MV Dirona

Day 13: Cathedral Point Cove, Burke Channel

We left a misty Ocean Falls early the next morning to tour around King Island through Dean Channel. It is here that Alexander Mackenzie finally reached the Pacific coast traveling overland from Canada, which at the time included only portions of the present day provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Mackenzie marked his arrival at salt water with an inscription on a rocky face, the surrounding bluff now the site of the small Sir Alexander Mackenzie Provincial Park, which includes an obelisk, pictured, in honour of the great explorer. Having learned of this site in Canadian history class so many years ago, it was very exciting to actually see it.

This is a close-up of the inscription. It was originally written in vermillion paint mixed with grease and later carved permanently into the rock by surveyors. Mackenzie was the first to cross the continent and to find a trail through the Rocky Mountains. Low on food and energy, his expedition missed that of Captain Vancouver's by only 7 weeks.  The Chatham and Discovery  would certainly have been a welcome sight for the weary travelers.

The scenery is in Dean Channel is grand - soaring mountains with big snow banks and waterfalls everywhere.  The landscape is immense, massive, overwhelming – majestic snow-capped peaks, one after another, and everywhere waterfalls dropping from great heights into the deep sea below. Even the mist and rain did not detract from the majesty of the scenery. The low clouds ring the mountains and catch on the trees, but they are not solid, and merely emphasize the impenetrability of the rocky cliffs.

We saw the Discovery Coast ferry in the distance - its a great looking boat. It had headed down Cascade Inlet on sort of a whim I guess, as it is not on the route at all. Traveling on it sounds very similar to the old Union Steamships. Many of the stories in Andrew Scott's Secret Coastline were researched on this route, including the inaugural run.

Our next stop was the hot springs at Eucott Bay, opposite the northeast corner of King Island. We anchored in the bay and brought the dinghy to shore. Gumboots are definitely recommended for this trip. This is a view of the springs from the water.

Over the years people have built a wonderful tub enclosure complete with a ladder and benches. The water coming in (through the pipe at bottom left) was 103 degrees. We soaked and soaked - it was very decadent and completely deserted.

Where Labouchere and Burke Channel meet there is is an interesting glacial formation called Mesachie Nose that plunges straight down into the water from a great height - similar to Deep Sea Bluff in the Broughton Archipelago area. The water here is frequently whipped into steep chop by the wind, but if conditions are calm, you can bring the boat up very close to the face. It is sadly covered with graffiti, although some are so old, dating back to the 1960s, that they may be considered petroglyphs now :)

This is a view of the dramatic Nose from a distance.

We were hoping to make it all the way out of Burke Channel today, but it was getting too late, so we stopped of at the cove behind Cathedral Point instead. This is where one of the marine weather stations is installed - the small structure on the hill by the helicopter pad. Judging by the bent over trees the area sure takes a pounding in storms. It was always fun to hear the weather report from this station after having stayed here. We had a little trouble setting the anchor, but once we got a good bite we held well and slept soundly, despite the winds from Burke which wrapped around the corners into the cove.

Day 14: Fly Basin, Smith Sound

The day was sunny and calm as we cover the final bit of Burke Channel, leaving the Coast Mountains behind. We have been utterly spoiled with the weather on this trip.

A group of Dall's Porpoises chased along with us for a bit. They are always welcome travel companions.

We passed a mammoth log with lots of seagulls who, judging by the white streaks on the wood, and been there a while. It looked a bit like a Seagull bus.

We hit a bit of a fogbank, the soon passed through it, which you can see at the left of the picture. The world was aglow as the sun rose higher in the sky and chased away the mist. As we approached Fitz Hugh Sound lots of traffic was visible - we are used to seeing maybe one or two boats a day and now we can see five at once.

Proceeding south, we stopped to visit another once-thriving town – Namu. If you have read Fishing with John, this is where John Daly preferred to get his ice. The town was once a major fish processing center, with a cannery and a herring reduction plant, but is mostly vacant now, with only a caretaker and his family living on site. The name is well known for the killer whale Namu, which was captured here in 1965 and sold to the Seattle Aquarium.

This is what's left of the herring reduction plant - it's slowly collapsing.

The cannery workers lived in these houses.

This is a old wooden pipe wrapped in metal used to transport water from nearby Namu Lake to the cannery, which consumed a huge amount of fresh water.

There is a 1-mile raised trail through the woods to Namu Lake, both of which are quite pretty.  The trail is in reasonable repair, but a little iffy at points. Apparently there are bears about, but we didn't see any.

The old hotel, once a bustle of activity, although probably never a part of the Hilton hotel chain :)

Inside the generator room for the herring reduction plant, we found a row of seven huge diesel engines. They were in good repair and were clearly being looked after, so they likely still run. Must be worth a fortune. An interesting mix of companies: 4 Detroit Diesel, with Electric Motor company generators, 1 Air Diesel by Deutz of Germany, 1 big Cat, 1 Isizu with Stamford generator.

A huge 85,000-gallon vat for herring oil, which was reduced at a rate of 100 tons/day.

A caretaker and his family are the only residents of Namu. This is his daughter Katrina and her dog Kamodie. It is a fairly isolated existence – schooling is done through correspondence – but Katrina has many pen pals in similar situations whose letters to each other are delivered by the mission ship Coastal Messenger. Katrina is surprisingly outgoing and, being very knowledgeable about the history of Namu, gives wonderful tours of the area.

Leaving Namu, we continued south into Fitz Hugh Sound in search of an anchorage. The day was warm and sunny with a stunningly blue sky. En route, the Alaska state ferry Columbia passed us heading north from Bellingham. Looking more like a cruise ship than a ferry, the 418-foot vessel plies the same waters, carrying both cars and passengers, enabling a much more economic, although certainly less pampered, means of touring the Inside Passage. The Columbia carries up to 625 passengers, who can optionally book one of the 104 cabins, which are charged for by room, not by person. However, many simply roll out a sleeping bag in the solarium or stretch out in one of the reclining lounge chairs for the night.  The largest of the nine vessels in the Alaska Marine Highway System, it is also the fastest, with a cruising speed of just over 17 knots.

We eventually anchored in Fly Basin in Smith Inlet, after an exciting, but very long and tiring day - we put 10 hours on the engines. This is the view looking east as we entered the Smith. The 25-30 knot afternoon winds had stirred up some big waves which we took mostly on the beam as we crossed, but other than getting bounced around a bit, we were fine.

This is the view looking east from our anchorage in the northeast corner of Fly Basin – we were happy to finally stop. Got an excellent hold in mud in 40' with plenty of swing room and 175' of rode out. We saw frequent 25 knots gusts from west, but held solidly. We were too tired to eat much - I baked bread and after that was done baked some sweet onions and that was pretty much dinner. We fell into bed early to be off to cross Queen Charlotte Sound the next day.