Potts Lagoon to Goat Island

The alarm sounded its message at 6am, one hour before sunrise and a half hour before we wanted to weigh anchor. Our passage today would take us through Beware Passage. The information on this passage recommends low slack water as the ideal time to transition through this area. While it looks open, there are many islets and hidden rocks you must weave your way through.

Low tide affords the best possible look at the obstructions, although some never dry. We followed our plan and arrived at the start of Beware Passage right at seven. With an eye on the GPS plotter and another on the water, we had an uneventful passage. By taking it slow and following the recommended “low water” course to the north, it’s a fairly easy pass. The channel is deep, so all your attention can be directed to making good your course.

Shortly after transiting Beware Passage, we tucked into Native Anchorage on Village Island, a spot recommended by Max from Kwatsi Bay. Breakfast was on the agenda, followed by showers and a morning of doing nothing as we hoped for the skies to clear.

Except for a few dolphins that passed though the anchorage, we were alone. As has been the pattern for the last two days, the sun started to part the clouds about noon and we began to think about “where to next?”.

Our first stop was to look at the abandoned Indian settlement at Mamaliliculla. There was not much to see and we were not in the mood to make a dinghy assault on the beach and climb up to see the abandoned structures. We saw some from the boat, so we’ll save the on-shoring for another time.

Next we stopped (in the water) and looked at the Indian settlement at New Vancouver. The native Indians returned to this area in 2003 and built a very nice looking settlement with an outstanding dock and an impressive “big house”. We’ll add this to the “visit again” list to see if we can get a tour of the big house – it looks grand.

We continued a little further and dropped anchor in Mound Bay for a lunch stop. Mound was on our list as a possible overnight anchorage, but the locals gave it only an OK rating, so we decided to make this a brief layover. While having lunch, we heard on the radio that there were both Orca and Humpback whales in Blackfish Sound off Cracroft Point. As we were only 2.5 miles from there, we changed plans again and quickly made our way down Blackney Passage into Johnstone Strait. There were a few boats drifting in the area and sure enough, we saw whale spouts as we approached.

Once there, we took the engines into idle and drifted, watching and waiting. We were not disappointed. We saw numerous Orca whales. They were trying to feed on the white-sided dolphins that were there to feed on the smaller fish that congregate the confluence of Blackfish Sound and Johnstone Strait.

A medium sized female Orca swims by

Coming right at us

It's fun to see the different markings and to try to track specific individuals

Every fin is unique

When these two waters meet, large whirlpools and eddies form and the water churns and spins. As we watched the whales, our boat would spin gently in the whirlpool and bob in the turbulent waters. But that was a small price to pay for a good look at these mammals in action. We would see the dolphins moving along slowly and then suddenly they would accelerate, jump out of the water and swim for their lives with an Orca right on their tails.

After about an hour they moved on and so did we. Max from Kwatsi Bay had great things to say about the anchorage at Goat Island (off Crease Island), so we set course for his recommendation.

Max from Kwatsi Bay was correct. A beautiful panorama surrounds this special spot. As we settled in and after enjoying a beer on the flybridge, I went to the swim step to answer the call of Mother Nature. I was looking over at a nearby island and noticed a black rock. I was talking to myself about how we always hope that these black rocks are black bears, but we are always disappointed. Just then, the black rock moved.

“Bear!”, I called out to Karen, “come quick!” As it turned out, there was no need to hurry. The bear cooperated for the next hour as he went about his business. The funniest part of this experience is that there were a pair of very large ravens that were tormenting this bear.

Surround by noisy ravens

They would cry at him, fly mock attacks, even pick up a large piece of straw and threaten him. The two large black birds would surround him, one in the front and one behind.

What do you think the Raven on the right is going to do with that "stick"?

Air attack!

I’m not certain what the conflagration was all about, but after about 15 minutes, the bear got tired of these two, and moved on. He ate his way along the side of the island, enjoying a series of berry bushes and some hors d’oeuvres found by turning over rocks at the water’s edge.

The berry banquet

When he arrived at the end of the island, he proceeded to walk into the water and swim over to the next larger island.

Who you looking at?

Time for a change of venue

Once there, he continued his feasting on the berry buffet, until he disappeared in the thick forest. Watching him shake off the water like a large dog was really funny!

Shake it off

Needless to say, we had a great day – from now own, September 13th is officially known as “Critter Day.”

Kwatsi Bay to Potts Lagoon

Weather as predicted; as we awoke, we are greeted with low clouds and a fine mist. We are in no hurry; in fact, we spent a very lazy morning reading, working on the blog and doing a lot of nothing. 

