Echo Bay, Kwatsi Bay & Viner Sound

Pierre His Own Self
Wednesday & Thursday: Stayed at Pierre’s in Echo Bay. They do a prime rib dinner with all the fixins and dessert for $30. It is excellent. Pierre and Tove have lived and worked at odd jobs in the Braughtons for 30+ years. About 12 years ago they built a small marina in nearby Scott’s Cove literally out of nothing but old logs. Over time they became a popular stopping place. Three years ago they partnered up with another couple and bought the existing Echo Bay and adjoining Windsong Resorts and began improving it as they moved their buildings from Scott’s Cove. It is now the busiest marina in the area. They have a regular schedule of meals and events.


Echo Party Tent
Friday & Saturday: We made the short (1:45) run to one of our favorite places on the coast – Kwatsi Bay. Anca, who is Dutch by birth, and Max began this little marina 12 years ago and we have been coming here since 2001. They dragged longs onto the shore, winched up a little cabin and scrounged up floats from abandoned fish farms to use as docks. They have raised their kids, Russell and Marika, here who are now 15 and 17 or so. For the first few years they had no ramp to shore so they rowed back and forth countless times per day. A couple of years ago Max shot a couger under the cabin that was stalking the kids. Notice in the adjoining picture of the Kwatsi docks the landslide that almost took out their cabin as they were sleeping one winter night.

Cliffside Docks at Echo Bay
It’s a small marina, only 12 boats or so. Consequently, there are ample opportunities to get to know folks and we see many year after year, including Jim, a retired pharmacist from Seattle who spends every summer here. We’ll stay two nights but we will be back later with Rolynn’s sister and her daughter.




Kwatsi Bay
Sunday, Monday & Tuesday: We are in Viner Sound, not far from Echo Bay. It’s a nice spot with four mooring buoys. This is usually a good crabbing spot and we can sometimes see bears on the beach at low tide. This year the commercial crabbers have cleaned out most of the best spots so the crabbing has not been good for boaters. The fisheries people shut down commercial prawning early, though, so that has been pretty good for us. We (Rolynn) used Sunday morning to clean the boat while I offered
helpful suggestions. We heard from our friends Stan and Diane Heirshberg aboard “Crossroads”. They are back from Alaska and we will meet them at Echo Bay this Wednesday for prime rib dinner. ( I told you it was good.) The weather is stuck in a pattern. Overcast or misty in the mornings, clearing by about noon and late afternoon sun.

Kwatsi PotLuck
Monday – 4:00 AM: We were awaken by much huffing and snorting from the water next to the boat. Figured it was a harbor seal. Turned out the noise was a small pod of orcas hunting dolphins in the bay. The whales herded the dolphins into a tight group then munched them down for breakfast. The orcas we see in the San Juan Islands are resident pods that feed on salmon. The orcas up here are transient hunters that feed mostly on seals and dolphins. A few days ago we spoke with a fellow who conducts sampling studies on behalf of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). He told us that a couple of years ago he encountered an orca superpod, a grouping of all of the transient pods. The official count was over 600. Must have been quite a sight.

Pott’s Lagoon to Laura Cove: June 17 – 21

Lagoon Cove Docks
Saturday: After two days at Lagoon we pulled away from the dock at 11:00 AM. We are taking turns at the helm so that either of us can handle the boat if the other is unable to for any reason. Today is Rolynn’s turn and she took us for the one hour run to Pott’s Lagoon. We turned the corner into the lagoon only to find our favorite spot occupied by a 50’ DeFever and the rest of the bay a mine field of commercial crab traps. We managed to find a spot to drop the hook and settled in for a couple of days. We got dinghy down from top deck. It hasn’t been run since last season. Started at first touch of key. Life is good! Put out the crab pot.

Anderson’s Third Nautical Law: If there is a problem there is more than one cause. Conversely, if there is only one cause there is more than one problem.

