Saturday, September 7, 2013

"Its a long way to Tiparary'--Prince Rupert to Port McNeil





   


 "Its a long way to Tiparary'--Prince Rupert to Port McNeil




                                                   




 

Ginny and I have been happily married for 50 years , have 2 sons and 6 grandchildren. We have been avid boaters since the mid 1970's. We have sailed in various parts of the world making 'bareboat' charter trips in the Washington and Canadian San Juans and Gulf Islands, Maine,the British Virgins, South Pacific's Moorea and Tuamoto's and New Zealand. We owned and raced a J-24, Laser, and cruised a Newport 30 before buying a long range trawler in 2003 and cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest and the 'Inside Passage' of British Columbia to SE Alaska for the last 10 years. After first owning a 2000 Selene 47, and 2002 Selene 50 (both named 'Ina Marie', we now, in the 'bell lap' of our boating days, own, operate and thoroughly enjoy 'Ginny C' , our 2007 Selene 42.
To see our locations and routes click on this text



 Saturday, August 31, 2013 Southbound from Prince Rupert to Porcher Island’s Gas Boat Cove.

With a good night’s rest and Dixon Entrance behind us, and a long term forecast for calm waters and light winds we left Prince Rupert about 9 am and headed south through Chatham Straights to spend the night in Gasboat Cove in Kitkatla Inlet on Porcher Island.  Our 39 mile run into this delightful small cove was uneventful.  The water was almost mirror calm most of the way. [This inlet is the home of large First Nations tribal village bearing the same name: Kitkatla which we will pass on Sunday as we leave Gasboat Cove via Beaver Passage].

For the next six to seven days we will be heading south down Ogden Channel, Estevan Sound, Laredo Sound, along the east side of huge Hecate Straights.  We have planned extra layover days for weather delays as seas can kick up in this area of the northern BC Coast.  We will be on the lookout for whales along the way and bears on the beaches of the coves we will be anchoring in at night, although that will be less likely this time of year because the berries are ripe for the taking ,so most of the time the bears stay in the woods feasting on berries, rather than fishing salmon and eating clams  at the stream outlets of the coves. We will also count on our daily greeting (very unique call)  from a resident eagle as we enter each cove. Once heard, Lizzie is put inside for the duration! 

This is pure wilderness and nobody and we mean nobody is around.



To see our locations and routes click on this text


Sunday, September 1, 2013. Moncton Inlet, Pitt Island

We spot a 10 count of whales on our 50 mile trip to beautiful and peaceful Moncton Inlet   with a hidden stream on Pitt Island today.  We look for but see not one other boat the entire trip.  The first 1.5 hours we run in fog with no targets on the radar and when it lifts we see no boats the rest of the day;









Monday, September 2, 2013, Anchored in Chapple Inlet, Princess Royal Island

To see our locations and routes click on this text


Once again a day of fog run until mid morning and mirror calm almost ripple free water under almost cloudless skies clear to our destination, a most tranquil spot at the head of this nearly 5km long inlet , reached by going through three narrow passes. Ginny has a great kayak outing, spotting several huge bald eagles and also a golden...plus spawning salmon blanketing the water surface like dolphins.  Again, we spot one commercial fishing boat for the entire 43 miles.  We are backtracking our north bound route essentially this week but staying in new and different coves each night as there are many choices along the way.  We are not spending any time fishing as we want to take advantage of the fantastic weather window we have lucked upon.  Unfortunately the sea otters have been here so our daily crab trap drops are yielding us nothing but starfish. No Whales and No Bears. Darn!!



Tuesday, September 3, 2012 at Rescue Bay in Jackson Narrows.

Another calm day for our 55 mile run down Laredo Channel into Meyers Passage into Tolmie Channel where we have a big school of porpoises swim alongside and spot our almost “daily whale”.There is also a huge amount of log debris to skirt. Skies are high overcast but seas are super calm. We then pass the Klemtu Indian community and go down Jackson Passage and through tricky Jackson Narrows into this safe and pretty protected spot with great mountain views. 



Wednesday, September 4, 2012-- Another 48 mile run to Codville Lagoon in Fitch Hugh Sound.
To see our locations and routes click on this text

Todays, trip is a bit trickier as we transit Reid Passage.  The last few days we have been slowed a bit with morning tides against us but to day we are getting a push as we head east in Seaforth Channel.  We are thinking about a stop at Shearwater for the night on docks but) we arrive in the area early, the weather is calm, so we decide to run down Lama Passage (where we spot a few whales) another 18 miles into this huge cove and BC Marine park.  We arrive early enough to drop the tender and set both crab and prawn traps....and of course, Ginny kayaks. then dave tackles the challenging job of replacing our windlass solenoid which has been functioning erratically.  For the first time in almost 3 weeks [Portage Bay on August 18 en route to Petersburg from Tracy Arm’s Glaciers], we share the cove with another pleasure boat, a 34 foot sailboat out of Nanaimo. We also hear loud howls from either bears or wolves but see none.