The other boats starting leaving around 7:30 am with the last leaving just before we did; about 1 pm. We would have departed earlier, but Max wanted to chat. This is the first year that his family is gone for the winter so the kids can attend school in Port McNeill. The local school at Echo Bay was closed this year, forcing the kids and their mom to take up residence in the “big city” for the winter. Max has lots of projects on his list for winter at Kwatsi, but you can tell he is missing his loved ones. 

His loss is our gain because we were able to spend about an hour with him, listening to his stories and getting local knowledge on places to go, things to do and other destinations not worth the trouble. 

We’re as far Northeast as we planned to go. That leaves us with a three and half hour trip to make our way to the South Broughton Islands.

The weather was a repeat of yesterday, with the clouds clearing and the winds picking up in the early afternoon. The sun was welcomed for our spirits, but as we were traveling directly into the sun, spotting debris in the choppy water was a challenge. 

Karen made lunch in route and we shared duties at the helm because looking into the sun is very tiring.  

Right on schedule, we dropped anchor in Potts Lagoon. A nice sized lagoon tucked well off Clio Channel. There is a small community of float homes that call this lagoon home. The tidy little buildings sit on floating foundations that are tied to the shore. The largest of the buildings, and what appeared to be the oldest, was the site of much construction activity. It looks as if there was a recent addition made to the original building and the workers were busily running their saws and swinging their hammers. 

I started dinner early because we wanted to get to bed before 10pm. We are getting up at 6am tomorrow in order to make slack low water at Beware Passage. This small passage is a circuitous path around rocks, some visible, but most with their tops just below the water. It’s one of those many passages with a reputation that deserves respect. But with proper planning and careful navigation it can be traversed with safety.  

We’re going to take a look at the stars tonight, as the skies are clear. However, since we’re only three days from a full moon, the conditions are not ideal. Of course, not quite ideal here is a 1000 times better than back home with all the human light pollution. 

Simoom Sound to Ahta River then Kwatsi Bay

It was a quiet night at anchor and we both had a good night’s sleep. This was the first morning that I set an alarm because we needed to be underway by 8:30 to arrive at the Ahta River at 10:30, two hours before high tide. 

At we motored into Ahta River Valley at the end of Bond Sound, the clouds started to break. It was beautiful. We found a temporary anchorage not far from the mouth of the river and made ready the Kayaks. We had visited this river last year in the dinghy, but vowed to come back and explore in the Kayaks, hoping we could get further up the river and the creek with less draft. 

The day was chamber of commerce perfect. We enjoyed clear skies, bright sun and the temperatures actually moved past 60 degrees, but just barely. 

Picture perfect day in Bond Sound 

It appeared that we had timed our arrival just right, as there were numerous fishermen also converging at the river’s mouth. There were two fly fishermen with their guides, and a commercial netter was also working the water at the head of the Sound. 

Karen leads the way up the Ahta river 

We pushed as far as the shallow water would allow 

Karen and I worked our way back into the river by kayak, looking for fish and hopefully bear. Neither was to be found, but we had a great time exploring the nooks and crannies and shallows of the famous Ahta (both the River and the Creek). We did see places where the bear come down to the water to fish. It’s very obvious where the tall grasses have been trampled flat and the bear has spent time lounging by the river’s edge. You also see an occasional bear paw print in the small sandy “beaches” made when the the black bear fish in the shallows. The wind picked up, and we wanted to make sure the boat was still secure, so we headed back. 

Back on the boat, we checked our position; the boat had not moved. So we enjoyed lunch and spent the next two hours soaking up the sun’s rays, watching dolphins play, and watching the fishermen attempt to hook up. The fish seemed to taunt the poor fellows; they would jump out of the water all around the fishing boats, but no one ever caught a fish. Such is fishing. 

Surround by fish jumping all around, the could not get any into the boat 

All in all, we spent a glorious 5 hours at the head of Bond Sound. Around 3:30pm, it was time to make our way over to Kwatsi Bay.  

How Karen spent her afternoon  

We took a very minor detour over to Wahkana Bay to see what it was like. It lies at the end of a moderately long sound, so it provides very good protection in all conditions. However, there not much else to recommend it. You need to stern tie due to the deep water and the scenery is simple mountains with pine trees for 360 degrees. 

We arrived at Kwatsi Bay and were greeted by Max Kneirim. The family was at Port McNeill, having started school last week. So Max was all alone to tend the marina. After he helped us tie up, he was off to finish the prawns for the daily “happy hour” at five. Counting the boat that followed us into the bay, there were a total of 5 on the docks that evening. 

All the mariners gathered under the “party tent” shortly after five, and we spent a most pleasant 2.5 hours exchanging stories and noshing on yummies that each boat contributed to the cause. 

Good times at Kwatsi Bay Marina 

By 7:30pm, the declining temperatures convinced everyone to head back to their boats to warm up and start dinner. Karen and I spent some time planning the next day, as we have modified slightly her master plan. 

