caught a good-sized black cod that provided two nice fillets for our table and the remains a good amount of crab bait.

We then picked up and headed for the anchorage. We anchored at the head of the inlet after setting the prawn trap in about 220 feet and the crab trap in about 80 feet on our way in.

Shortly after getting anchored, the sun broke through the cloudy sky. We watched several seals, each feeding on their own school of herring, making them boil on the surface of the water with enough frenzy to make the whole show audibly clear across the anchorage.


On our way to the head of Draney Inlet, the next morning, we collected 2 large Dungeness crabs in our trap. When we got to the prawn trap, we discovered 37 good-sized prawns on that haul and five little Spider crabs that we popped back into the drink.

The abandon logging site was the last A-frame yarding operation in B.C. The folks who are now caretakers of the old fish cannery town of Namu were involved with this operation also (more on them in a later post.).

We couldn’t find a suitable spot to anchor at the head of the inlet and opted to go into Allard Bay, a little inlet on the north side. We found it to be a secure, tranquil anchorage, and for dinner we enjoyed a prime rib eye steak, and freshly caught prawns.

We left the anchorage in the morning in time to make the narrows at slack tide and continue our cruise, trolling our way to Johnston Bay. We, along with most of the sport fishermen in Rivers Inlet, (we hear on the vhs radio) have not been very successful catching salmon. We hear of a Chinook or two and a few Coho making it to the box during the course of a day.

We found the anchorage at Johnston Bay full of crab pots and a few prawn traps to boot. We still had plenty in the frig, so did not bother setting our traps. Several boats came in to check their pots, but we didn’t see much success. We had a peaceful night anchored in about 60 feet.

We later heard that while we were there a female grizzly with cubs was using the Johnston Creek tidelands. That beach was around the corner from our anchorage and all the bear scanning we did with the binocs didn’t bring that beach into view. Bummers!

We did enjoy watching six eagles balancing on tree limbs “eagle eyeing” the waters looking for that easy catch. They had no luck while we watched, but did a lot of maneuvering from limb to rock to tree. We heard wolves howling off in the distance, and a low growling noise accompanying it. That could have been mama bear.

The next morning we headed up to the head of Rivers Inlet where we passed many upscale fly-in fishing resorts, many of which were carved out of the old cannery ruins, and scores of salmon fishermen pounding the waters. According to the chatter on the radio, we heard that a few fish were being caught, and at the resorts, the bragging boards list the big fish brought in, but we have yet to see anyone actually fighting or landing a fish. Where are those fish today? Salmon runs at one time supported 17 fish canneries in Rivers Inlet.

August 4. By mid-afternoon we pulled up to the dock at Dawsons Landing, took on fuel, and tied down for the night. The M/V Chai Yen (John and Mary from Blaine WA) came in and tied behind Teal. We had a good time visiting with them. They too are heading north and we look forward to seeing them again this summer.

Dawsons Landing is a general provisioning area. They have cottages where folks stay while they fish and explore the area. They’re open all year, and they say the winters are fierce – very cold, windy, and it rains everyday. In winter they cater mostly to the local First Nation people (Native Americans in the US), and lumbermen who live in the area. Very rustic docks and again brown water. Everything they need or sell must be barged in. We saw the barge very precisely brought into the fuel dock while we were there.

August 5. After a leisurely breakfast and one more visit to the store we headed for Oyster Cove in Fish Egg Inlet, stopping on our way in the anchorage to set the prawn and crab traps. A little cove named Fish Trap Cove where the local Indian Band constructed fish traps from rocks can be seen at low tide.

It was very tranquil and protected from all winds. We had a restful night. The next morning’s haul of the crab trap yielded only a small rock crab and a sea star, but we scored 40 nice sized prawns on that haul.





After cleaning our catch, we headed for Purth Bay at the end of Kuakshua Channel on Calvert Island.

Purth Bay is the site of an exclusive hotel resort in a provincial conservancy allowing cruisers to land their tenders at the dock & use the trail to the beautiful white sand beach on the ocean side if the island.
While at the beach we met two families cruising together from Port McNeill. They were cruising on a large converted seine boat “Western Cloud” and a modern motor yacht “Island Life”. So the large family of kids had a lot of room to run around. This was to be the first of many times our paths would cross in the next few days to come. After returning from the beach, we watched the freight barge come in to the dock and unload provisions for the hotel.

We then moved Teal from the somewhat open anchorage in front of the hotel to a little cove that bites into the south shore of the bay. We anchored next to the Port McNeill bunch that were rafted together in the cove. We had a peaceful night.

The next morning we woke to a light, yet wet rain, and decided to divert from our course to Shearwater and stopped at Kiltik Cove on Hunter Island about half way. It was a good choice, on our way up Fitz Hugh Sound a southeast wind started to build white caps.

That night, while secure in our anchorage along with two gillnet fishing boats, the winds were reported to have been 50 knots.

Next Blog: Kiltik Cove to Codville Lagoon

Stay tuned, George & JoAnne

The material on this log is protected by copyright
© 2006 George Benson. Reproduction of any of the material on this log without written permission from George Benson is prohibited.

