Posts In The “Broughtons and Area” Category
Although bald eagles are among the largest birds we see on the coast, often we see gulls and other much smaller birds chasing eagles through the sky or tormenting them on a tree branch. This seems curious, given the difference in size. While eagles are excellent hunters, according to Bald Eagles: Their Life and Behavior…
For us, an ideal cruising destination combines solitude with a chance to explore new territory. We seek places that are little covered in the cruising guides and where few people go. Besides an appealing anchorage, we are always on the lookout for interesting side trips, such as a trail to a view or a lakeside…
The concept of a floating, mobile community is so unusual that the National Film Board of Canada featured one in a 1960’s documentary. The Water Dwellers depicted a village not far removed from the through-the-looking-glass wonderland of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, unique to the B.C. coast, if not much of the modern world. Skiff and motorboat…
We were travelling north through Wells Pass in the Broughtons one year when Jennifer yelled “Bear!” We were a good half-mile from any shore, so a bear sighting seemed a little unlikely. But the bear wasn’t on shore, it was swimming about 20 feet off our port bow. We’d been running at about 7 knots,…
It was 04:00 hours on December 31. We’d left Port Hardy early, hoping to reach Seymour Narrows for the 11:30 slack. The winds were calm in Hardy Bay, but visibility was near zero. Daylight was hours away and a blizzard obscured what little ambi- ent light there was. We peered through the snow from our…
With the Broughtons becoming such a popular cruising destination during the summer months, finding a private anchorage can be difficult. Drury Inlet, however, is among the least travelled in the region—you’re more likely to anchor alone here than most other Broughton locales. Navigation can be more challenging, but it’s worth the effort—the scenery is grand,…
Fort Rupert lies in Beaver Harbour, just south of Port Hardy, at the northeast end of Vancouver Island. Many boaters pass by when visiting Port Hardy, but few ever stop here—Fort Rupert is not a destination in any of the cruising guides. Beaver Harbour does not look like much of an anchorage from the chart…
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Queen Charlotte Strait was expecting near-hurricane force winds of 60 knots. It was the third successive night of big December winds and it wasn’t over yet. We listened to the weather report as 30-knot gusts boomed into our anchorage in Cullen Harbour.
One morning, with the wind blowing between 30 and 40 knots from the north, we decided to find out just how rough Johnstone Strait was with an opposing max ebb current. We would discover that it was both “not so bad” and “really, really awful”—all depending upon location. We put on our inflatable PFDs, had…