Broughton Island and Blackfish Sound

Broughton Archipelago

I am not sure where this is however it is fairly representative of coming Into Blackfish sound and Broughton Islands area. After leaving Matilpi and heading down Chatham Channel we pulled into Cutter Cove for the night.

Setting anchor at the head of Cutter cove dead center just ahead of a farm of crab traps. A bit later a large sailboat came and anchored a bit further in and became entangled in the crab sets. As the wind grew in from the NW and the chop increased he was having a tough time disentangling from it.

Next day we headed down towards Potts Lagoon around Minstrel Island. Later we would come back from Port Elizabeth through the 'Blowhole' but the first time we went out into Knight Inlet and then back into Clio Channel.

From here we anchored at Potts Lagoon. Un inspiring. Just a small homesteading/logging type spot. Bunch of worn down floats with shacks on. A logging camp in the first little cove on the way in. If you can ignore all the junk it is a nice little lagoon.

We headed out down Beware Passage to Dead Point on Harbledown Island the next day. A pretty passage with lots of rocks in the east entrance but well mapped and easy to navigate. As there was already a boat anchored at the old settlement at the east end we carried on through to Dead Bay at the west end. There is an old homested there called Monk's Wall with history, and a trail over to New Vancouver.

Lily having a peek at the wall. The loggers have clear cut the forest almost to the waterfront at this location.

After a couple of days we headed over to Port McNeil to get some provisions and to Sointula to visit some folks before heading back to the park.

 Heading west out of Knight Inlet towards Surge Islands and Malcolm Island to Port McNeil on a glassy sea.

Passing around the south end of Cormorant Island we come into Port McNeil and anchor off of Ledge Point. This is a large anchorage directly across from the Marina and Government wharf with good protection from NW wind and good holding in 30 feet or so. A ten minute row to the store.
We stayed a couple of nights here then went to visit some folks in Sointula, staying at the great marina there. Great place good prices clean with laundry and showers. Next day we headed back to the park area.

 Heading out of Sointula avoiding the rocks and kelp beds we stayed north of Cormorant and headed for the Pearse Islands where we stayed the night before heading across Blackfish Sound in thick fog to Farewell Harbour.

 The distinctive islet that marks the entrance to Farewell Harbour from Blackfish Sound.We stayed a couple of nights there hiking the shore trail and taking it easy. It is a good anchorage dominated by a large fishing lodge.

Just to the west of the island is the 'famous' Chief's bathtub. A petroglyph marking a rock formation that resembles an oblong bowl at low tide. We headed a couple more miles north to the Crease Island area and found a nice spot alongside some rock walls to set the anchor for a couple of days.

 This island hoping black was swimming from island to island foraging.

The smokey conditions remained quite thick until we mover further into the inland areas. The outflow winds seemed to push the smoke down towards Queen Charlotte Strait and Johnstone Strait.

The sunrise below through the smoke.

 Away from the fog for a bit then the violent forest fires in the interior sent smoke out the valleys for us to consider.

From a small islet our boat in the Crease Island group. After a couple of days we headed towards Kingcome Inlet, stopping at Waddington Bay for a couple of days and weaving throuh the Fox group past Echo Bay up the Fife Sound to a small Bay at the junction of Kingcome Inlet.

 We stopped at Mamlilculla an abandoned village that is closely guarded by the locals. A mixture of European and Native architecture. We paddled about then headed over to Waddington Bay for a couple of days.

 Waddington is very protected though a little bit of northerly gets through.

 After a couple days we headed out through the Fox group to Fife sound where it was a bit foggy.

 Kingcome Inlet and a small bay where we anchored for a few days. The humpback whales cruised the inlet just off the bay but I was always too slow to get decent pictures.

 We then headed over to Mackenzie Sound stopping at a couple of bays along the way before heading to Drury Inlet.

 The anchorage at Drury the day we left to make the rapids at the entrance. We headed down Wells passage meeting strong wind and dense fog blowing in off the Strait so we ducked into Tracey |Harbour for a tour before coming down to Queen Charlotte Strait and along east to Booker Sound where we stayed for a couple of days.

We entered the strait just as the fog lifted

After Booker we went back to Port MacNeil for supplies before heading up Knight Inlet to Tribune Channel. We anchored in Protection Bay opposite Viscount Island.

The Face in Tsakonu Cove....we set the anchor and then checked the landmarks..I dunno. This cove also supports a logging float camp. Nonetheless it is a well protected anchorage about halfway up the Knight Inlet towards Glendale.

