Rendezvous at Port Hardy

An off-season maintenance marathon behind us, it was finally the hour of departure from Vancouver to locations northward.  The long list of items laboriously fixed or fitted on the boat over the course of the winter is not particularly interesting, but it included one of the most important considerations for ranging into northern BC waters: a diesel fired cabin heater!  Once north of the Desolation Sound, weather cools significantly, even at the height of summer.  In the unprotected cockpit of Anduril while underway we have no choice but to suffer whatever conditions the weather gods throw at us; having a warm cabin to escape to below transforms into pleasure what otherwise can become endurance-grade suffering.

The highlight of our sailing season, and the northerly summit of this year’s cruise, will be a tour of Moresby Island and the Gwaii Haanas National Park cultural sites.  It has been our long harboured ambition to take a leisurely summer boat trip to HaidaGwaii and back via the many islands, channels and fjords of the Broughton Archipelago and along the Central Coast north of Vancouver Island. But our primary objective on the first leg of our trip was to get the boat up to Port Hardy where we would meet two of our sons and together sail on to Bella Bella. 

Leaving Vancouver on June 3rd we quickly realized the weather forecast for the next two weeks included a lot of northwesterly winds. Our general direction being exactly that way, our trip to Port Hardy took on a bit of “hustle here, hustle there” in the sailing plan – not so leisurely at all.  To avoid a coming blow we immediately bolted for Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. The following day, in brisk winds, we headed the short remaining distance for Comox, where our friends Paul and Gaylene live. After two nights in good company, a weather lull allowed us to bolt for Cortez Island and the RVYC out station there where we were surprised to find ourselves all alone on the docks. After a fueling and snack stop the next day in Refuge Cove we realized that problematic strong winds were again in our future and we should probably get a move on. So we hustled through the Dent Rapids and dropped the hook for the night at the beautiful and protected Cordero Island Bay anchorage just short of the Green Point Rapids. The morning tide change then brought us through the rapids and over the top of Hardwick Island, where the channel empties into Johnston Strait. 

Johnstone Strait is sort of like a barn door: if strong winds are blowing against you, the door through is pretty much locked and bolted. As we short tacked up the shore in brisk winds towards Port Neville the seven day forecast was starting to look really crappy: the sort of crappy known as “gale force winds against”and very much a locked door. That afternoon we set our anchor in Port Neville across from the now abandoned Post Office.  We were a little wind-chilled at that point, but we enjoyed a late afternoon walk on the beach (warily on the lookout for bear sign) and the weather that night was actually pretty calm. But outside in the strait it was setting up to start howling. So first thing in the morning we took the first available off-ramp from the Johnstone Strait and turned right, up Havannah Channel.  Situated along that way in the Broughton Archipelago and out of the main force of the winds is the lovely Lagoon Cove Marina. Every night at 5pm, the marina provides a big bucket of fresh cooked prawns for visiting cruisers in support of a nightlypot luck. Boaters muster up whatever spare goodies they have on board and take them up for sharing at the top of the dock in the workshop.

By this time it was clear that gale force winds were forecast for the final section of Johnstone Strait that lay between us and Port Hardy.  The only question was how soon.  We figured it we hopped ahead to a safe anchorage at Beware Cove we could then either make Port McNeill the next day, or if necessary, weather it out on the hook.  We motored up the Clio Channel and anchored to explore the white sand beach of the Karkukwees Indian Reserve – Tlowitsis First Nation. The reserve was abandoned in 1960 and all settlement has now fallen to decay and overgrowth: the few visible buildings were broken and collapsing. Kayaking to the nearby point, on a rock prominence, a pictograph of the god Sun, deer and a Spanish galleon are clearly visible. We had visited this spot 30 years prior when our kids were wee toddlers.

Our night anchorage was at Beware Cove, which provides 360 degrees of perfect protection and was gorgeous and peaceful, with us completely alone in the wilderness. The pot provided us a crab appetizer before our meal of barbequed burgers. It was a blissful evening.  Upon awakening the weather still looked benign so we set off for a short motor sail to reach Port McNeill.  As we motored past, several rafts of sea otters scurried along our path, nervously poking their heads up to check us out.  It is great to see the sea otters in this area as they were previously hunted nearly to extinction and seeing large family groups of them is only lately becoming a more common sight.

We were glad to make Port McNeill before the blow.  For three nights we hunkered down in strong winds that did not let up.  Our slip assignment was broadside to the northwesterly winds and with the boat pinned hard to the dock our fenders got a heavy workout. But at the top of the dock there is a great coffee shop and the Devils Bath Brew Pub.  Port McNeill is also a very convenient place to re-provision. We were able to walk up to grocery and fill the freezer with meal plans for the upcoming arrival of our sons Adrian and Gavin. 

The boys were flying into Port Hardy on Saturday, so on Thursday morning we sailed to cover the final 25 miles for our kid rendezvous.  Friday and Saturday was spent taking walks into town to finalize the fresh food part of our provisioning. It was great to see Adrian again after another year with him away in Australia.  Adrian still had some papers to mark before we could set off, so we spent the night at the docks. That evening he celebrated the completion of his teaching term, happy that he could depart into the wilderness completely clear of duty.

Beautiful anchorage at Tribune Bay, Hornby Island.

Quick fun stop in Comox.

Only boat at the RVYC Cortes Island outstation.

Gotta hustle as a forecast gale will make Johnstone Strait miserable with short steep waves and wind on the nose.

Typical BC Central Coast summer weather.

A visit to Port Neville’s Post Office 28 years after we were here with our boys on the 40 Days and Nights Journey.

Alice spent a lot of time on the lookout for the Race to Alaska boats.

We cannot complaint about our hardships as these boats are engineless and range from SUPs to kayaks to 40 foot monohulls.

Timing the narrows at slack.

A interesting stop at Lagoon Cove Marina.

Karkukwees Indian Reserve visited 28 years later.

Now, too overgrown to get through the shrubs to explore the ruins.

Kayaked over to the pictographs of spanish galleons, sun god, deer, and horse drawn carriage.

Star fish population in recovery after the big die-off 10 years ago.

All alone at Beware Cove.

Not much luck at crabbing so far.   Got 1 red rock crab for an appetizer.

Waiting out a 3 day gale in Port McNeil.  Blog writing and boat yoga.

Visiting Alert Bay by BC Ferry from Port McNeil.