April 30 – May 3
Gee John, how come you haven’t been blogging…it’s been like 4 days….aren’t you on a passage/transit with plenty of time….well, I’m glad you asked….BECAUSE I HAVE SPENT EVERY WAKING MOMENT DODGING LOGS….UGH, UGH, UGH. ODG….I figure the score right now is Mystic 800, Logs 7….yep, that’s right, we have dodged about 800 logs (like make a course correction) and those pesky rascals have hit us 7 times…..arghhhhhh!!!! I don’t think we have hit close to 7 of anything all the years combined until this passage through BC….what the heck is going on??? I bet we have seen/passed over 2000 logs and I wouldn’t argue if it was closer to 3000 logs. One Selene owner commented this is as bad as he has experienced in his 30 years coming through British Columbia!!!! Fortunately as far as we can tell no damage. 3 of the logs were small…just hit us once, 3 were big boys….thump, thump, thump….and one, 6″ diameter, 6′ long got trapped underneath somewhere…..thumpity, thumpit
y, thump, thump and the beat went on for a few minutes. I had to back down hard in order to dislodge the rascal…..arghhhhhh!!!! All of the big guys were submerged except one….never saw them until the thump…..whaaaaaaa!!!! Once rounding Cape Caution in 4-6′ waves, 1.5nm off the Cape, washing machine seas, we call confusables, we got trapped by a log field, no where to go, had to slow down, go into neutral and coast over…..yep, caused havoc inside, things crashing/sliding around….but, no damage, no harm just a few sailor words by the Admiral:))))
I am writing this blog on Monday morning, 5/3, and we have entered Chatham Sound close to Prince Rupert (we can actually see the USA way off in the distance, 50ish nm away….yea!!!) So far, we haven’t seen any logs in this area for a while so thus catching up on stuff….well, stupid John…jinxed us…later that day while finishing the blog, Kathy yells LOG….I got to the controls just in time to throttle back and go into neutral….thump, thump, BAM….ugh…the rascal arose from astern and marched on….whaaaaa!!
The last blog we had arrived Farewell Harbor after completing Johnstone Straits in gale force winds (albeit behind us!!!). We had passed Alex and Pat on mv Wild Blue, a Selene 57, while in Johnstone Strait in Potts Bay off West Cracroft Island. Alex called on the VHF and then the cell and we discussed going to Allison Harbor and staging for Cape Caution the next day and/or if the conditions were good continuing around the Cape in the afternoon. And that is what we did!
Cape Caution doesn’t look like much of a Cape, but it certainly can act like one with lots of shallow water for a mile or so out with crashing waves and confused seas. We have done this Cape, 3 previous times in flat calm seas and it was lovely. Well, not so much this time. As we went through Queen Charlotte Strait leaving Farewell Harbor and Blackfish Sound we had flat calm seas almost to Allison Harbor, about 45nm, lovely day, sunshine…and we arrived around noonish….with these conditions let’s keep going…it’s just a 4 hour cruise to our anchorage in Fury Cove near the entrance to Rivers Inlet (famous salmon river and where we fished with our oldest son Josh and his friend Josh in 2006)!!!!! Well….the seas kept building, soon the stabilizers were turned on, then it was hold on from the Admiral. Seas built to 4-6′, maybe some 6-8′ ones in there but short period, 4-8sec, most of the time forward of the beam but sometimes right on the beam and then some squirrely wind c
hop from several directions and you get a washing machine effect we call confusables. It was probably a 5-6 on our rough ride scale (top being 10) so just moderately rough. Alex has done the Cape a gazillion times and put this one in his top 3….hmmmmm and UGH!! Throw in that log debris field and well, it was just yuck!!! Alex had a route that took us behind Table Island (past the Cape) for some brief calm waters but the sees continued to be confused until we finally tuned into Rivers Inlet and all that stuff was behind us. Since the winds had increased to 15-20kts and a gale force wind warning was issued, Alex felt Frypan offered better protection and thus we went another few miles to a flat calm and little wind anchorage….cute anchorage surrounded by trees and rocks:))) All in….79nm, 9.5 hours, anchor down and passage beer opened by 4:30ish…soon followed by whiskey and wine:)))!!!