Thursday, September 5, 2013. Kuakame Inlet in Fitch Hugh Sound
To see our locations and routes click on this text

Before leaving Codville we pull the traps and hoist the tender.  No luck again on crabs- just 2 large females- tempted but let them go- but guess what ?? over 200 prawns and shrimp in the trap.


Leaving at noon we plan a short run into Fish Egg Inlet today but it ends up shorter yet.  Just south of Namu while watching a pod of whales way off along Calvert Island , the main engine unexpectedly dies.  Fortunately seas are very calm with almost no wind. A big concern because Port McNeill is nearly 100 miles away with Cape Caution in between.  We run on the ‘get home’ into this lovely protected Khakume Inlet about 7 miles short of our planned stop for the night.  I alert the BC Coast Guard of our situation.  We will spend the night here and try and diagnose the issue.  Another boat, Appa One from with Brian from Sechelt overhears our radio contact with the Coast Guard and escorts us into the inlet, anchors and comes over to see if he can help.  We can’t conclusively determine any specific issue but decide to change fuel filters suspecting this a plugged filter as a possible source of the problem. After the change the engine starts right up and runs smoothly for several minutes so we hope we have found and fixed the problem.  Too bad that it is too late to pull anchor and make a test run.  That will have to wait until morning. We once again are grateful to the brotherly Canadian boaters who are always willing to lend a helping hand. It is off to bed , anxious and worried.

Friday, September 6, 2013 83.3 km into Port McNeil

To see our locations and routes click on this text

 We pull the anchor about 6:45 and begin a run on the main engine. As we idle out of the cove the motor is running smoothly.  After she is warmed up and we are clear of the cove entrance I bring her up to full RPM and she runs fine.  It takes us about 3 hours to run across the mouth of Rivers Inlet and near Smith Sounds’  Millbrook Cove.  We are just 6 miles from rounding Cape Caution and it is not yet noon.  The engine is running fine so instead of stopping for the day we decide to go for it and get this section of 40 km of open exposure to ocean swells behind us even though we are running in fog with less than 1/2 mile visibility.  Ocean swells at Cape Caution are predicted at 1 meter, rising to 2 meters in the afternoon.  We can see that they are building but believe that we will have it behind us by shortly after noon and will be back in more calm water before mid to late afternoon.  We also suspect the fog will clear by noon as it has all week.
  

Guess What?? Neither happens.  Seas continue to build to a solid 2 meters plus on our starboard beam and the fog does not lift.  But what winds we have are light and are blowing out f the north to south in the same direction we are headed, current is pushing us to 8 plus knots and our engine is humming along fine and the stabilizers are working beautifully eliminating most of the roll.  

The swells are BIG but they are wide so we are not plowing into them but are rolling along with them for the most part, kind of like being on a roller coaster.  Problem is that with about 1/4 to 1/8 mile visibility we need to be on a sharp lookout for logs and we have little horizon to relate balance to so we both get a bit ‘queasy’ and are on the verge of being sea sick.  

This goes on until about 2:30 pm and the swells drop to a meter or less and all is well again.  If only the fog would raise.  Prince Rupert Traffic does a great job of contacting us whenever any big tugs and tows or other traffic is in the area.  We spot them easily on our radar to confirm relative location and have no issues. In each case we pass each other less than 1/4 mile away but never see them go by.  The fog is DENSE!  

I call Port Mcneill Fuel Dock and let them know we are coming with an ETA of about 5:30. The fog has raised there but might close back in because winds are so calm. 
We finally break out of the fog just two miles away and are safely tied to the dock at 5:40pm.  It has been a strenuous 10 1/2 hours, all but the first hour and last 20 minutes in dense fog, almost 4 hours in the biggest seas we have seen,  covering 83.6 miles, the longest one day distance we think we have covered.  Time to relax and have  nice big glass of wine or some cold beers!!

The good news is no lost travel days due to weather or mechanical issues--Yet.  And Dixon Entrance and Cape Caution are behind us.  No more open ocean exposure the rest of the way.  We are ‘ahead of schedule’  as a result so if the Johnstone or Georgia Straits kick up a bit we can easily wait it out while we continue south to have John and Dianne Kidd, Tucson friends, join us in Victoria an the 21st for the ‘Bell Lap” on into Olympia to bring this grate summer cruise to its finish line.

A few more days to fish and prawn here in the Broughtons and Desolation Sound Area before cruising on into the Gulf Islands and San Juans with the Kidds.




To see our locations and routes click on this text



I have updated our routes and locations on google maps to here.  Click on the links and zoom in on each cove if you have the interest.   



























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