Viscount Island across from Protection Bay heading up the Tribune Channel to the North side of the island where there is a small bay -Wahkana Bay, with some anchorages near a couple of creeks.

With the Jib out sailing up Knight Inlet. After a few days exploring around Tribune and Port Elizabeth we headed back east towards Desolation Sound stopping off along the way as needed.

While in Port Elizabeth some white sided dolphins flew by. Once on the way back we spent a few days in Desolation Sound as well as a night at the docks at Powell River, before hitting Tribune Bay then back over to Boho Bay before making our way south through Dodd Narrows to Ganges. A side trip to Victoria and then back up the Fraser River to the boat yard where we hauled out for the winter.

Desolation Sound. 

Solar Panel Install

Ever since purchasing the first battery for the old Martin 29 we have been thinking about wind and solar power. The wind generator I discussed in the Gulf 32 post. We don't have an arch astern and I
didn't want to add anything to the Bimini structure so we went with
flexible 100 watt panels. One to start with and a PWM controller. I read about the MPPT vs PWM controllers and discovered that the additional expense of the mppt was not warranted for installations under around 400 watts. This may have changed by now but bears investigation if you are just putting in a battery maintainer. The two panels I got eventually from Canadian Energy along with the new batteries have performed well though they were cheap panels build wise. The way I installed them on the Bimini canvas necessitated using the grommets that came with the panels. Of course on the first panel the grommets were too small for the stayput fittings so I had to drill them out and install solid brass 3/8 grommets. Hard to find but actually found a kit at Wallmart. haha. Lots of cheap fake brass plated ones around but you need the solid brass ones. These guys are great for all things canvas. The second panel also from Canadian Energy was also cheap but differed from the first which was from Sun solar made in China to a German brand also made in China. The grommets in the latter panel were the right size but made from tin and so rusted out immediately and I will have to replace them this winter. This irritated me immensely and I complained to the company about the cheapness of the build. Imagine putting in cheap plated steel on a marine use item! However the solar cells themselves do function. I attached both panels directly to the bimini canvas with stayput fasteners and have had no problems with them at all. The first panel I built large backings and sewed the entire backing with the enclosed stayput fastener enclosed onto the canvas. The second panel I used a smaller version of the backing panel and sewed it on with waxed thread using an awl. The wind blows over the dodger when at anchor so the idea of wind lifting the panels off in less that storm force winds I believe is extremely low to non existent. If anchoring in a storm one would remove everything from the deck including sails bimini dodger etc. and tie off the genny as well though with the wind generator there is internal braking, but the manufacturers do advise that prolonged exposure to high storm force winds may damage it. I looked at the velcroing and the flaps sewn in and all that but it all seemed though pretty, overkill. I then attached the two panels in parallel and ran the cable down through my radar tower to the controller. From the controller the cable then goes through a breaker panel and to the house battery. The breaker panel also holds a breaker for the wind generator. The batteries are four 6V 220 amp hour AGM in a series/parallel arrangement for a 440 amp hour bank. With this set up I can easily do 3 or 4 days without the engine, or more of course depending on
how much stuff is running. I have done three days and three nights with the freezer, fridge and regular lights, furnace and stove fans running without the batteries dropping below 50%. This under cloudy skies, but with fairly persistent breeze around 10 knots.

I may install a couple more panels one day, on the coach roof. I would likely use the hard monocrystalline type there as they are better for the money. Although the higher end flexible panels are higher efficiency cells, with so much obstruction I wonder at their practicality in that location. Alternatively one could hang a couple off of the stern railings however once again the angle there can be 100% or next to nothing as the boat swings. For the most part though, the 200 watts that we have on the bimini is sufficient. We also carry a portable 50 watt poly crystalline panel in two 25s in series for charging our electric trolling motor. This is sufficient to keep the old 90 amp hour AGM charged up.We have since got rid of this group..the electric o/b and portable solar and battery. Too long to charge..too little power..too much stuff and weight. Although the principal is enticing the actuality is very expensive..Torqueedo, lithium, genset. So we bought a 2.5 HP o/b and a gas can. 
As I put these components in place a gradual learning curve branches off to form an understanding curve. After struggling with the battery monitor I finally glommed onto the point off negative load wires and positive load wires. Now I am re-running all of my negative load wires to the proper side of the monitor shunt, and removing all stray negs from the battery bank including the xantrex charger. Even though the charger has the capability of feeding two batteries, with the ACR unit this becomes redundant. In fact I rarely even use the second battery to start the engine, but keep it charged as back up only, the ACR taking care of this by shunting excess power to the second battery when float charge has been reached. I have not seen the SOC drop on the back up battery below its resting state of 13.5 since using combiners. Initially there was an old 50 amp combiner there I believe West Marine branded but made by Yandina. When the battery bank was enlarged I installed a Blue Sea ACR.   BlueSea