Port McNeill to Duncanby Landing

(click on images to open larger in new window)

July 26, we left Port McNeill on the tide and headed up Broughton Strait for Port Hardy with a sight seeing detour through the islands of Beaver Harbor. It turned into a beautiful sunny day as we entered Port Hardy. By the time we took on fuel, got checked in and went into town to shop for provisions at the Overwaitea super market, compliments of the Quarter Deck Marina’s courtesy car, the sport boats were coming in with good catches of salmon both Chinook and Coho. A large Halibut had also been caught. One fisherman was proudly weighing a 50-pound Chinook. This was the first reasonable showing of sport fish we had seen this season.

By the end of the day, we were set and ready to depart on the morning tide for our rounding of Cape Caution. As we approached Goletas Channel to cross over to the Gordon Islands, the fishing fleet, out in force, was working their way out of Goletas Channel into the shelter of Hardy Bay. Goletas Channel was kicking up with the a 20 to 30 knot north westerly funneling right down the channel.

Teal leaned forward into the sloppy quartering seas and was making good way, too good to retreat. Before we crossed into the shelter of the Gordon Islands, the 6 to 8 foot quartering seas were tossing us around a bit and spraying the cockpit, but Teal as always took it very well and kept us dry enough that we didn’t bother with foul weather gear.

Crossing Gordon Channel was somewhat easier but by the time we got to the Walker Group, we appreciated the chance to stop. This is an anchorage we learned about from our friends John and Cheryl of the MV/ Sovereign, that we met at Port Neville last year.

As we worked our way through the pass into the anchorage, the S/V Hamelyn anchored there came into view. We found space next to her and set the anchor. We visited with Redek and Elaine and learned that they had been hearing Neil and Nancy on Harmony, the folks we met in Oak Harbor, on the net asking if anyone had seen Teal. Elaine said she would let them know where we were. We have since sent them an email at our next port, but we don’t have the radio gear needed to monitor the “net”.

Early the next morning we set out across Ripple Passage, and reached the shelter of the Southgate Group, and set anchored at Skull Cove before the forecast winds had a chance to build. The crossing was a little lumpy, yet easy, and made with dry decks.

Once in Skull Cove, we found good anchorage with shelter from the forecast southerly winds.

We kicked back and watched three raccoons foraging along a beach in the east cove for a long time. Then suddenly they hurried off, as if having been chased away, never to return for the rest of our anchorage. We never saw what chased them away. We fished and did trip planning for the next phase of our cruise.

The next morning we picked up and headed for Smith Sound. The seas were glassy smooth with no wind and only a three-foot swell. We were being rewarded for our patience to round Cape Caution.

After our rounding and in Smith Sound we were feeling a little hungry and opted to go into Jones Cove for an early lunch. While JoAnne was fixing lunch, I made a few casts and promptly put a couple of bottom fish in the bag.

After our lunch, we headed for Takush Harbor and went into Fly Basin to anchor for the night. We set the prawn and crab traps on our way. The weather was closing in and turned to light rain.

The next afternoon on our way out, the crab trap produced two little rock crabs, not large enough to keep, and only a LARGE sea star in the prawn trap. We went across Smith Sound in a light rain to Millbrook Cove. On our way across, we spotted a pod of Killer whales working there way back into Smith Inlet. They were at binocular distance. No photos of those guys this time for us!

Once into the cove we found tranquil, secure anchorage behind the island blocking the entrance. During a dry spell, I jumped into the skiff and tossed out the crab trap just a painter length behind Teal. Then more needed relaxation.

The next morning Teal had swung to the other extreme of the anchor rode, and I had to row some to reach the trap. It came up with five small but legal-sized crabs, four Dungeness and one rock crab. We kept and cleaned the three largest Dungeness before heading for Duncanby Landing in Rivers Inlet.

Duncanby Lodge and Marina is a restored 1950s fish camp. It now serves sport fishermen and yachtsmen. It is nicely appointed and run by a very young (average age 23) and enthusiastic staff. We had lunch at the restaurant. We met Lee and Waunell from M/V Emerald Sea, who are from Walnut Creek, CA. They have been to Alaska and shared tips and stories of anchorages and ports they like. They are buddy boating with Brian and Patti of the M/V Mist Approach. After visiting with them, we took showers, and did laundry.









We topped off the night with a crab feed on our boat.

August 1, Tuesday morning we awoke to rain. Where did that come from? We had clear skies when we retired last night. We topped off the water tanks with “brown” water. It’s colored with tannin that comes from Cedar run off. Everyone says it’s not harmful to drink, and we confirmed that last year. And after all many people opt for red wine over white because of the health benefits of tannin. So we get tannin free from the hose on the dock. It plays havoc with the filter, but we have a spare.

We tried to do Internet at $2.50 per 15 minutes. And just as we got to our last email, the Satellite hid itself, so that was the end of our session, no chance to post the blog. Anyway it was time to head out to Draney Narrows, in the rain. As we approached the narrows, many fishing boats were milling about with lines in the water, and fishermen and women were fighting the current, wind, and driving rain.

Join us next time when we take you through the Narrows and into Draney Inlet.

George and JoAnne

The material on this log is protected by copyright
© 2006 George Benson. Reproduction of any of the material on this log without written permission from George Benson is prohibited.