MV Dirona

Day 6: Hurricane Inlet, Hurricane Island

We woke up at 6am to another sunny morning - we have been very lucky with the weather. There was so much kelp on the anchor that we had to cut it off  before we could leave. Passing through the middle of the Serpent Group, we proceeded to a cove on Triquet Island for breakfast. I made croissant dough underway, and am pictured applying the finishing touches before baking them.

A deer came bounding out onto the rocks to take a good look when we arrived.

We ate breakfast on the back deck, with a view to the beach on one side.

After breakfast, we continued north into Fulton Passage and through to Spider Anchorage. It is clear why the area is so popular with the kayakers, with a myriad of islets and islands in a very protected waterway. We still haven't seen another pleasure craft - only a few kayaks camped in Spider. If you look carefully in the picture, you can see some in the distance.

We came north into Hurricane Anchorage on the SW side of Hurricane Island. The deer flies are really a menace here - we sprayed ourselves down with Deep-Woods Off, which  helped a lot, and then packed up a picnic lunch and headed into the Spider Channel islets. This is our picnic islet, where we basked in the sun as we ate our lunch and the current swirled past.

When we returned to the anchorage, two other boats had arrived. We have become spoiled for solitude, so we raised anchor and went off in search of another spot for the night, eventually ending up at the head of what we have dubbed Hurricane Inlet on Hurricane Island. We certainly scored on this effort - we had an unimpeded view down the inlet, pictured, with a deep blue sky and not a soul around.

Day 7: Hart Group Cove, Kildidt Inlet

After much uncharacteristic indecision, we decided the night before to take on Kildidt Narrows today. HW slack is at 5:15, about 15 minutes before sunrise. We got everything ready to go the night before and are up at 4am and underway by 4:30, with light starting to show through, although transiting Brydon Channel at the dim light of dawn was a challenge. You can just see Mount Merritt peeking out in the picture, taken about 5am.

We arrived at the rapids about 5 minutes after the calculated slack, and found the current ebbing at 2-3 knots, with visible, albeit small overfalls, so perhaps our calculations were off. Our original plan was that I would do a bow watch as we slowly worked our way thought, but too much work at helm to just fight the current and a little dangerous to be on the bow, so James called me up and I called off depths and watched the chartplotter. This is the view of the rapids behind us after we had passed through.

Exhilarated to be through the rapids, we cruised slowly up Kildidt Inlet and were rewarded with a view of Mount Merritt at the head as the sun rose over the calm, highly reflective waters.

Were hoping to find an anchorage at the east end of Kildidt Lagoon, near the Gnat Islets, but nothing really appealed to us so we went to the NW end in a sheltered cove behind the Hart Group. You can see Wilson to the left of Dirona. We had bacon and croissants on deck as the sun came up fully around 7am, then packed up to visit rapids at max flood of around 8:30.

The rapids were really running when we returned. I was worried that I'd totally hosed the slack calculation, but it was pretty clear that this is the bad time. The current really pulled us in as we approached, but wanting to get closer, we tucked the tender into a little bight out of the current and went ashore. The reefs were still soaked in saltwater. In this movie clip, you can see a log propelled along by the swift current.

This is a picture of me standing above the rapids that we came through only a few hours previously. Sure wouldn't want to be trying to go through now.

The tidal life here is impressive - packed with a wide variety of colourful high-current filter-feeders that we only see when scuba diving. It was among the best we've seen above water – like diving, but without the tanks.

When we returned to the dinghy, the tide had fallen quite substantially, leaving us high and dry. After refloating, we tucked over to the reef at the west side - when current is just past max it is quite calm in the little bay there between the reef and shore, entering from the north side of course. The tide pools here were even better, and some more good views of the rapids were had.

Even if you don't bring the main vessel through, it is worth a visit near low ebb on a small exchange for the tidepools alone - full of creatures that thrive in high current. We saw countless starfish, especially one of an unusual turquoise colour, chitons, limpets, green and red anenomies, cup corals, urchins, tiny tide-pool sculpins (Oligocottus maculosus), huge mussels, and in the shallower kelp beds a kelp crab and sea pens.

We went back to Dirona to reprovision, returning at low water slack to take lots of pictures and notes about transiting the rapids. The picture at left is of the narrow neck at low slack, looking from the south. You can clearly see how far they jut into the main channel, but they're covered at high slack.

After, we came north and explored Merritt Lagoon - it would be tight to get through to here in the main vessel, but there a couple of nice anchorages along the way. Mount Merritt is prominent from our lunch perch at the south entrance to the lagoon. That afternoon, the wind really picked up from the west, blowing a steady 30 knots, but we held solidly in the thick mud bottom. By evening, the winds had dissipated and all was calm and quiet once again.