Location: Bunsby Islands
West Coast Vancouver Island Date: Thursday, August 16,2007 Last Post (LP): August 12, 2007 Time: 1800 Location: N 50 15 33
W 129 44 03 Dist. Since LP: 190.2nm Total Distance: 1809.1nm ---------------------------------------
After waving "goodbye" to Heather and Avon at 0915 on Sunday August 12th, we set about cleaning the BurntSand and making her "ship shape" for the next leg of our adventure across the Queen Charlotte Sound to Winter Harbour in Quatsino Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This leg would take us 170.5 nautical miles and approximately 18 hours to complete.
A few hours later at 1225, we untied our line from the mooring buoy in Rose Harbour, Gwaii Haanas and cruised out past Anthony Island and on into Houston Stewart Channel. At 1330 we spotted two huge cruise ships The Oosterdam and the Golden princess 10 and 16 nautical miles south of us. The seas were calm at first and then we experienced some tremendous upwelling around and south of Cape St. James. An upwelling is caused by differences in temperature in the water and the geography of the area. The nutrients are brought to the surface attracting a significant amount of marine life.We cruised on into Queen Charlotte Sound where the seas were calm and flat with a 2 foot swell. We encountered many sharks about 6 feet long, sunning themselves on the surface of the sea and many not moving until our boat was almost on top of them. Huge frigates skimmed over the swells and other seabirds bobbed on the sea's surface. A pod of whales was spouting on the surface of the horizon...too far off our course to investigate. We did three hour shifts throughout the night and tied up to the dock in Winter Harbour at 0750 Monday morning,August 13th. Jim immediately walked over to the government dock to check out a 76 foot Nordhavn tied up there.
The energy here is very male oriented. Fishing,cleaning fish, fishing again,cleaning more fish,eating and drinking is the order of the day! It was a glorious morning and we soaked in the sun's warm rays. Deb made a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and coffee and headed below for a much needed nap. Jim, on the other hand,was energized and he changed all the watermaker filters, the salt water strainers, topped up the oil on the main engine and cleaned the engine room...and Deb slept on!!
After lunch we brought the dinghy down and made an amazing dinghy tour of Quatsino Sound including the scenic Quatsino Narrows. Ten minutes after leaving Winter Harbour we came across a whale feeding in 40 feet of water. Sea otters popped up to watch us pass. The total distance we covered was an incredible 57 nautical miles! Quatsino is an adaptation of Koskimo, the name for the once numerous and powerful tribe who lived here. They are related to the Kwakiutl Nation. Quatsino Sound is huge with four major arms and it comes within 14 kilometerslearned that the valley draining into the East Creek just southeast of the entrance to Klaskish Basin is slated for logging. Rights have been given to two logging companie and a road is already being built to access the area. Environmental groups are urging Weyerhaeuser to deignate the lowwer east creek an old growth zone and refrain from logging it. The coastline surrounding East Creek is the longest unbroken wilderness on the North Island and logging East Creek would cut that in half. It would be a shame to lose this ancient coastline. This valley is one of 6 unlogged valleys out of an original 90 on Vancouver Island. Imagine!
We brought down the dinghy and Jim headed off to set some crab traps and do some fishing. Bait fish were jumping everywhere. The basin seemed to be teeming with fish. Our eyes combed the drying flats and grasslands at the river's delta hoping to see some wildlife. We enjoyed a great dinner of chinook and went to bed early.
Wednesday morning, August 15th, we rose early to golden sunshine and discovered a catamaran had joined us in the anchorage during the night. Three young men were circumnavigating Vancouver Island and making huge efforts to minimize the use of their motor. Jim checked the crab traps and decided to move them after discovering them filled with very small crabs. We set off for a tour of the area in our dinghy. We were blown away by the pristine beauty of this rugged area. We navigated our way through a forest of kelp and tried to capture the essence of this coastline with our camera lens. We dinghied out into the ocean swell and along the coast, picking our way through kelp and around little rocky islets at Orchard Point. A wide beautiful white sand beach stretched before us along the coastline for at least a mile. We threaded our way through the kelp and anchored the dinghy to the beach and also threw a stern anchor out into the shallow waters. The waters were crystal clear and marine life thrived in the tide pools around rocky outcrops. This is a wildly unspoiled natural playground. We hiked the beach and discovered large bear tracks on the beach close to the dense forest. In the next cove over a group of kayakers had set up camp. We waved a greeting. Within the hour the rising tide signaled our departure time and we reluctantly left this pristine paradise. We feel so privileged to travel and explore this wilderness.
We returned to the BurntSand and took a couple of kayaks down to explore the Klaskish River. We planned to leave on the rising high tide around 1500 hours. Our kayaks cut through the waters, swept on by the flooding tide. We basked like seals in the sunshine. It was an idyllic paddle up the shallow river. We had about 2 to 3 feet beneath us as we glided over the waterway. The estuary is in near pristine condition and navigable by kayak.Apparently chinook, coho and chum spawn in the river. We learned that this reserve is most significant for wintering waterfowl including trumpeter swans. The trees lining the river were alive with the chatter of birds. Three eagles kept watch over the estuary. Our progress was finally blocked by blowdowns crisscrossing the river like giant pick up sticks. At times williwaws which are gusty katabatc winds can scream down the high slopes and funnel through the river valley causing mayhem and downing these large trees. We paddled back to the boat against the tide and a rising wind across the basin. We scrambled in to the dinghy and motored off to check our traps at the delta of the East River. For future reference, this is NOT a good place to crab. We hauled in an assortment of marine life, none of which were crab!
Thursday morning , August 16th found us untying the BurntSand from its mooring buoy at 0830 hours and cruising out into Klaskish inlet in light rain under cloudy skies. We rounded Cape Cook the northwest corner of the Brooks Peninsula which has a reputation for bad weather and high seas from both the north and the south. The cape has a micro climate
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