9Aug09 Ghost Town -- Almost

(51'52.404N,127'51.323W)

Exiting Codville Lagoon, we ran into a squall line and 35 knots of wind blowing up the channel, so had a bit of slop to slog through, but it only lasted for a couple of hours and settled down.

We met up with Stan and Diane and guests on Crossroads, anchoring in Rocky Cove in Whirlwind Harbor behind the almost ghost-town of Namu. Too a while to find some mud to set the anchor in, but after we did, it was a great anchorage.

The town of Namu, located in the outer section of Whirlwind Harbor, was home to a flourishing packing plant and vibrant community until the early 1970's. Then the plants closed and the town declined to its current population of exactly three people. But the town if full of huge factories, with most places looking as if people had left work intending to return, but never came back. Kind of Post Apocalyptical looking place. Pete and Rene Darwin live there. I didn't get the name of their third resident.

We gazed through the window at the 1950's style café, with the daily menu still chalked up on the overhead board, the round stools and tables still in place. We walked through the old general store when Pete opened it to find a plumbing part for a visitor, and it was filled with forty year old merchandise, including some flour and other dry goods from that era, magazines in the racks, you name it. There wasn't any power, so it was kind of dim inside, which contributed to the eerie atmosphere.

Pete and Rene have maintained a couple of docks and a float that has a roof and some tables and a huge firepit in the center that they keep stocked with split wood. For a few dollars a night, boats can tie up and share a pot luck and stories.

We preferred to stay back in Rocky Cove, given one boat that was there said they'd had 50 knot winds at the dock a couple of nights earlier and it had been a touch and go situation as to whether they could escape damage. The dock didn't look all that secure, and I figured that Serendipity would likely rip the whole thing out if we got caught in that kind of wind, its very exposed out there, so we were glad to hang on our own hook and out of the wind. But it might be interesting to 'camp out" on that dock sometime in fair weather.

We had fish jumping all over the place, mostly Cohos, but once again, didn't have the right gear to catch them. Apparently pink spinners work.

Guests on Crossroads dropped a hook off the back of their boat at anchor and caught a 22 pound Halibut. Very tasty at our shared dinner that night. Those little chicken halibut are the best.

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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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