9Aug09

Codville and neighbors

(52'03.840N,127'51.287W)

We got reintroduced to having a lot of boat traffic around us when we came through Bella Bella and were squeezed into Lama Channel by a ferry and tons of little fishing boats. We'd almost forgotten what a treat it is to be farther north and mostly on our own.

Unlike most cruisers, we didn't stop at Shearwater, but instead kept going down Lama until we got to Codville Lagoon. We arrived late and the three best anchoring locations were taken (the back cove and the extreme north and south ends of the lagoon) so we dropped the hook on some rocky ground behind the northeast corner of the center island. Forecast for southeasterlies.

Holding was crummy but the wind stayed under 20 knots, so no issue other than a bit of rattle from the chain as we swung.

Codville is one of the most beautiful BC Marine Park, quiet yet on the main route south. If only I had one of the three good anchoring sites, I'd be happy. We rode out a big storm here in the back cove on the way up the coast.

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7-8Aug09 Mary's Jumping Fish Cove (52'36.851N,128'26.255W) We traveled from Campania Island back to the Inside Passage and a place called Mary Cove in Finlayson Channel, near Boat Bluff. It was supposed to have a nice salmon stream in the back.

While traveling through Meyers Passage/Narrows a small finch decided to adopt our boat. The wind was from the stern so there was little relative wind, and he perched in our windows and hopped from the rail on one side to the other at the turns, peering back at us. He stayed with us for a couple of hours, seemingly happy for the ride and not afraid of us at all, and then flew off once we were out of the narrows. Maybe he was an Indian spirit guide, as we managed to slip through the 4 foot deep narrows with our nearly 7 foot draft boat. (Or maybe it was the 11 foot tide and my careful route planning that had us arriving at the shallows near high tide. Take your pick.)

Mary Cove is snug and has just the right room to anchor in 50' depth and swing, but is open to SW and some wakes from passing boats on Finlayson Channel. Weather is rainy and yucky today, so once we put the hook down we decided to stay until the weather improved. Joys of being retired. We tried fishing as there are salmon leaping all around us, but couldn't catch any by jigging or mooching. Even tried trolling with a western diver on the dink. Nothing. Deb held out the net, figuring one might jump into it as we trolled in the dink, but no luck either.

My theory (which sounds better than to say I'm a lousy fisherman) is that the salmon are so close to fresh water in the cove that they've stopped eating, preparing to go upstream. You can't catch salmon on a hook after they get into fresh water. And maybe all the leaping is just an exercise preparing them for making the run up the white water toward the spawning grounds. But it is maddening to see them leaping all around us and unable to catch s single, darn one.

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5-6Aug09 White Sands, Teeth in the Water and Fog (53'04.871N,129'27.981W) Caught up with Crossroads again as we headed south down the Outer Passage, the wilder channels west of the usual Inside Passage routes. Didn't see any other cruising boats out here as we headed for another place that Larry and Yvonne had recommended on the west side of Campania Island called McMicking Cove, famous for its white sand beaches. As we crossed Otter Passage, we were enveloped by fog that only grew worse as we approached Campania Island.

When I decided to lengthen the towing line on the dink as the water got rougher, I managed to lose control of the line, creating "Wilson, the lost dink". We put our man overboard techniques to work, such as they are, and turned back to recover the dink before it floated too far away, fishing the tow line out of the drink with a boat pole.

Like Welcome Harbor, McMicking Cove is a navigational exercise to get into, with a couple of narrows and lots of underwater hazards like teeth sticking up just far enough to catch the unwary keel, but we found an enchanting cove in the back that was just the right size of Serendipity while Crossroads anchored in the larger basin. The fog didn't penetrate the back cover right away, but when it did, I needed my GPS to take the dink back and forth between Crossroads and Serendipity. We stayed two nights while Crossroads slipped out in the morning fog, and were rewarded with the fog lifting and having a nice second day in the cove. Unfortunately, the fog was still thick out near the entrance where the white sand beaches were, so I didn't want to feel my way out there in the dink, so we missed the great beaches on this trip. The island itself has mature (post-mature) cedar and hemlock that in the higher ground have been replaced by muskeg ground. But also like Welcome Harbor, this one is a gem and off the normal cruisers pathway, so we will return next year, and earlier in the season before the August (Fogust) fogs begin.

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