Captain’s Log: Glendale Cove, Boughey Bay to Forward Harbor

Aug 28-31

Hi All,

Oh, forgot to add on the last blog, that while in Tribune Channel and Thompson Sound, we had several visits from a huge pod of Pacific Whitesided dolphins….these guys love to jump and swim at the bow with Mystic….it has been a while since we’ve seen these guys….amazing experience!!! Max told a story that once these dolphins got chased into Kwatsi Bay by several Orca whales…..the dolphins hid under the docks but in the end it was a bloody mess….amazing the Orca are quick enough to catch a dolphin!!!

We left beautiful Thompson Sound around 9am and made it to Glendale Cove in Knight Inlet around 1:15pm thanks to a very nice flood tide current….30nm!! We were reminded that many of these Inlets have currents that are different than the tidal change due to so much water coming in/out. This will become critical as we need to transit many narrow/rapids in the next few weeks.

Glendale is a very difficult Bay to anchor in. It has a very wide and long mud flat and the wall goes from 140′ to 5′ in about 200’….yikes…..at 140′ we would like to put out close to 400′ of chain but that would have put us on dry land at low tide. We anchored in 110′, put out 175′ and were in 12′ of water….not going to work with a 15′ tidal change. We pulled in 25′ to make it 150′ out and were in 25′ water….ok, we can live with that as long as we have moderate winds such that Mystic will just swing on the chain…..and that is what happened. We did get to about 15′ at low tide as winds picked up the 1st afternoon to 10-15G18kts but settled after midnight. From then on we ranged from 25-90′ depths!! And, when we raiseed the anchor when leaving, it was somewhat difficult! It was really dug-in to that wall of mud, thank goodness!

Glendale is famous for bear viewing and has a lodge called Knight Inlet Lodge. Unfortunately the Lodge is very private and does not like cruisers. After we anchored we were met by 2 men from the Da’naxda’xw/Awaetlatla Guardians. They were very polite and professional but basically said you can’t do anything in the Bay….can’t go up the river, can’t go onshore, the Lodge is off limits and if you take the dinghy out stay 200 yards offshore….all to limit the stress to the bears….whoa!!! So….we never even dropped the dinghy. But, after no bears the first afternoon, we did wake up the next morning to a wonderful Brown bear show. One lone, very healthy, dark brown female and a Mama and 2 this-season cubs…all rather light/blond color!!! They were about 1/4 mile away so needed binoculars and I did manage a few good pictures. Wow….the show lasted from 6:45 to almost 10:00am….3+ hours….AND, we had the show all to ourselves the first hour…..then about 5 boats from the Lodge descended…4 boats went to the lone female…like 40+ people….yep, ok for the Lodge to harass I guess….wow!!! But, gotta luv the female bear….one of the boats got too close….she looks up, gives them the WTH stay 100 yards away look, then turns around and defecates….we were both in stitches….needless to say the boat left soon thereafter!!!!

In all we had 13 Brown bear sightings in our 2 days in Glendale….perfect!!! Unfortunately the salmon had still not arrived so we did not see any bears hunting/catching salmon. The bears looked healthy but they certainly were checking the stream for their favorite food, and resorted to clamming and eating barnacles/mussels off the logs/rocks. I wish the Lodge would have been more friendly but hopefully the locals are getting some financial benefit from all the tourist money.

Weather: A little of this and that….some days perfectly sunny & warm, some days foggy, some days drizzly/rainy!! Sunrise is now 6:45am and sunset 8:15pm…..13.5 hours of sunlight….we no longer need blackout shades over our port holes in the staterooms:))))

Aug 30: Up and out by 8:15am from Glendale to Boughey Bay. We had to time Chatham Channel for ~11:00am slack which we did with no issues. We arrived around noon, anchor down, passage beers open all by 12:30pm and then the bear show began…..we saw 5 Black bears over the next few hours….all walking the shoreline turning over rocks looking for clams and mussels….wow!!!

Boughey Bay off Havannah channel is a beautiful Bay, surrounded by 2k’ mountains and several stream inlets. It is close to Johnstone Straits and we used it to stage ourselves for the run.

Aug 31: We left the northern Borughtons on Saturday, heading down Johnstone Strait to Forward Harbor in Wellborne Channel. A friend asked how we are liking the Broughtons….well, I’d say we liked Alaska and northern BC much better. The Broughtons are a mixture of socializing and some DDG fiords with decent critter viewings, but have become too developed as per the Lodge in Glendale. It seems every mountain has been logged with some bare scars and various sections of forests in different stages of growth. And, way too many fish farms. We had too many anchorages with fish farms or logging operations….the latter comment applied to the Kitimat/central BC area as well. The Broughtons get a lot of boaters from Seattle/Vancouver Island and in some cases it’s more about socializing than remote critter viewing. Lots of people do a marina circuit for 3-4 weeks going to all the HH, pot lucks and marina restaurant theme nights. It really wasn’t until we got into Tribune, Thompson and Knight Inlets that we had some nice critter viewings as well as DDG scenery in these long fiords. There still is good crabbing and prawning but few salmon. Even though many of the inlets have been closed for fishing for 10-15 years the salmon population is declining too rapidly. There are still parts that people fish, like in Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound and some inlets like Wells Passage, but certainly not like it was even 5, 10, 15 years ago.

We woke up in Boughey Bay to low tide expecting another bear show….but, they were no-shows….someone needs to get the bears a better tidal watch….perfect low tide mud flats with lots of rocks to clam but….whaaaaaaaa:(((

We left at 10:30am expecting to catch the flood tide (favorable current) in Johnstone Strait….wrong….we basically had an ebb tide the whole 30nm to Forward Harbor….WTH. We doubled/tripled checked all our current and tide information and were just confounded by the foul ebb current. Kathy did read that sometimes tidal flows are different than expected in this area and sometimes there is no or very little flood tide as too much water is leaving/ebbing out…..rare but it does happen and I guess we just had that experience. We had expected a 2-4kt favorable current and instead had a 0.5-1.5 foul current…..whoa!!!!

Critter Stats:
Dungeness Crab: 91 total; still not crabbing:(((
Prawns: 156: 96 Spotted, 14 Coon Stripe;
Whales: 234 total; 205 Humpbacks; 11 Orcas; 18 Minke:
Salmon: 14: 3 King, 11 Cohos:
Halibut: 1; 48-lbs off Lowe Inlet entrance
Bears: 92 total: 74 Browns, 18 Black; 13 Browns in Glendale Cove, 1 lone female, 1 Mama with 2 cubs saw 3 times, 1 lone blond male and 1 Mama with 1 cub….good shows!!!! 5 Black bears in Boughey Bay
Wolves: 10; About an hour viewing a large male in Pruth Bay, north cove; then 3 more wolves the next day….wow!!!
Otters: 982;
Sand Hill Cranes: 4;
Mountain Goats: 42
Dall’s Sheep: 3
Moose: 3
Alaskan Husky sled dogs: 60
Stellar Sea Lions: 900;

Hope all is well,

John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!