Broughton's, then rounding Cape Caution

Cosmo Place, our true friends and traveling companions of the past few days (Ron and Kap)


Admirella, the "fast" boat that joined us at Miles Inlet, and for the trip to Shearwater..(Doug and Edy).


The three of us, now safe and sound, in Miles Inlet. Doug set several crab traps and caught only 2. He offered to share, but Chris was sound asleep at 8:00, so....


Doug is dingying back to Admirella, past Cosmo Place, with his crabs


This is the view up the inlet from our anchoring. The small rapids are huge at both flood (rising) tides and ebb (falling). This view is at slack water and still there is a current.


Chris found her reading place on the swim platform. When anchored, the boat swings with the wind, and thus this spot is perfectly sheltered from the wind (out of the NW) and in the sun (from the SW)......heaven for Chris..


In Port Hardy, eagles are literally everywhere. These two were perched on a shack right by our boat. The fishermen throw things to the right, and the eagles come by to hunt...


The early departure from Port Hardy for the crossing greeted us with this sunrise....little did we know the winds and seas we would see in about another hour...


This was the view entering Miles Inlet


We first "rafted" with Cosmo Place. Both of us were anchored, backing down to tie together. We later decided that as the current reversed with the tides, it could cross our anchor lines, so we split up....

We arrived into Sullivan Bay late in the day because we really did not want to leave Lagoon Cove. We had so much fun there talking with all the other people and getting information from them about their previous trips to the area. While Lagoon Cove was jammed with boats and people, Sullivan Bay was totally empty. Sullivan Bay is a floating community of mostly 2^nd homes, a Post Office, a general store, a restaurant(not open yet) and the home of the caretakers, Chris and Debbie. Dorsey also works for them and probably lives there. After we tied up we went to the office to pay and see what was going on. We found out that nothing much was going on and we would be the only people and a huge dock. Bucky asked questions about how to catch crabs and Dorsey told him to watch what he did when he pulled up a crab trap that was in front of the office. The trap had 4 crabs(Dungeness) that Dorsey instructed Bucky on how to kill and clean and then he gave Bucky 3 of them. He would not take money ,beer whiskey or anything. We cooked and cleaned them and had a fabulous meal. We then made a dessert and took to Chris’s house to pay them back for the crab and they graciously accepted but then gave us a box of huge prawns for the dessert. We couldn’t match their hospitality.

We left the next morning for Port Hardy. Even though the lady on the radio told Bucky that they didn’t have any slips in the marina, he went anyway and we probably got the last one. Everyone was trying to get into a protected harbor because the weather forecast was gale force winds for the next 2 days. They told us we could stay for 2 days only but I felt safe for those 2 days. We had lots of things to do on the boat and lots of groceries to restock so we needed the 2 days.

We awoke on Friday morning ready to begin our Queen Charlotte Strait crossing at 5am. Our boat led Admirella with Doug and Edie and Cosmo Place with Ron and Kap behind us. We tried to average about 12kts and Bucky picked a good route through some sheltered islands and then we were in the wide open. It was not as bad as several of the things we have been in. Kap called on the radio and said that she heard on the weather report that West Sea Otter bouy was reporting 2.9 meter seas. We had only wanted to cross with reports of 1 meter or less. Bucky picked Myers Inlet to duck into to either wait for lower seas or spend the night anchored. The wind grew stronger all day(30kts) so we opted to stay the night and begin again at 5am on Saturday.

What a great stay in Miles Inlet. It is noted as a safe-haven for those awaiting better seas for the rounding of Cape Caution. The most reliable reporting weather station is "West Sea Otter", and it was "not reporting" all day. We opted to take a safer option to wait for better winds and seas. THe next morning, we started at 5:00 AM again, with low winds and expected the crossing to be smooth. What a surprise we were in for. The reports were 4 foot seas and winds 15 to 25 from the NW, so we believed them. With three boats in tandem (misery loves company) we headed around the Cape. The seas were 9 foot swells, with a 2 to 3 foot chop on top. Since we only had 2 hours to smooth waters, we pushed on, and are glad we did. What a comfort to get the hard part behind you. We made it a total of 90 miles, tieing up at the dock in Shearwater, near Bella Bella. We will stay here a day to clean up, perpare a few meals, and rest. Then on Monday the 9th we are off to Klemtu, then Hartley Bay, then Prince Rupert...