Aug 31 – Day 121 Sullivan Bay to Claydon Bay

Aug 31 – Day 121   Sullivan Bay to Claydon Bay

It was a sunny and warm day.

Glen and Diane ordered Cinnamon rolls from the Sullivan Bay store and they were piping hot from the oven and ready at promptly 9am this morning.  They are yummy.  

Sullivan Bay – float plane dock at far left, a beautiful float house, and fuel dock on right

 

One of my favorite houses in Sullivan Bay.  It always has beautiful flowers and art pieces on display.

Spoke to the owners (mid 80’s). They live in Nanaimo in the winter and up here in the summer.

 

Beautiful morning in the ghost town

 

The pots were checked and we harvested about 100 Coon Stripe Shrimp and Spot Prawn.  We are not traveling far today and to near where the pots were put down so they were let out to soak. This area is generally good for Prawning.

First bowl of harvest

 

This morning Willard helped Glen work on Magic’s generator and replaced the heat exchanger.  It was working but there was a small leak so Glen decided to swap out the part before it broke at an inconvenient time.  

I took a walk around the docks to get some exercise.  When the harbor is full there generally is a group of people walking all of the docks from one end of the community to the other.   We also chatted for a bit with Mike and Beth from Voyager who were on their way south from their first trip to Alaska and their first stop in the Broughtons.  They were looking for ideas of places to visit.

 

We headed out on flat water and under bright warm sunshine.  I guess the weather controller decided to give us some sun in August after all.  

We ended up in Claydon Bay and Sea Life was the anchor boat today.  This is the first night at anchor this summer that it was not Magic’s anchor holding the group.  This must be a popular spot as when we got arrived there was a sailboat there.  We anchored on the other side to give them space.   After our exploration tour another raft of two boats about our size had come in and anchored near us, which was fine with us.   The bay is very protected and only about 20-25 feet deep, with small tidal changes at this point.

 

We went for an exploration tour of the area and found several interesting areas.  The logs that go under a float house were washed up on a rocky shore.  Down the way from that was an area with piling with cross beams on top.  They were close together and based on the configuration of the top logs, this was very likely a pier that had rail cars that took loads of wood from the back country out to dump in the bay.  We went ashore and followed these piling up into the woods for some distance.  They were in a very straight line and many of the top cross pieces had rotted and fallen to the ground.  When the vegetation got too thick to continue we turned and went back to the beach.  There were critter footprints  on the beach, likely racoon or other small sharp toed animal.   

 

There was also bear scat on the beach so we know that there are bear in the area.   Back to the boat and on to the next beach down the way and around the corner.  There was an old set of floating docks that were in bad shape with old rusty drums, crab pots, and an old small boat pulled up onto it.   Not far off this dock under water we saw what appears to be the remains of an old boat; well, the front portion at least.   On shore there was another set of the same type of ‘rail car’ piling that we found earlier.  This time there were lots of old rusty spikes, and other pieces of old rusty gears etc on the ground.   There were also lots of large tree stumps which had floated up on the beach.  Someone clearly was planning on doing something in the area as there was long lines of surveyor type tape of different colors heading off into the woods.  Glen followed the lines for a bit but did not find anything.   The tape seemed to mark and follow a stream bed.   So the exploration was successful.  

 

Large old cedar stump with spring board cut.  This was about 4 feet across.

Pilings from old railway

 

Rotting dock, with junk just waiting to fall into the sea

 

What’s left of a piling log – count those rings

 

Old rusty stuff on beach

 

 

On the way back to the boats we stopped and checked the crab pots.  One large keeper and several smaller non keepers, so there are crab in the area.   We moved the pots a bit and left them to soak over night.  

After dinner, which was coconut prawns and salad, the harvesters then went out to check the prawn pots.   Success again.  Another nice harvest of Coon Stripe Shrimp and Spot Prawns.  The pots were also left out for an overnight soak.

Aug 30 – Day 120 Sullivan Bay

Aug 30 – Day 120    Sullivan Bay

When we got up the sun was out and the sky was blue. it looked like It was going to be a nice day. It was a morning of chores, when done we headed out about 10:30 for  Sullivan Bay.

 

We cruised into the floating community of Sullivan Bay, put some fuel on, picked up some eggs, and milk, and decided to stay on the dock for the night.  The place looks like a ghost town.  In talking to the locals, the ones that have been able to get up here to their fishing homes, the place has been basically deserted this summer and last summer.  Effects of Covid on travel.   Most of the homeowners here are from the states, so needless to say they have been stuck elsewhere.   As for boat travelers there have been a few but not many.  One night this summer they had 10 boats on the docks which was the highest number on one night in two summers.   Not good!   There were 4 visiting boats on the docks this trip.  We had a nice stay as usual but the internet access was basically non-existent and cell service worse.  We did manage somehow to get a few text messages in and out. 