Heading to Broughton Archipelago 2017

The trip planned for quite a while but now finally we are free to take off for an extended journey up the coast to explore this region. We wanted to have unrestricted time to visit because there are so many spots in the region. Easy enough to blast up and zip around and call it done but that generally just leaves us tired out by the constant travelling. Consequently we like to travel for as short a day as is possible to take us to the next anchorage on our route and then stay there for a day or three if possible.

We left June 15 from our mooring at the Riverrock Marina and headed to Gambier Island for the first night. Next day being quite calm we motored up to Pender Harbour then on to Blind Bay. The next day was breezy from the NW so we got the canvas up and headed up the Malaspina Strait only to be turned back by heavy seas which slowed our progress to near zero with short interval 4 foot seas. Beating to windward no longer an option we turned tail and sailed back to Hardy Island at 7 knots under the Number 1 Jib.

Next day proved calm. It figures zero wind and sunny skies. Motor works though so on up to the Copeland Islands for a couple of nights then over to Grace Harbour for the next three. We needed a break and that is a nice place for it. I had passed a kidney stone during the first night at Copeland. Always fun. There is a lake for swimming and a nice stream to do up a bit of laundry.

The anchorage can get a bit busy in the high season but there is plenty of room.

Also a great place to weather a storm as it is very well protected from all winds.

After a couple of hot breezeless days we took off and headed for Hole in the Wall pass via Gorge harbour and Von Donop Inlet where we spent a day in each. We tied up at The Gorge and went to the restaurant there, checked the store and got a bit of fuel. Von Donop is a nice spot with some good walking trails. On to Hole in The Wall passage. This is a short cut between Maurelle and Sonora islands. We pulled into Florence Cove to await the slack water at the Hole in the Wall pass which can reach current speeds of 12 knots or more. We ended up staying overnight there. Not great for anchoring as it is quite deep and littered with old logging gear as we found out the second time we stayed there on the way out to the Yucultas (uke le taw)

 The small bight within Florence Cove above where we dropped the anchor. The next day we headed over to Waiat Bay and the Octopus Islands marine park. The marine park was loaded up with boats but we like the larger area of the bay anyway so moved down nearly to the head of the bay to anchor. At the head of the bay there is a trail
that takes you across the isthmus to Kanish Bay.

 This is the head of Waiat Bay. Calm water and the whole bay is in the 25 to 35 foot depth.












Below is a shot looking west towards Johnstone Strait from the head of Kanish Bay. Vancouver Island in the background.

The following day we went back through the Hole in the Wall to Florence cove again to wait for the slack at the Yucultas and Dent rapids at Big Bay. This is a set of rapids that instill fear in people when reading about them..the double rapids approaching through the Yucultas then through Gilford passage and across to the Dent islands with their cascading waters. However the reality was less frightening. We motored straight up the center through the last of the flood and hit the Gilford passage right about the beginning of the slack. By the time we made it to the Dent islands the ebb was beginning and we were being pushed towards East Thurlow Island and Nodales Channel. Make no mistake though, in anything less than a high powered craft these are dangerous currents at their height.

The shot above is looking back towards Big Bay and Gilford Passage from close to The Dent Island passage. Soon we were turning down Nodales Channel heading for Thurston Bay. we stayed a couple of days there caught some crab and explored some before heading off to the Cordero Islands just before Green Point rapids. We anchored overnight there and the next day  took a short side trip to the Blind Bay resort and checked out their store before heading down Cordero Channel to Forward Harbour

 Anchored at Thurston Bay we were lucky to have this little cove to ourselves. Next time up we will explore the other parts of this large marine park including across Nodales at Hemming Bay. and further in to Cameleon Harbour.

 At Cordero Islands. This is a little anchorage off of the main channel. A nice stop over spot to wait for the Green Point rapids to be in your favour. Coming back we opposed these rapids and found that by hugging the west bank we could motor up the back eddy to just at the bend then when we turned out we hit a wall of water coming at us and slowed from 8 knots to 1/2 knot in a second. Took 30 minutes to slug through the next 1/4 mile or so until we got past the Cordero Islands and headed up to Bickley Bay further up Cordero Channel towards Nodales Channel.

