Sat Jun 11 2022
Tidal flow is important, but when there’s a big body or water to cross it’s best to get going early before the day wind gets going, usually by noon. We launched out of Port Alexander through the Gordon Channel and out into the Queen Charlotte Strait before entering Queen Charlotte Sound and passing Cape Caution about a mile offshore. We continued past Egg Island and up into the Fitz Hugh Sound with the tide on our stern and plenty of daylight left. We smoked past Safety Cove and proceeded on up to Kwakshua Channel where we turned Northwest and followed the channel to Pruth Bay. Joining a group of boats with more on the way, we anchored in about 8 fathoms and launched the dinghy, another beautiful day with sunny skies. The day had been easy and the seas flat just as we had hoped, and discussions with cruisers who had crossed the previous day confirmed our suspicion that the Sound would have been much rougher on Friday. It had been blowing a gale offshore earlier and it does take time for the energy to dissipate.
Pruth Bay is home to a resort that has become an environmental research center. The buildings and grounds are impressive, with board walk paths to various beaches. We followed the path out to the West beach and were astonished at how beautiful it was. It was low tide and there was an enormous expanse of light colored sand in a gently sloping bay, a crescent moon shape with several small rock islets well out in the bay. It looked like it might be a great kite boarding location with fairly flat water in a 15 - 20 knot Westerly breeze.
We explored the beach from end to end, meeting cruisers Marty Lima and Jeri Crittenden from MV Revelry. They had recently moved from Quintana Roo, Mexico to Anacortes, Washington and were also investigating moving to the Azores. We talked a bit of the Azores as we had enjoyed some time there while crewing a super yacht passage from Bermuda to Split, Croatia back in 2017. We too have considered investigating life in Portugal but as Isabel has noted Spanish is hard enough - Portuguese is another ball of wax.
We hosted an impromptu happy hour aboard Sunset attended by Marty and Jeri along with Shane Westergard and his Native Alaskan companion Eve with whom we become acquainted in Port McNeil. Sunset is great for gatherings - as between the fly bridge and adjacent sun deck we can seat perhaps 12 people. We discussed our plans for the following day, and everybody was doing something different but all were heading North towards Alaska.
Sunday morning the 22nd we got going at the crack of dawn, and as the thick fog began to lift we proceeded North from Pruth Bay up around the North side of Hecate Island, turning to proceed Northeast in the Fitz Hugh Sound then Northwest into the Lama Passage. MV Revelry followed us until they continued to Shearwater. As we approached New Bella Bella we passed a South bound Disney cruise ship port to port, continuing on Northwest into the Seaforth Channel towards Milbanke Sound, another opportunity for exposure to the open Pacific. Nearing the Sound we turned hard to starboard and made our way through Reid Passage and the Percival Narrows before continuing up the Mathieson Channel and into the Fiordland Recreation Area, finally turning back to the West into Sheep Passage where we anchored in Windy Bay for the night. We covered 95 nautical miles that day, enjoying amazing terrain, waterfalls, porpoises on the bow, a pod of humpback whales off our port beam and plenty of bald eagles. Altogether it was a stunning day and a testament to the capabilities of a motor yacht. At the end of the day we were tired but simply from looking wide eyed at all the natural beauty and of course dodging hard things in the water. It was a partly cloudy day with flat water and the tide helped a good deal of the time.
Monday the 23rd we pressed on down Sheep Passage then through the Heikish Narrows to Princess Royal Channel through Fraser Reach and on up Ursula Channel where we finally turned into Bishop Bay and made our way to the anchorage. Bishop Bay is one of those places our oldest mutual friend Trevor Griffiths had recommended. Trevor ran fish boats out of Prince Rupert for years, and he advised that every time he passed the area he would stop in at Bishop Bay and have a soak in the hot springs. After our 95 mile the previous day and the 56 miles that day, a nice long soak in Bishop Hot Springs sounded like just the thing. There was a power boat on the only mooring ball and a sail boat anchored nearby and only a small local fishing runabout at the pontoon which was big enough for us and a couple other boats. There was no wind forecast and the pontoon was a massively strong structure, so we elected to tie on up and investigate the hot springs. The folks from the other boat on the dock were from Kitimat, a remote mining town about 20 miles distant. They explained that Bishop Hot Springs was part of their local playground and they were just down for an afternoon of fishing and frolicking in the springs. We returned to Sunset to don our togs and by then they’d had their limit of hot water so the place was ours! We and our cold beers had a good long soak, enjoying all the autographed fishing floats and other paraphernalia hanging in the rafters, left by other cruisers over the years. Eventually returning to Sunset all relaxed and happy, we caught the lines for a Catalina 320 named Tease 4 Two, crewed buy Helli and Ian McColl of Victoria, BC. Like Isabel, Helli is from the UK and the 4 of us had a good visit before they retired to the hot springs themselves, but not before another small sport fishing boat with 3 Canadian fellows arrived to join us on the dock. As they say, “a good time was had by all”.
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