The prawn pots were put out for an overnight soak.

 

 

Some of the signs around “town”

 

Sullivan Bay Weather Reporting station

Reflective evening in Sullivan Bay

 

We had home/boat made pizza for dinner.  Each person got have their own pizza and picked their toppings from a variety of yummy offerings.

Aug 29 - Day 119 Murray Labyrinth to Dickson Island

Aug 29 – Day 119   Murray Labyrinth to Dickson Island

A Sunny day for a cruise down Queen Charlotte Sound. 

Diane is salivating on the prospect of fishing James Point.

Glen in the jet and Willard and Diane in Tini headed out for fishing and tried for a while. Glen pulled a couple rock cod but since he was trying for salmon they went back to the sea. The water was a little rough in the channel because of the outgoing tide so the Tini crew didn’t fish much.

 

Basically a lazy day.

Aug 28 – Day 118 Leaving Belize inlet via Nakwakto

 Aug 28 – Day 118  Leaving Belize inlet via Nakwakto

Stilling damp, 

 

Raining hard in the morning.  Hello this is August it is supposed to be hot.  The harvesters went to check and bring in the pots.  No prawn but a bunch of those little crawdad/lobster looking critters.  They are a lot of work for not much meat, but we harvested some anyway, but let the majority go free.

Trying to escape

 

 

After hauling the otter skull around much of the summer it is going to Charles Thomas, Willard and Diane’s son.  He collects this type of stuff.  We sent him photos and he is excited to be getting it prize.  I found two of these this summer but already got rid of the other one. 

 

We went for another exploration this time up the inlet in the rain looking for whatever we could find.  We found two river/inlets and went up one as far as we could.  Nothing special.  But did see a critter - a blue heron.

 

 

We pulled anchor and headed out for Murray Labyrinth looking closely at all the rock walls in search of the pictographs discussed in the Douglas book, but never found them.

What we were looking for - photo of photo from book

Reported to be square rigger

A smaller boat with many oars and men wearing brimmed hats and carrying rifles

A small canoe with natives

  

Interesting colors and cracks on this rock wall, but no pictographs

 

 

This is not a pictograph, it is graffiti.  

Several rocks in the area had modern graffiti, i.e., boat names and dates, etc…

 

We went passed Tremble Island outbound with no trouble.  It was still raining.  There is a theme to many photos this summer …. Gray, damp sky.  Doesn’t make for great shots.

Tremble Island today under gray damp sky

 

In the afternoon after arriving at Murray Labyrinth Anchorage the sun came out and it was even warm enough to sit on Sea Life’s ‘Ledo’ deck for a bit, but about an hour later the sprinkles came back. We arer not far from Skull cove where we were about 5 days ago.  

Today is Diane’s birthday so I had baked dessert while in route, the birthday dinner will be on Magic this evening.  I also baked a new batch of Keto crackers.  

We heard from Michelle that they were crossing the Straits of Georgia this afternoon.  She said that it was sunny, warm and the water great.  Apparently, Johnstone Straits had been great ‘Liz water’ (aka flat) for their trip south.  Soon they will be having water fun with their granddaughters.  A few days ago, we heard from Dave and Jane that they had made it back to Seattle safely, were starting their post trip clean up, and were heading to Phoenix soon.

Aug 27th - 117th day - headed to Alison Sound

 Aug 27^th - 117^th day - headed to Alison Sound

 

Headed out about 9:00  Arrived in the no name bay just east of Summers bay.

 

On the way in Glen had spotted a couple of locations for the shrimp pots so off they went to put them down.

 

We went for our daily exploration cruise and found a float house with a sailboat in Chief Nollis Bay, but no one was home.  There were lots of ‘Covid’ restriction signs all around it as well as several ‘sanitation stations and mask mandates’.  Apparently people stop there.    There was a river/water inlet from the hills with lots of sunken logs and semi submerged tree stumps.  Too shallow to get very far.   

 

Not a pictograph but it looks to say 79.  Oddly scrapped into the lichen

 

Pictograph all washed out?

 

 

 

I spy with my little eye ….

 

On the way back I spotted ‘pictographs’ on a rock wall just west of Summers Bay.   We circled back and took photos.   We read in the Waggoners book that they were in the area but not exactly where, so it was by chance that I spotted them.  Look to the left of the tree.

 

They were drawn on the wall below an overhang so were not subject to much of the weather and they were in great shape.

 

Not easy to spot

Clearly a pictograph!