Rolynn fired up the coffeepot around 7:00 PM but it soon stopped burbling. Hmm. Check circuit breaker. OK. Check AC boat voltage. None. Damn! Hot water heater switch still on. (Steve’s fault) Draws too much current and made inverter shut down from over heating. (The inverter converts our battery DC voltage to AC voltage.) Go into engine room to reset inverter. All OK. Oh Oh The plastic tank that holds excess engine antifreeze has jumped out of its bracket and has rubbed against the engine pulley. A hole has worn in the tank and the excess antifreeze, about a quart, has drained out. Can’t repair tank. Running water heater from batteries drained batteries too much. Have to run generator to recharge. Watch movie – “The boat that Rocked”. Get to sleep at 1:00 AM.

Sunday: Improvise. Make temporary tank from gallon jug that antifreeze came in. Will work fine until a replacement can be found. The DeFever has left so we (Rolynn) decide to relocate to the prime location. Pull up anchor. Up comes commercial crab trap and a mile of line. Eventually get it all free. No harm done to trap or anchor. Move to new spot. Only 10 feet of water but its low tide. Fine tune location using bow thruster. Damn! No bow thruster! Hear the clutch engage but no thrust. Hmm. Bet pump belt broke. That’s what knocked antifreeze tank out of bracket. Get anchored. Back to engine room. The bow thruster is hydraulic system. Pump is powered by two belts driven off main engine. Belts not broken. Hmm. Belts are tight but slipping. I get it. Antifreeze from broken tank drained all over the belts causing them to slip. Go to aft engine room. Dig out spare belts. Notice bilge pump not pumping properly. Fix that. Notice broken hose clamp. Replace that. Grease shaft wipers. Replace belts on bow thruster pump. Fire up engine. All OK. Crab for dinner.

Monday: Pull anchor at noon for slack current in Beware Passage. Beware Passage is very pretty. Some of the place names on the chart are: Care Rock, Caution Rock, Caution Cove, Beware Rock, Beware Cove and Dead Point. What could possibly go wrong? Actually, there are several twists and turns but its an easy passage especially if you’ve been through before. Three hours later and we are anchored at one of our favorite spots, Laura Cove. As we were anchoring a dinghy came along side. It is our friends David and Edie Pope with their grandson aboard “Our Time”. We invited them over for drinks later and we had fish dinner at their boat the next night. No form of marine life is safe if David is in the area. Nice people. We caught 200 big prawns in two pulls so we are set for awhile. No Crab.

We will go to Pierre's at Echo Bay tomorrow for prime rib dinner.

Blind Channel to Lagoon Cove: June 13-16

Tuesday: We left Blind Channel at 11:15 AM to catch the slack at Shell Point and Green Point Rapids and had no problems at either one. An hour later we were anchored in little Sidney Bay in Longburough Inlet. It is just about the only waiting place between Green Point and Whirlpool Rapids. After a pleasant three hours or so we hauled anchor for the two hour run to Forward Harbor via Whirlpool Rapids. Forward Harbor is a large bay with room for many boats although the preferred anchorage in Douglas Bay holds only about two dozen. It is the best, almost only, anchorage to wait for favorable conditions in Johnstone Straits.

In Forward we paid out 250 feet of rhode to anchor in 70 feet of water. The “rhode” is the anchor plus all the chain and/or line attached to it. “Intrepid” has a 55 lb. anchor with 270 feet of chain followed by 150 feet of line. The line has never been wet. The normal rule is to use 3-4 feet of rhode for every foot of depth. This ratio is called the “scope”. With all chain we can get by with a scope of 3:1 which would be 210 feet for a depth of 70 feet. (In sketchy conditions like poor holding bottom or high winds we would increase our scope.) Why the extra 40 feet? To compensate for the height of the bow above the water and tidal changes over night.

