MV Dirona

View from radio tower at Keith Anchorage

Serpent Group Cove Kildidt Narrows

 

 

Exploring Hakai

 

In the summer of 2002, we traveled to the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy Area (formerly designated as the Hakai Recreation Area).  Hakai is on BC's central coast, off Queen Charlotte Sound north of Vancouver Island. It's roughly 400 nautical miles from Seattle and 200 miles from the Alaska border. Encompassing close to 123,000 hectares, Hakai is the largest of BC's many marine parks. Besides a few sports-fishing resorts, there are no facilities for pleasure-craft or tourists, so you must pretty much bring everything you are going to need with you. 

 

Our basic travel mode is to run at full cruise until we've gotten to where we want to start and then to slow down to a more efficient cruising speed of about 7 knots. It took two days from Seattle to reach Port Hardy area, at the northeast tip of Vancouver Island, traveling at about 17 knot.

 

For anchoring details and navigation advice on the Queen Charlotte Sound destinations described here, see Waggoner sister publication Cruising the Secret Coast.

Gremlin, our cat, accompanies us on all our trips. He spends most of his time as pictured, in what we call the "Cruising Position" - passed out in the aft stateroom. As soon as the engines start, that's his cue. He seems to really enjoy the boat though. Most of the time he stays inside, but every night does a full exterior inspection, from flybridge to bow to cockpit, before he goes to sleep.

When traveling up the inside passage, we commonly see very large cruise ships. These really catch your attention because they are so huge compared to everything around them, and move surprisingly quickly. The Celebrity Cruises 965' Summit is no exception at roughly 25 times the length of Dirona.

This is a small black bear digging for food on the southern shore of Johnstone Strait. We were planning to anchor here on the second night, but couldn't get the anchor to set well enough, so continued on to Helmcken Island.

This is the view looking south down Johnstone Strait on the morning of our third day out. We like to get an early start most days, and among the rewards are beautiful, calm mornings like this one.

We came upon the Lady Washington at anchor in the Broughton Archipelago. A replica of a 18th-century merchant brig, it is one of the tall ships that participates in the various exhibitions that have been held recently. When this picture was taken, it was under private charter. That has got to be one of the biggest American flags we've ever seen on a ship - notice the thirteen stars corresponding to the number of states at that time.

       

Day 1: Penrose Island Marine Park

Day 2: Fish Trap Bay, Fish Egg Inlet

Day 3: Kwakshua Channel, Calvert Island

Day 4: Adams Harbour - Island 38

Day 5: Serpent Group Cove, Kildidt Sound

Day 6: Hurricane Inlet, Hurricane Island

Day 7: Hart Group Cove, Kildidt Inlet

Day 8: Lane Rock Cove, Cultus Sound

Day 9: Sans Peur Cove, San Peur Passage

Day 10: Abandoned Cove, McNaughton Group

Day 11: Gunboat Lagoon Cove, Gunboat Passage

Day 12: Ocean Falls

Day 13: Cathedral Point Cove, Burke Channel

Day 14: Fly Basin, Smith Sound

Day 15: Murray Labyrinth

 

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Comments or questions? Feel free to contact us at Jennifer@mvdirona.com or jrh@mvdirona.com.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer and James Hamilton