16-21Aug09 Secret of secrets

(50'58.229N,125'34.893W)

We departed Kwatsi with Mike and Pinky, traveling with Skeena to Mike's super-secret fishing holes. I've been sworn to secrecy, so can only say that we cruised up to near the end of Knight Inlet, which is infamously difficult to find anchorage in and known for its ugly winds. The inlet runs 70 miles back into the BC mountains, which become so steep that I swore I was going to get a nosebleed from altitude sickness. It was hard to believe we were still at sea level and floating that far inland with mile high snow-capped mountains dropping straight down to the water all around us.

Of course, after the long, hot summer and lack of rain this year, the snow was almost gone and very few of the waterfalls were running. It was really dry up there. In many areas, the freshwater formed a layer about 15 feet down that the sonar couldn't see through without manual tuning. Depth sounders kept saying we were in 15 feet when the chart said 1500 feet.

I can't talk about the fishing, other than to say that Mike managed to catch some absolutely huge (roughly 20 pound) Cohos on a tiny Steelhead spinning rod. Monsters of the deep. Can't say where we were, however.

I will say that the anchorages were pretty iffy and challenging to find the right place to put the hook down. When we did, we found loose rock. The shores were so steep-to that even when dropping the hook in 120 feet of water, the back end of the boat was perilously close to the shore. I don't like stern ties in open locations like we were in, they're dangerous if the wind comes up, so we had to anchor deep to get swinging room against the shore.

We'd had a few very quiet days, and figured this would be another night of the same, but as soon as we commented on that, the wind came up, gusting to 30 knots for a bit. We were having dinner on Skeena when it started to really blow, and we had to dive into our wildly bucking dink to head back to Serendipity (before desert) because it looked as if it was about to land on the shore. Anchor wasn't really dragging as it turns out, but with the chain stretched out, we had 10 feet under the back of the boat and 20 feet at the middle of the boat (difference of two sounder locations). The bow was probably in 30+ feet. I didn't like that, so we fired up and pulled the hook and reset further from shore. Then the wind blew us all around the anchor all night, with every puff seemingly from a different direction. Sometimes we had 170 feet under the boat, and others times 40 feet, with the anchor set part way down a very steep slope.

I figured if it was going to pull out, it would do that when we were heading out into the bay, and that was OK. Water was 300 feet deep only a couple of hundred feet further out. I just didn't want the wind to pull that anchor up the slope and put us on land.

As it turned out, the anchor held fine and we slept OK.

We only saw one other cruising boat in the upper half of Knight Inlet, a Selene about our size, but they went back down without trying to anchor. So we had it to ourselves. No radio reception, no satellite. Just like parts of Alaska. Very wild. Signs of grizzly everywhere on shore, but we didn't see any. The fish were going up the streams and Mike figured the grizzers were up in the stream where it's easier to fish. Despite having pepper spray and my 12 gauge, we decided not to walk up the stream to confirm that.

We spent the better part of a week in three anchorages, but I can't say where.

Knight Inlet is highly recommended for the adventurous cruiser who wants some great fishing, but only in settled weather with oversized ground tackle and a fair bit of experience in handling rocky, steep-to anchorages.

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16-21Aug09 Secret of secrets

(50'58.229N,125'34.893W)

We departed Kwatsi with Mike and Pinky, traveling with Skeena to Mike's super-secret fishing holes. I've been sworn to secrecy, so can only say that we cruised up to near the end of Knight Inlet, which is infamously difficult to find anchorage in and known for its ugly winds. The inlet runs 70 miles back into the BC mountains, which become so steep that I swore I was going to get a nosebleed from altitude sickness. It was hard to believe we were still at sea level and floating that far inland with mile high snow-capped mountains dropping straight down to the water all around us.