 

Don’t know much about this one but it is in the books.  Some date back to 1865 or even back to when Capt. Vancouver ventured into these areas.   Many depict meetings of the white men and the natives; others seem to document events around fishing or whale encounters.  It is amazing to think that these were painted with natural ‘paints/dyes’ from nature, and with such detail; not to mention most are painted high on the rock walls which would not be easy to get to in the first place.

Aug 26 - Day 116 Mereworth Sound

Aug 26 – Day 116    Mereworth Sound

Strachan Bay - Still raining, off and on, mostly on.   We tried to blame the rain on Willard and Diane saying that we had not seen any rain all summer and they brought it with them.   They laughed and said they have not seen rain all summer and they know from our blogs that we have had our share of rain.

Prawn pots pulled – got some but not as many as yesterday.  Looked for the bear but it was not back out on the shore.  Probably still scared from the sound of the jet boat’s antics yesterday.

We pulled up a chunk of logging cable with our anchor but managed to get rid of it but lost a boat hook in the process.   Headed about 6 miles farther up Mereworth Sound past Village cove to Rock Island Bay Put out the pots in the rain and headed back to the warmth of the boats. 

 

Checked the pots a few hours later and came up empty, no sense leaving them down again.

 

Aug 25 – Day 115 Blunden Harbor back north inside Nakawkto rapids

 Aug 25 – Day 115  Blunden Harbor back north inside Nakawkto rapids

 

Woke up to heavy fog.  This is the next changeover day. It is time for Steve and Michelle to head south to meet up with their kids in the San Juans on the 29^th.  We have had a great summer with them, are sad to see them go, and will miss them being with us for the next month of travels. 

The Magic and Sea Life crews waved good-bye to them at about 8:30 and they disappeared into the fogbank that had enveloped the bay this morning. We talked to them an hour later and they were still in the fog.

   

Our remaining pair of boats headed out about 10:30 under grayish sky (fog was lifting) and good water.  Our plan was to go back a bit north and investigate the inlets behind Tremble Island and Nakawkto rapids for a few days.  The first target to arrive at the Nakwakto Rapids during the 12:30 slack water to pass through without encountering the standing waves. Perfect timing, we passed by Tremble Island with ease and headed for Belize Inlet. 

 

 

We turned into Mereworth Sound and anchored in Strachan Bay.  Willard, Diane, and Glen headed out to place the shrimp pots at the opening and do a little exploring. There are two logging operation areas in the outer bay and they stopped by one to ask about the access to the Kent Lagoon. They were told it wasn’t accessible except at the highest tide and generally not even then. OH NO, don’t ever give Glen a challenge.    

They then headed over and found the inlet and by bouncing off a few rocks made it to the rapids which were flowing out to them but with rocks showing could go no further.   But the challenge was set!

The plan was to wait for a bit higher tide.  Played some cribbage.  At 5:00 the decision was made to go check the lagoon, and pots. There were several float houses with boats near the entrance to the inlet to the lagoon.  It even looked like they had a hot tub on the dock; all the comforts of home.  Likely people associated with the two logging operations in the area.

We saw one smallish black bear walking on the logs near the shoreline as we headed for the lagoon.  It saw us and scooted for the woods.  It stopped briefly to take a look at us.

 

This time the current was flowing inward and Glen decided we could get through. It turned out to still be a little shallow but again bouncing off a couple rocks we made it.  It felt like we were going downhill.

Just inside were a couple old diesel donkey winches on log floats from earlier logging events. In the past we have seen similar units except they were steam powered. We explored the whole lagoon about 6 miles long but found no more equipment or general signs of people except logging clearings on the hill sides which are all done now by truck.   

 

 

The lake was over 200 feet deep in places.  There were several places where the trees and other vegetation had slid off their rock base and ended up in the water.  We’ve seen a lot of slide areas this summer; a sign of lots of rain.  It is very pretty in there, but really just more rock, water, and trees.  

After zipping all over the lake from one end to the other and exploring both sides we headed for the now ‘outlet’.  It did not look doable to me.  

We made it back to the opening and slowly tested the water depth but on both sides hit rocks, the middle wasn’t any better.  The opening is not very wide, and the locals ‘loggers’ have a line with handle above it so at low water they can ‘walk across’ to the other side.   We crunched the boat against the rocks several times and were spun around and shoved back into the lake.  Thankfully it is an aluminum boat with a jet engine.  

