Prince Rupert to Spicer Islands

Today we leave Prince Rupert for the Spicer Islands. This leg is a warm-up trip of “only” 39 nautical miles. The next day we cross the notorious Hecate Strait to Queen Charlotte City, a long haul of 75 miles. The weather forecast continues to be very good. And while we will have mostly cloudy skies, the clouds will be high, with some breaks and the winds should be light with no rain.

The heavy industrial ports just south of Prince Rupert

I don’t expect to see much on this leg. Most of the sightseeing is along the shore as you leave Prince Rupert. The town, the cruise ship and working boats along with the grain loading facility at the south end of town are worth checking out as the speed limit of 5 knots gives you plenty of time to witness the hand of man on the wilderness.

 Patos enjoying our perfect cruising conditions

Ferry Boats are about all we see along our route

The goal of this leg is to position ourselves for the crossing the next day.

Spicer Island is a very nice anchorage. The holding is good with a rock, mud and kelp bottom. There is room for lots of boats along spread out along the “U” shaped anchorage.

The first no name cove we tried, the one the Douglass & Douglass guidebook says has a "Jello-like bottom", was too shallow given the 20 foot tide swing for today. So we set our anchor part way down the southwest facing arm. In addition to the six boats in Mother Goose, (tied in two rafts plus us by ourselves) there was an 80-foot Alaskan anchored at the top of the ‘U’ and a two-masted sail boat nestled in the small cove at the end of southwest cove.

An all brown but tasty dinner of Orange Ginger Chicken and Rosemary Garlic Potatoes

Closer to sunset, a small sailboat joined us, anchoring near the large 80 foot, Alaskan.

Beautiful sunset at the Spicer Islands