The next day we were up and out by 7am for a 83nm run to Rescue Harbor…..hmmm, not sure about the name:)))….but a popular anchorage. We were supposed to have foul tidal currents most of the way but oh contraire, we had a nice favorable push most of the day…yea!!! We did go by Bella Bella and Shearwater where it is usually super busy with boats, but this year there was basically no movement. In fact, we have yet to see any other recreational boats up here…strange times for sure!! Alex did show us a short cut through Reid Passage and Perceval Narrows that keeps you out of Milbanke Sound which is exposed to the open waters which we thought probably had some big swells left over from the previous night’s big blow. All in….83nm, 10.5 hours, anhcor down, passage beer open by 5:30pm….notice each day’s passage is getting longer…think horses to the barn:)))!!!
And, repeat the previous day….up at 5:30am for coffee, engine room check, download emails and weather forecasts, engine on by 6:45am, anchor up and out the anchorage by 7am, do the run, anchor down, passage beer/wine, download emails and weather forecasts, plot for tomorrow, dinner, bed…..this is getting to be somewhat routine…where’s the fun:((( Sunday May 2, run to Lowe Inlet, Nettle Basin. Tried to time the tides but this time it was mainly against us most of the day. We had discussed Curlew as an anchorage as it was closer by 20nm but once again, another gale wind warning and we all felt Curlew did not provide enough protection from these high South winds….so on we marched. We love this anchorage in Nettle Basin….a gorgeous but smallish water fall. This is where in 2019 our good friend Adam hooked a 40-lb halibut off James Point as you come into the Inlet….ODG did we have fun or what. It gave us so much meat we went around the anchorage giving other boats fre
sh halibut….yummers….oh, and we did catch some nice crab as well….halibut with crab….what could be better. But all we had were memories this time as we got in at 6:30ishpm,, dark, grey and raining….enough time for a beer/wine/whiskey, and a plate of leftovers because…..
Yep, up early and out by 6am today, Monday 5/3….got to time those currents….ugh….yes, we are getting a bit tired and certainly frustrated w/the logs….ugh!!! Made the run to Dundas Island to Brundidge….85nm, 10 hrs, anchor down, passage beer open by 3:50pm….an early day!!! A funny thing at Lowe, we anchored maybe 300 yards from the falls in 90’….whoa….hadn’t seen 300′ of chain in a while….the waterfall was hammering from all the runoff….maybe 1-2 kt current flowing by….we did get a good set….but by the time we left 11.5 hours later our boat paddle speed had recorded 11nm….and we were anchored…but the current flowing by was moving the little paddle recording the miles!!!!
Another curious happening…today we sped up to take advantage of the favorable current in Grenville channel, known as the ditch, but we expected a foul flood current as we entered Chatham Sound before Prince Rupert….oh contraire….we got a strong push from the outflow of the large Skeena River. It seems with all the rain, the outflows from these rivers are strong enough to overcome an ocean flood tide…whoa…now that is a huge amount of water Batman!!!
Weather: hmmmmm, cold, dark, foggy, misty, rainy, windy, low clouds….note didn’t say sunshine:((( Today we had it all…we started with <1 mile visibility but later in the afternoon had patches of sunshine!!
Critter Stats:
Whales: 13, 12 Killer, 1 Humpback
– Killer Whales 12, 10 adults, 2 juveniles in San Juan Islands
– Saw our first Humpback off Point Cumming in McKay Reach….yea!!!
Stellar Sea Lions: ~20, Sucia Bay
Bears: 1
– 1 very large Black Bear in Farewell Harbor
The Plan: enter USA and slow down and relax….then our favorite routine….get up when wake up, coffee, emails, look at weather forecasts, go set crab and prawn pots, breakfast, read, (later in season substitute salmon fishing for reading), nap, lunch, read, nap, go get loaded crab and prawn traps, cocktails, dinner/movie, (or happy hour/dinner with friends), bed….repeat….LIG!!!!! But first, we need to check into USA and go to Ketchikan. We will be there for a few days….phone calls w/family/friends, fuel, clean Mystic, fishing gear, Safeway run, shopping for Kathy, a few restaurants et al!!! We hope to leave by Friday or Saturday and our fist adventure will be a tour around Behm Channel…..~150nm. We did this in 2006 with Kathy’s parents and loved it. We will take maybe 7-10 days. We have about 6 weeks before we have to be in Sitka so we will slowly make our way there!!
Hope all is well!!
Cheers,
John
Mystic Moon
Position: 54 35’42.95 N, 130 52’09.00 W
Course: Anchored.
Position: 21-05-03 16:26:56 -0700
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=54.59526,-130.8692&q=54.59526,-130.8692&z=16
