Thursday, 28 August 2014

We spent the last few days of our Broughtons cruise visiting Shawl Bay for seafood chowder night and Echo Bay for fish and chips. We traveled today through the Indian Group, past New Vancouver and down Beware Passage to Potts Lagoon where we anchored for the night. There is logging activity all around the lagoon with a large camp set up on the peninsula in the outer bay. This turns out to be a busy, noisy place so we only stay one night.

Friday, 29 August 2014

Our exit strategy will be to visit Lagoon Cove for tonight and to stage at Port Harvey for an early morning run down Johnstone Strait. The tides and weather are shaping up to make that happen on Monday, Labor Day.

Monday, 01 September 2014

We depart Port Harvey at first light, 0615, and find a light southeast breeze in the strait. The current is running east on the flood so there is a light chop that is on our bow. There is a lot of traffic heading east today: recreational boats, fishing boats, and commercial tugs with barges. The visibility is good in light rain showers and we fall into the line of traffic along the south shore. There are gill netters and trawlers working this side of the strait, going after the salmon which are present in record numbers.

We reach Race Passage at 0900 and the flood carries us through to Tyee Point where the ebb has started. We are slowed a bit by the opposing current but are able to reach Blind Channel Resort on Mayne Passage in time to have lunch on their patio. We will spend the night here and take the flooding tide through Cordero Channel tomorrow morning.


Tuesday, 02 September 2014

Our travel today will take us through a set of three tidal rapids, so timing is critical. We have done this before so we are well prepared. We leave at 0845, shoot through the small pass at Shell Point and turn east into Cordero Channel. We pass Shoal Bay and Hall Point at our planned times and arrive at Dent Rapids 15 minutes before slack water. The passage is easy, no white water is evident. Gillard Passage is next, followed by the Yuculta Rapids. Both are running flat as the last of the flood carries us to Kellsey Point at the south end of Stuart Island. We are now in Desolation Sound and headed to an anchorage in Von Donop Inlet on Cortes Island.

We find a nice spot to drop the hook in the north end of the large basin at the southern terminus of Von Donop. The weather forecast is for strong northwesterlies tonight and tomorrow so we settle down in our snug cove to wait it out. There are seven boats total in the anchorage tonight.