Now, set the anchor alarm in case we drag anchor during the night. To do so we enter the boat’s current position in the GPS then determine the radius of the circle we want to stay in. One minute of latitude is one nautical mile or 6024 feet. So, 0.01 nm is 60 feet. We have 250 feet of rhode so we should swing in a circle of 250 feet radius. However, the weight of the chain causes the rhode to fall toward the bottom in an arch called a catenary. That’s good because it acts likes a spring so the boat doesn’t jerk at the anchor. It also means that our circle of swing will be less than 250 feet. So, set the anchor alarm for a radius of 0.04 nm or 240 feet. If we drag outside the circle the alarm will go off and wake us. Since the chain weighs 1.1 lbs/ft that means we have a total rhode weight of 330 lbs. We’re not going anywhere.

Wednesday: This morning it was unclear what the winds in Johnstone were doing or when they would increase so we decided to say in Forward for a second night. (Refer to the previous post about winds and tides in Johnstone Straits.) It is a pretty place, the weather is good and no matter where we are we are still on the boat. What’s the hurry?

We plan for an early rise on Thursday. Forward Harbor sits near the head of Sunderland Channel. Sunderland opens into Johnstone and is oriented east-west, like the straits. So, we will poke our nose into Sunderland near sun rise. “What you seen in Sunderland you will see in Johnstone” they say. If it doesn’t look promising we will go back to Forward but we think it will probably be OK. If all systems are go it will take about 3 hours to get from Forward to the first exit of the straits at Havannah Channel. There is a nice little spot a couple of miles up the channel called Mitilpi Cove, aka “The Indian Islands” where we will anchor for the afternoon and night.

Johnstone Straits
Thursday: At 5:30 AM it was still blowing 30+ at Fanny Island. Fanny sits at the junction of Sunderland Channel and Johnstone Strait. There is an automated weather station there. The weather data from Fanny and other locations is collected and broadcast every hour or so. Yesterday, it was about the same at this time but it calmed down some by 8:00 AM, or so. We went back to sleep. At 8:30 AM it was blowing NW 20 knots at Fanny. Not as good as yesterday but the Environmental Compliance Officer (Rolynn) decided to go. An hour later we turned the corner at Fanny and headed up the Straits. We had about a 2 kt current behind us and a 20 kt head wind but the seas were manageable – about 2-3 feet. Two hours later we arrived at the Broken Islands where we turned up Havannah Channel. We skiped the anchorage at Matilpi and made for Chatham Channel. – named for one of Captain Vancouver’s ships that explored this area in the 1700’s. Chatham is a long, narrow channel that must also be timed but it is much more forgiving than the rapids farther south. It is more of an issue for slow sailboat and, as usual, we had no difficulty. By 1:30 PM we were tied he dock at Lagoon Cove, one of the most popular marinas around these parts.

The Shop at Lagoon Cove
People have lived at Lagoon Cove for many centuries. It is a midden. First Nations people are what the Canadians call Native Americans. And what we call tribes the Canadians call bands. A midden is the remains of a village. They can often be spotted as white mounds of oyster and clam shells. Dig around and other things can be found. Basically, it was their garbage dump. Anyway, there were once 5000 or so people living in the area around Lagoon Cove. Loggers and fishermen, mostly. Around the corner is the Minstral Island store – now abandoned. As late as the 1960’s there was a hotel there, too. It’s claimed it once sold the second most beer of any location in BC. 5000 loggers and fishermen could do that. Minstral Island is named for the minstral shows that toured the area in the 1800’s. Navigational charts show landmarks such as Sambo Point, Bones Bay and Negro Rock. You can imagine what the later was called originally. Logoon Cove is now a small marina owned by Bill and Jean Barber. Bill is a retired advertising executive from Portland and has owned the place for 18 years. He is nearing 80 and the place is for sale. $2.4 million, we’ve heard. Each evening at 5:00 PM everyone gathers at the old boat builder’s shop, drinks and snacks in hand, for cocktail hour. Bill provides a couple buckets of shrimp. We swap lies and listen to Bill tell us about the bear he taught to water ski. We’ll stay a couple of days.