 Heading down Cordero Channel past the Green Point rapids motoring into a NW wind of 20 kts.

 Looking up Loughborough Arm. Passing by enroute to Wellbore Channel and Forward Harbour. We hit the Whirlpool Rapids just before turning into Forward harbour at full ebb but it is very short and spat us out with no undue whirling.

 Forward Harbour at Douglas Bay. We were all alone by noon the following day in this picture, there were 20 odd boats the night before and a dozen or so that night. A popular stopover spot enroute up the coast via the back route.

 Bessborough Bay selfie. A short hike about 1/2 hour through a nice forest trail from Douglas Bay to Bessborough Bay. Bessborough is a small bay just north of the junction of Wellbore and Sunderland Channels.

 Looking back at Bessborough up Sunderland Channel enroute to Port Neville.

 Looking west at Yorke Island and Clarence Island at the junction of  Sunderland Channel and Johnstone Strait. Vancouver Island and Kelsey Bay in the distance.

 Port Neville looking at Robbers Nob from our anchorage in the middle of the inlet.

Arrived at Matilpi an abandoned native village down Havannah Channel. Situated on the mainland just before Chatham Channel which leads to Knight Inlet and the Broughton Archipelago. We stayed here a couple of nights. There is a little creek and fish in the waters around the islands. It is now July 8. Nearly a month since we left.

Princess Louisa Inlet

We took a trip up to Jervis Inlet some years back, Lily and me in the old Martin sloop. This first pix is just past the Egmont cut  off.

 A very calm motoring trip that was with flat water all the way. It is a narrow inlet stretching about 40 miles into the coastal mount range.

 Long stretches with no anchorages

 The narrow gap in the distance marks the entrance to the Queen's Reach.

 Getting closer.

 Finally dropped the anchor on a shelf just off of a log dump in the far corner. Waiting for the slack at Malibu rapids the next day.

The entrance to Malibu rapids. This is a narrow S channel that is quite a fun ride through. It is blind entrance and once committed there is no turning back.

 Here is a trail at Macdonald Island where there is a youth camp established. There was no one there that summer though.

 A well known artist created this sculpture there.

 Our boat at the mooring Macdonald Island, which is halfway down the Inlet between Malibu and Chatterbox Falls. The trip was in 2009 or so and we spent four days at Macdonald island exploring the trails to the timberline and the shores by kayak.

 In 2014 I went back alone with the MaryJane in July. It was quite hot as we had not got the bimini or dodger installed at that time.

 Just had the steel tubing up with a tarp slung over it to give me some shade as I approach Malibu rapids.

 Made it through although a bit past the slack. The tide was coming in though so the current swept us right through.

 Passing Macdonald Island all the buoys are taken.

 You can hike to the snowfield from the camp at Macdonald Island.

 Put a shore line in and dropped the anchor in 100 feet just off the beach at Chatterbox Falls.

 The cliffs behind the boat at anchor.

After a fairly tough hike for 2 hours up past the falls to the old prospectors cabin remains, a fine view of the Inlet looking to the gap at Malibu rapid and the Queen's Reach beyond.

 The falls at the old cabin site.

 Chatterbox Falls

 The creek feeding the falls on the right.

 Nice paddling there. Generally very calm.

 Evening time is a very peaceful time. Just the sound of the falls.

 Leaving the inlet at slack. Once out of the Queen's Reach the wind picked up to 20 knots or so and I was able to set the sails. Tacking out of the inlet was nice, working the boat through the narrow channel on well heeled tacks. On the end of one port tack the genoa suddenly dropped about a foot with a bang! The sail remained pressed so I headed straight to the wind and fired up the engine. With the autohelm engaged I tried to furl in the sail, but it was locked and would not furl. Now there was about a 3 foot chop with the inflow winds against an ebb tide, so I headed up to the bow and while lifting up on the sail track was able to gradually furl the sail by hand. Special. Then of course I lost my Tilley Hat in all the action. There were a half dozen boats all leaving at the same time so they must have enjoyed the show. As I could no longer sail under a full press I decided to take advantage of the engine and with one reef in the main and the engine running easy I was able to make 7.5 knots. I made it down to Pender Harbour and set the anchor. Next morning I was able to drop the headsail and replace the broken bolt that holds the luff extrusion in place on my Flexible Furler system.