 

 

I thought we’d have to wait longer or put some of us out on the shore to lighten the load.  But Glen wouldn’t have that.  He went back out into the lake a fair distance, made a big circle, and said, ‘EVERYONE SIT DOWN AND HOLD ON TIGHT HERE WE GO!’.  To which I said, ‘This is stupid, someone is going to get hurt’.  He then hit the throttle, got the boat going about 30 MPH and ‘whoosh’ went right up and over the rocks and shot out of the rapids, only skimming one rock.  We were then in 3 feet of water.  We all started cheering and laughing as it was a hoot.  Not exactly safe but a hoot anyway.  We could not believe we made it in one piece.  Oh wait, Glen’s expression was normal as if this was no big deal.  No, I don’t want to do it again but we did it and lived to laugh about it.  We only wish we had been able to have the movie camera running, as no one will believe it.  Crazy Glen took the challenge and won.  Thank goodness for the jet instead of a propeller.

 

 

Checked the prawn pots on the way back which had been down for a couple hours.   Whoopee, we have shrimp and prawns, several dozen not large ones but big enough to eat.  Put the pots back down for an overnight soak.   Zero crab caught.    It started raining about the time we got back to the big boats.

Willard’s prawn pot.   Diane’s has eyelashes.

 

Had a yummy fish dinner and then at Diane’s request had a slide show of some of our summer adventures.  My photos are not sorted, edited, or bad ones deleted yet, so this was a bit premature in my mind but it was still fun.  We only went through a sampling of the photos.  In the process I discovered that I had close to 14,000 photos from this summer, clearly many need to be deleted.  Not looking forward to that job.  😉

 

Aug 24 – Day 114 Blunden Harbor

 Aug 24 – Day 114    Blunden Harbor

Lazy day.  After yesterday we needed a lazy day. Crab pots checked mid-morning, just a couple Red Rock crab, and one small female Dungeness, no keepers.  Clearly this area had been crabbed out this year, so pots brought back rinsed and put into storage.  

Steve, Glen, Willard, and Diane all went out fishing for most of the afternoon.  They had to go north a ways to get out of the Rockfish Conservation area which limits fishing outside of this harbor.  Glen came back with a nice Ling cod.  Michelle and I worked on our projects and did some reading.

 

Diane with Glen’s Ling

 

 

Aug 23 – Day 113 Tremble Island Exploration and then on to Blunden Harbor

Aug 23 – Day 113      Tremble Island Exploration and then on to Blunden Harbor

 

This was a busy day.  

 

 

 

Water Totem

 

Bird morning – Eagle, Seagull and Cormorants.  Mostly seagulls but still fun to watch.

 

 

Cormorants

About 8:30 in the morning we headed out in the Jet for Tremble Island about 4 miles away.   The plan is to be there as the tide is coming in and the flow of water from inland is flowing out creating a storm of water fighting for position.  The tide was running at 13 knots. The waves were crashing and shooting about 4 feet in the air and creating lots of large, and I mean large, whirlpools and deep holes.   One would not want to be caught in that type of water.   We kept our distance, took lots of photos, and some video.  At times the current was holding us in one spot and made it look like the island was moving.  Messes with your brain.    

 

 

 

After leaving that area, we went out Slingsby channel toward the ocean.  The current was running about 10 knots there and causing huge rollers and standing waves.  Some as much as 9 feet tall.  Again, very exciting but for me it was wreaking havoc with my stomach.   

Unfortunately, our videos have sound and so I must apologize to anyone who watches them with the sound on …. Yes, you can hear my retching.  

 

 

This is a wall of water coming at our stern

 

 

Heading back to the boats

 

 

 

We headed out with calm water for Blunden Harbor and got anchored and put the crab pots down.

 

 

Of course, one of the first orders of business was our excursion through every nook and cranny of the harbor.   Found rapids to run through, shallows to walk through (after grounding), lots of rock water and trees, and very little wildlife.    

 

Yes there is a small dinghy in this photo.  People from a sailboat who were waiting for the tide to change so they could exit.  They were still waiting when we zipped by on our exit sometime later.

 

 

Went over to the First Nations tribal land and took a walk.  Found old logs from a long house, large old heavy wood planks and other old things.  They have a new very long metal dock and a building which they clearly use today when they come out.  The beach out front is for the most part crushed clam shells.  The middens are several feet (maybe 6) deep.  Lots of broken porcelain dish pieces and broken glass on the beach.

 

Logs from an old ‘Clan House’ also called ‘Long House’

 

Large timbers 

Midden

 

 

This time found a wooden Orca on the beach

 

 

On the way back to the mother ships we spotted m/v Sea Life headed our way.  Upon entering the harbor, we checked the crab pots and we had two keepers.

Willard and Diane pulled in about 4:30 so our flotilla is back to three boats.  It was great to see them.  We last saw them in Roche on May 3^rdwhen we started north and they went back south.  We put their crab pots down and got them settled.  Had a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner with all the trimmings including Michelle’s freshly baked bread, then spent the evening catching up, and making some tentative plans for the next few days.