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The wharfs are crumbling, like all else around the place originally made from wood.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.
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.
© 2006 George Benson. Reproduction of any of the material on this log without written permission from George Benson is prohibited.