Anacortes to Forward Harbor

Anacortes:

We had to return to Anacortes from Friday Harbor because we were still concerned that the GPS/Autopilot might still give us trouble up stream. There we had Brian, the owner of Anacortes Marine Electronics, aboard (on a Sunday and the Fourth of July too!!!) to assess things but he could find nothing amiss so we took off for parts north the morning of the 5th.

Nanaimo:

We cleared customs by phone for Montegue Harbor where we snagged a mooring buoy and spent a quiet night in beautiful weather. The next morning we made a five hour run for Dodd Narrows, south of Nanaimo. The tidal currents run through Dodd at up to 8 knots and we are a 7 knot boat. You see the problem. So, we have to time our arrival at places like Dodd to coincide with the change in tides which is called slack water. Part of the fun of boating is making these calculations.

The hour run between Dodd and Nanaimo is open to the Straits of Georgia where the wind often blows so this stretch can sometimes be a little rough and we did take a spray of water on the windows once in a awhile. Nonetheless, we found good anchorage behind crowded Newcastle Island where we watched the seaplanes come and go and, later, the city lights of Nanaimo. There was some wind but the weather was expected to improve the following day. Usually, one crosses the Straits early in the morning before the afternoon winds typically pick up. The wind was still blowing in the morning but the wind dropped about noon, as predicted, so we made an unusual afternoon run to Pender Harbor in flat water.

Prideaux Haven Vista
Desolation Sound: After a night and a disappointing diner at the Garden Bay Marina in Pender Harbor we made the seven hour run in fine weather to Prideaux Haven in Desolation Sound. The cove itself was a little crowed, as usual, so we anchored for two nights behind little Rophy Island http://www.yknot.ca/images/desolation-sound.gif. to enjoy the views. By 7:00 pm he thermometer had climbed to 93.



The Rapids:

Each day there are two high tides and two low tides. Each are about 6 hours apart and the times of the highs/lows advances about an hour each day. During each lunar cycle there are two periods of small "Neap" tides and two large "Spring" tides. Each lasts about a week. We are at Spring tides now. The water "floods" in from the ocean following low tides and "ebbs" out following the high tides. Ebb currents are almost always stronger than flood currents. Today's tidal difference is 16 feet. Image billions of gallons of water behind a narrow opening. Now image that water is 16 feet higher than the water outside the opening. All that water comes out like a fire hose creating tidal rapids. These currents can reach up to 20 knots in some places on the coast. Sometimes the water in the channel will look like a 4 or 5 foot waterfall moving through. Around points of land big whirlpools can open up out of no where. Because "white" water is full of air it is less buoyant. Boats ride lower and the propeller and rudder loose their "bite" in the water. Smaller boats can and do sink. Slow boats like "Intrepid" can not run against even relatively small tidal currents. Between Desolation Sound and Johnstone Straits await five tidal rapids that must be "climbed". From south to north they are Yaculta, Gilliard, Dent, Green Point and Whirlpool Rapids. We must time our arrival at these rapids with the turn of the tide - slack water. Sometimes the period of safe transit is only 15 minutes either side of slack water. The distances are such that we can not time all the rapids in one day. In most years we can make Forward Harbor, just North of Whirlpool in two days. This is not one of those years. We timed Yaculta and nearby Gilliard for 10:45 am slack with no problems. However, the skipper underestimated effect of the opposing current on the time required to get from Gilliard to Dent Rapids. We were trying to make for the far shore where the current is least when we were cut off by a southbound sailboat that was being flushed through. We found ourselves in the "Devils Hole" against at least a 4 knot current just as the whirlpool was beginning to form. You get the picture. We couldn't make much headway and we didn't have a lot of steerage. We got tossed around pretty good but made it through OK. It was only about 5 minutes but it got our attention. Here's a video of Aaron Rapids running full tilt. Aaron is a few hundred yards from Dent Rapids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCDB9CZ41Kc What we experienced was nothing like this, though.

A couple of hours later we pulled up behind some islands to wait for the next slack so that we could get into Blind Channel Resort for the night. http://www.blindchannel.com/ We celebrated Rolynn's birthday a few days early with an outstanding dinner. Blind Channel is one of three area resorts begun by immigrant German families in the early 60s. Originally focused on salmon fishing they have become more resort like as the fishing has diminished. Blind Channel is now operated by the third generation and the fourth is crawling around on the floor.

