Blind Channel Resort to Port McNeill via Glendale Cove

While at Blind Channel Resort, we were pleasantly surprised to see the well-prepared Catalina 42 "Journey" out of Nanaimo. "Journey" and "Teal" have randomly crossed tracks nearly a dozen times during the last three years. What are the odds?

Blind Channel Resort was a great visit. Highlights:
Showers with no coin operated timer. You pay at the marine office (general store). $4.00 plus GST (General Sales Tax a federal tax on EVERYTHING purchased). But once you’re in the shower, you stay as long as you like. Boaters appreciate this luxury.

We found European Style hotdogs – in sheep skins at the store. They cost $8.59 for 9 dogs, but they were worth it. That pop when you bite in, nothing like it.

The next morning, Friday, it was raining, but the weather showed some promise for the cold front breaking through with better weather for our 26 nautical mile trip to Port Neville via Johnstone Strait. We were on the ebb and were making good knots and by the time we went through Race Passage we were making 12.1 knots over the bottom, 6 knots of current. The fastest run under power we’ve made since going through the Tacoma Narrows at 14 knots. The Strait was smooth and the sun came out by mid morning. Conditions were so good we opted to continue past Port Neville and on to Havannah Channel. We went into Port Harvey and dropped the hook for lunch. It was just 13:45; we had covered the 37.6 nautical miles in just 5 hours, averaging 7.5 knots.

After lunch, we moved up to the head end of Havannah Channel and anchored for the night at the beautiful and mirror calm Boughey Bay.




We immediately caught a flounder for crab bait. We heard coyotes or foxes yipping across the bay...





George emptying crab trap. That is a sea star (aka star fish) that is trying not to let go of the trap and the bait. Only little crabs in that catch… throw backs. Hanging the bait helps reduce the large sea stars. Sun Flower Stars have 15 points and grow to be huge. We have seen some 42" across.

We headed through Chatham Channel, and up Knight inlet to Glendale cove to see the grizzly bears that reportedly put on an entertaining show chasing salmon around the tide pools remaining in Glendale creek at low tide.


Shortly after turning into Knight inlet, the forecast westerly breeze started up and we raised the mainsail for the first time this year and had a very pleasant 24-mile downwind sail to the Glendale Cove.

After checking out the cove and setting our crab and prawn traps we anchored in a little bight near the entrance. We had a spectacular park like view of the still snow covered, glassier cut mountains. The next morning we found four nice Dungeness crab in our trap. We kept the biggest two, then went out to our prawn trap set in 220 feet and found dozens of shrimp and 8 nice sized prawns, one was 7 inches.

After cleaning our catch we motored up to the head end of the cove and anchored in about 50 feet, just a couple of boat lengths from the shoal created by the confluence Glendale creek and the cove. We spotted a very large Grizzly Bear splashing around chasing fish and standing on his hind legs for long periods trying to find more fish. We never saw him catch anything. The water gets really shallow there, so we couldn’t get close enough for a photo. Binoculars were necessary.

This morning we saw only the one bear, but the tourist who came to see him were many. Grizzlies are becoming extinct so sightings causes quite a bit of excitement. As a shallow draft tour boat approached his domain he ambled off the tide flat and out of sight.

We took the bear’s signal that the show was over and headed Teal back down the inlet, through Beware Passage in Indian Channel to Mound Island, and anchored for the night.









The next morning, July 17, we went through Farewell Harbor and out into Blackfish sound to arrive at Port McNeill about noon. We were having head pump problems. Quite a mystery since, you might remember, we bought a brand new toilet at Powell River last year. George did everything he could imagine to fix the pump, taking it apart several times, and replacing parts – o-ring, valve, plunger – it just wouldn’t pump in water to the bowl. We eventually had to cough up $190 Canadian for a new head. But we’re back in business again.

We have been making our calls to family using pay phones, as the cell charges are 79 cents per minute. The calling card is 3 cents, and usually by the time, any bars show up on the cell phone, we are very near a port with a landline pay phone anyway.

This year we opened a Canadian Bank account to escape international transfer fees charged by our US bank. This experience has been an adventure. We were mis-informed by the administrator who opened our account for us in Nanaimo. We were told it would be a 5-day hold on my deposits from our US bank. When we went to the bank here we were told there was a 45-day hold on my deposit imposed by the Canadian bank. I guess he got his Canadian process and American process confused. Deposit accounts in Canada for US cruisers don’t seem to be workable. This has been a learning experience.

We plan on returning to Port McNeill after a few days in the Broughtons kicking back and doing some fishing, before heading to Port Hardy and further north.

We will add a new post then.

George and JoAnne

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