24 July 2014
Port McNeil, BC
We left Shearwater on Tuesday morning and proceeded to Rock Inlet near NAMU, and anchored for the night. We quickly set out both of our crab pots where we had such good luck on the way north. I checked them two hours later, and was disappointed to have nothing in either one. I moved them and checked them one more time before dinner and only had one female crab. We left them overnight and when I checked them the next morning we had one small male and one small female. I think the lesson here is, get your crabs early in the season before the commercial guys start.
On Wednesday morning we pulled up the anchor and headed to Dawson's Landing where we refueled and took on a few provisions. We then decided to continue on to Duncanby Landing and Resort to be closer when we decided to cross Queen Charlotte Sound. Duncanby is still very expensive. It was $1.50/foot for moorage and a whopping $45.00/night for 30 amp power! Needless to say, we declined power. We had a very good dinner at the lodge on Wednesday night. We listened to the radio and it seemed that Thursday would be the best day in the next 4-5 days to cross over to Port Hardy (50nm). We got up at 0500 and were underway at 0510 for Port Hardy. The crossing started out fairly smooth, but got rougher the further we went. The seas (6foot swells) were on the beam or just a aft the beam. Fortunately there was very little wind and we were making consistently above 7 kts. When we got within 15 miles of Port Hardy in Johnstone Strait the seas abated and calmed completely. We then decided to push on to Port McNeil which is a better port. We arrived in Port McNeil around 3:30pm and moored at the city marina. We went out to a nice cafe for dinner and came back to the boat and crashed! We were tired!
We plan to stay here until Saturday morning then head to Lagoon Cove. After that we will decide our route home based on weather.