Getting back to currents. When the wind direction is against the direction of the tidal currents the water gets pushed up into close steep waves. This is the classic "wind against tide" scenario. Since ebb currents are stronger than floods one is especially careful about wind against ebb tides. Johnstone Straits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstone_Strait is 68 miles long, a maximum of 3 miles wide and several hundred feet deep. It runs mostly East to West and is bounded on both sides by steep mountains which funnel the wind. It is the only path for thousands of square miles of water to enter and exit this area. When high pressure sets up off the west coast of Vancouver Island, as it has, "westerlies" (winds from the West) blow into the straits against the tide ebbing out. The result is REALLY nasty seas. (Note: The huge Frazier River empties trillions of gallons of water into the Straits of Georgia near Vancouver, BC. This fresh water floats on top of the denser salt water. Global hydraulic effects force this water NW through Johnstone Straits. So, there is always a surface ebb current flowing westward in the Straits. When this surface ebb coincides with the west bound tidal ebb it really snorts.) Oh, in order to get farther north boats must go into the straits for at least 14 miles. (Note: All distances are nautical miles - 1.14 statute miles.) To further complicate matters, the summer pattern is for winds to be lightest in the morning, then rise to their max by late afternoon, then diminish over night. The question is how light is "light" how max is "max" and how diminished is "diminish". On top of that, currently the winds are lightest when the ebb tide is strongest. What to do - go in lighter winds and strong current or strong winds and light currents? We will opt for the former.

So here is the current scenario. We are at Blind Channel - two hours and two rapids away from Forward Harbor where we will wait for good conditions in the straits. We had planned to go through Green Point Rapids this morning, wait in Longburough Sound for the afternoon slack, then go through Whirlpool Rapids to Forward Harbor for the night. There is a 45 knot westerly blowing in the straits now (51 mph) against a big ebb and conditions tomorrow (Tuesday) are uncertain. The winds are supposed to be NW 5-15 kn Wednesday morning rising to 20-30 in the afternoon. But, the strong ebb current will persist two hours later in the morning (when the wind begins to rise) than today. (Remember, the tide cycle advances an hour per day.) So, we will stay here tonight, go to Forward Harbor tomorrow then wait and see.

Anacortes and Delta Marine

We arrived in Anacortes on June 14 and have been BUSY ever since. We've cleaned out the heat exchanger on the generator and installed a new GPS (The device that tells us where we are in the planet.) After multiple visits to Costco we departed to on June 27 for Delta Marine in Tsehum, BC for scheduled work. We had commissioned a new swim step which was ready to install.

"Intrepid" Comes out of the Water
We also installed an additional zinc anode on the transom and replaced the others. (Zincs protect the boat's important underwater metal parts from electrically dissolving over time.) In addition, we had some work done on the electronic interface between the GPS and the autopilot. After a day and a night "on the hard" we were off for three days in Friday Harbor to visit with friends.

And there were other reasons for coming back to the US. We buy all our wine and gin in the US because we can get what we want. But, we have to pay duty on it in Canada and once in Canada we can only bring two bottles back to the US without paying duty again. And another "but". We had to come back to the US in order to get the Canadian taxes we paid on the boat work rebated back - about $700. So our friend, Judy Moore, took our booze to Friday Harbor where we loaded it all back on the boat after returning from Tsehum. When we crossed back to Canada we declared our alcohol and paid the duty ($500). So, in the end, it was a net loss to Canada of $200. Besides, about once every three years the Canadian customs decides not to assess the duty (too busy, computer down, etc) and we're off free!!

Off with the Old
While all of that was going on we also had a marine surveyor crawling all over the boat. These are guys who assess the safety and value of the boat. A new survey is required by the insurance companies every five years. We are changing insurance companies this year, anyway, so either way a new survey is required.



On with the New