It seems we are in a rut with the weather and tomorrow is supposed to start off with low clouds and fog. Hopefully, that will break into sunny skies again, as it did today. 

The Burdwood Group to Simoom Sound

You guessed it! It was cloudy when we awoke. Not foggy, but we did have a low ceiling composed of our Northwest cloud companions. There was a light mist, just enough to make you say “yuck” when you walked on deck.

After breakfast, we made our way the short distance to Pierre’s at Echo Bay. The agenda at Pierre’s was to take on water, do laundry and some minor provisioning. We also needed to satisfy our curiosity. Pierre had moved his entire operation one bay south to Echo Bay. In typical Pierre fashion, he did a first class job of a major upgrade to the old Echo Bay facilities.

The approach to the new Pierre's. The big pig roast tent clearly visible on the right.

The nice new docks at Pierre's

The Canadian Coast Gurad makes a visit.

Looking ahead we needed to be at the entrance to the Ahta River in Bond Sound at noon on Thursday. Therefore, we decided to leave Pierre’s and position ourselves a little closer for an early morning launch, stopping at MacIntosh Bay in Simoom Sound.

Turns out this spot was very much to our liking. It’s cozy, but with enough little islands to explore by kayak and some great views to the Southwest and West. Plus, the skies cleared!

Explore we did. The water is very tannin; “cedar water” they call it up here. As this area is almost at the end of a long passage, there is not as much exchange of water as those anchorages in the confluence of more rapidly moving waters.

Karen checks out the local signage on the First Nation reservation

Simoom Sound, smooth as glass

The net of all this is that there was less wildlife to see in Simoom Sound. However, we were content to enjoy the marvelous scenery as we sat in the shadow of Bald Mountain, a large granite mountain whose west side is almost vertical and thus devoid of any vegetation.

Bald mountain peaks out from under the clouds

Sunset in Simoom Sound

Waddington Bay to The Burdwood Group

Now here’s a change; we awoke to sunshine, not clouds, for the first time in three days. Admittedly it was a broken layer of clouds with Old Sol doing his best to peek though, but it was sunshine, nevertheless.

It is amazing how even this little bit of sunshine lifts the spirits. Our neighbors started getting underway shortly after 9am, a signal that they too were invigorated by the change in weather. The breaks in the clouds are being fueled by increased winds driven by a distant high pressure, and there are lots of high wind warnings in the nearby straits. Back among the islands where we are, the winds are fresh but not in the gale force category that plagues the more open waters.

Our plan is to visit The Burdwood Group of Islands. They are reputed to be a great location to Kayak, and having been boat- bound for the last three days, we are looking forward to getting out and exploring.

The Burdwood Group is known as a Kayaker’s heaven. As we would soon discover, its reputation is well deserved. From a boater’s perspective, the Burdwoods offer a challenge in finding a suitable spot to anchor. Most choose to only spend the day, with a picnic on one of the shell beaches being the main attraction. We were the only boat in the Burdwoods and, with the wind and water calm, we found a small anchorage between two islets in 30 feet.

It took two attempts, but we got a good set to the anchor, secured the “snubby” and dropped another 100 feet of rode on the bottom to make certain we held.

Next, the kayaks were placed in the water, and Karen put together lunch in anticipation of some pleasant paddle stroking this afternoon. We were not disappointed.

 

Karen sets out to conquer the Burdwood Group

We weaved our way though the many small islands, interrupting the native critters as we went. In fact, when we came around one corner there were a couple of dozen seals on the beach that, when they saw Karen appear, took to the water with a great sound and flurry. They followed us for a while until we left their homestead.

A new bird was spotted, a Barrow’s Goldeneye. As we approached, mom led her chicks into the water and around behind a small outcropping of rock while dad stood guard. Finally, when the family was safe behind the rocks, he jumped into the water and joined them.

When we anchored, we were in sight of one of the two largest white shell beaches in the Group. The other is, in fact, a mirror image and lies just on the other side of the beach we could see from the boat. As we paddled back towards our boat, we stopped on that other beach and got out to set foot on firm land for the first time in about 6 days.

The Kayaks on "dry land" for the first time

Maybe this is where they got the idea for the infinity pool

Arctic Star nestled in the Burdwood Group

Just above the beach was a great Kayaker’s campsite, complete with fire pits, log “furniture” including what Karen called a breakfast bar (I simply stated that it was “The Bar”). It was easy to imagine a few Kayakers standing around in the evening sunset, beers in hand, telling tales of their adventures that day.

Can't you see a group of Kayakers gathered around this "rustic bar"

Our day ended as we watched a large seal frolic right off the boat’s bow, breaching and tail splashing like mad.

Karen stops in front of Arctic Star before we call it a day

The driftwood is always full of interesting patterns