Of course, after the long, hot summer and lack of rain this year, the snow was almost gone and very few of the waterfalls were running. It was really dry up there. In many areas, the freshwater formed a layer about 15 feet down that the sonar couldn't see through without manual tuning. Depth sounders kept saying we were in 15 feet when the chart said 1500 feet.

I can't talk about the fishing, other than to say that Mike managed to catch some absolutely huge (roughly 20 pound) Cohos on a tiny Steelhead spinning rod. Monsters of the deep. Can't say where we were, however.

I will say that the anchorages were pretty iffy and challenging to find the right place to put the hook down. When we did, we found loose rock. The shores were so steep-to that even when dropping the hook in 120 feet of water, the back end of the boat was perilously close to the shore. I don't like stern ties in open locations like we were in, they're dangerous if the wind comes up, so we had to anchor deep to get swinging room against the shore.

We'd had a few very quiet days, and figured this would be another night of the same, but as soon as we commented on that, the wind came up, gusting to 30 knots for a bit. We were having dinner on Skeena when it started to really blow, and we had to dive into our wildly bucking dink to head back to Serendipity (before desert) because it looked as if it was about to land on the shore. Anchor wasn't really dragging as it turns out, but with the chain stretched out, we had 10 feet under the back of the boat and 20 feet at the middle of the boat (difference of two sounder locations). The bow was probably in 30+ feet. I didn't like that, so we fired up and pulled the hook and reset further from shore. Then the wind blew us all around the anchor all night, with every puff seemingly from a different direction. Sometimes we had 170 feet under the boat, and others times 40 feet, with the anchor set part way down a very steep slope.

I figured if it was going to pull out, it would do that when we were heading out into the bay, and that was OK. Water was 300 feet deep only a couple of hundred feet further out. I just didn't want the wind to pull that anchor up the slope and put us on land.

As it turned out, the anchor held fine and we slept OK.

We only saw one other cruising boat in the upper half of Knight Inlet, a Selene about our size, but they went back down without trying to anchor. So we had it to ourselves. No radio reception, no satellite. Just like parts of Alaska. Very wild. Signs of grizzly everywhere on shore, but we didn't see any. The fish were going up the streams and Mike figured the grizzers were up in the stream where it's easier to fish. Despite having pepper spray and my 12 gauge, we decided not to walk up the stream to confirm that.

We spent the better part of a week in three anchorages, but I can't say where.

Knight Inlet is highly recommended for the adventurous cruiser who wants some great fishing, but only in settled weather with oversized ground tackle and a fair bit of experience in handling rocky, steep-to anchorages.

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15Aug09 So beautiful it makes your eyes water

(50'52.054N,126'14.956W)

From McNeil, we crossed back over Queen Charlotte Strait and up Tribune Channel to Kwatsi Bay and the little mom and pop marina that's there. Max and Anca and their teenage kids, Marieke and Russell run a wilderness marina in one of the most beautiful settings we've seen all summer. They are in a bowl that is so steep that landslides keep threatening to carry their house away, which very unusually for this area is actually built on land. Most homes here are on floats and very moveable.

We joined Crossroads on the dock, and also met Chuck who had bought a Selene 48 last Spring that had been tied up in front of Serendipity in John Wayne Marina. They were enjoying a long cruise of the Broughtons. Also caught up with Steve and Rolin on Intrepid, a KK42. We'd hoped to meet up with them along the way to Alaska this summer, but they stayed down in northern BC due to other commitments. So it was great to run into them on the way down.

Mike and Pinky on Skeena, a Nordhavn 40 that they live aboard in John Wayne Marina, joined us as well, and rafted up to Crossroads. We'd hoped to have them raft up to us, but Max said that the section of float I was tied to was already too weak for our boat and he didn't want to add another 50,000 pounds. That was a bit disconcerting, so I set my anchor alarm that night, just in case it blew and the dock decided to come apart.

Potluck and drinks on the dock under a nice shelter was the order of the day, with about a dozen boats tied up. I'm rather fond of potlucks.

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