MV Dirona

Day 10: Abandoned Cove, McNaughton Group

This afternoon we came around the top of the McNaughton Group and threaded our way through the islets and reefs into the cove we explored yesterday, at south of northern major McNaughton island.  We called it Abandoned Cove because of the abandoned floathouse at the northern shore of the entrance, which disappears underwater at high tide.

The tide was quite low as we came through - it is such a magical time, especially in the silence and solitude. In I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Margaret Craven described low tide as when the coast "exposed its bones", a perfect analogy for these strips of world that are very much alive, not quite shore and not quite substrate. It rained all afternoon, so after a quick dinghy trip, we stayed inside.

Day 11: Gunboat Lagoon Cove, Gunboat Passage

We showered, did laundry and got underway for Bella Bella to fill our tanks. This made 12 showers plus laundry on a single tank of water (77 gallons) with 11 days out - almost double our previous record. The water tank is reading empty though - it's going to take a while to fill.  Arrived into Bella Bella and not space on dock near fuel lines, so tucked ourselves into an incredibly tight spot on other side and went for walk around, hoping dock would clear. Big winds, as evidenced by the flags in the picture, made the docking even more exciting

The fuel dock was busy, so we walked around town for a bit. Bella Bella, or Waglisa, is the main city of the Heiltsuk Nation, and was much bigger than we were expecting. Lots of activity and cars - Mustangs are very popular here :). Picked up some provisions at the grocery store and some delicious BC Cider at the liquor store.

This is a picture of a totem pole outside the cultural center. The Heiltsuk are talented artisans - a collection of their work is currently on display with the Royal Ontario Museum.  When we got back to the fuel dock it was still busy, so we waited some more and then it closed for lunch, which we had been warned could happen, so we were not too surprised. We left to fuel at Shearwater instead, just down the channel.

We were planning to hit Shearwater anyway, because it has a wonderful feature – a pub. Shearwater used to be a WWII Royal Canadian Airforce base with 1,000 men on site. The big tan building in the picture is the old hangar. It is very popular with pleasure craft due to the pub and the dock facilities, one of the few in the area, and many boats were there already.

After fueling, we made our third docking of the day to hit the pub, but the wharfmaster came down and asked if we could move to another spot to make room for the recently-arrived super yacht Georgia, owned by Atlanta real estate developer John Williams (although everyone seems to think it's owned by Ted Turner). The 159' vessel is the largest single-masted sailboat ever built, with a 200' mast.  It is a beautiful ship - we saw it in Seattle docked at our marina in Elliott Bay just a few weeks earlier. So we made our third egress and fourth docking and were finally settled in and ready for our pint.

After a delicious lunch and a pint of Rickard's Red, we walked around a bit. Shearwater is one of the destinations on the BC Ferries recently-added route, the Discovery Coast Passage, which stops at several communities between Port Hardy and Klemtu, opening up the mid-coast to tourists and providing a water highway connection for these remote communities. It arrived while we were there, stopping over for an hour or so. It is quite a unique program - part tour boat, part ferry.

Shearwater is also a major boating supply and repair centre. They have a Travel Lift and many vessels were hauled out in various stages of repair. Honda sure seems to own the outboard engine market up here - we visited a huge dealership that had the biggest outboard I've ever seen - it was taller than me (although that is not much of an accomplishment really – I'm pretty short).

We left Shearwater and headed east down Gunboat Passage to look for an anchorage for the night. We're really not much for marinas - we really prefer the solitude and serenity of swinging at anchor. We found our spot at the bay the Douglass' call Gunboat Lagoon Cove. It was a lovely serene cove with a small islet at the entrance and not a single other vessel in sight. Shortly after we anchored, three others did show up, but they all anchored at a respectful distance, so we weren't too disappointed. The picture is looking into the cove from Gunboat Passage. Holding was good in sticky mud.

The tide was high, so we were able to explore the nearby lagoon, which is quite extensive, but is guarded by rapids at lower water levels. The lagoon is full of life, with brilliant red paintbrush were growing everywhere, and water fowl throughout. It was a very magical trip, with of course not a soul around.

It was very calm and still inside, with extremely lush forest surrounding the water. Deep within at the far end, we found the some old pilings and evidence of cleared land, judging by the swath of alders in front of the evergreens. There is an abandoned limestone quarry in the area, so these are probably its remains.