Forward Harbour

On May 16th (Thursday), we did some chores around the boat in the morning as we watched the clouds around the mountains break, and the sun slowly start to poke its way through. We had planned out our next move, which had us leaving a bit after 14:00 to go through Green Point rapids a bit before slack tide. We raised anchor and headed out, reassured that our timing was good since another sailboat was a bit ahead of us, and a fishing boat a bit behind us.  There was definitely still turbulence, and we passed several whirlpools, and many boils and upwellings. We saw some dolphins in the rapids. 
We had basically two options after Green Point. One was to turn up Wellbore Channel and go through Whirlpool Rapids, however, our timing would have us there with an increasing current of over 5 knots which was not a very appealing option since we had seen what rapids could be like with 1-2 knots of current. The other option was to go down into Johnstone Strait and go through Current Passage, and with our timing there we should have about 3 knots of current. We had been trying to avoid this option because if the wind picked up from the NW against an ebb current the waves could get quite bad. However the winds were light and the forecast was for no wind until the evening, by which time we should be well secured in our anchorage. 
So we headed to Current Passage. As we passed the worst area we were very glad that the wind was not stronger. With the little wind that there was (less than 10 knots) there was already quite a chop, and we could clearly see how the effect of wind against current could create some unpleasant conditions. At this point we were heading straight towards a very dark cloud and a clear line of rain. The winds started to increase, and with them the waves since we were now close to a max ebb and the wind was from the NW, against us and the current. As we headed for Blenkinsop Bay, which we had read was well sheltered, our wind alarm went off at 30 knots and the steep seas around us were breaking. We were pleased to finally enter Blenkinsop Bay! 
When we first entered the bay it seemed somewhat sheltered, although a lot of wind was still howling over the low lying hills. When we turned back into the wind to anchor we could feel the full extent of the wind whistling past us, and the pounding rain. No need to manually set our anchor here, the wind did all that work for us, and we were instantly stretched out tight on our chain. The waves were building in the bay, and we started to pound in the chop with whitecaps passing us by.  We decided not to stay, and motored up into the wind to pull up the anchor. Our choices were now to go 4 nautical miles into the wind, or 8 nautical miles down wind. We decided to run with the weather and were happy to turn down wind when we got clear of land. 
We headed up Sunderland Channel towards Forward Harbour. The visibility was terrible, and we were surfing some very large waves with the wind still around 30 knots. By the time we reached the shelter of Forward Harbour it was late and we were very relieved to find that it was almost glass calm inside the Harbour. We anchored in the pounding rain, but happy to have no wind. We then got out of the elements, got a fire going in our trusty fireplace, made some dinner, and went to bed :)

Our peaceful anchorage in Forward Harbour.

On May 17th (Friday), we went out fishing. We were not allowed to fish in the anchorage area itself, but we were allowed to fish just outside the Harbour. We drifted with the current and after catching a couple of rock fish that we could not keep (due to regulations), we caught a giant Ling cod! We were fishing in 200 plus feet of water, and I had just dropped my jig to the bottom and went to pull it up a bit to start jigging, but it was stuck. "Oh no!" I thought. "Not snagged on the bottom again." I tried pulling it up hard and got a bit of movement, then I felt it, ever so light of a movement that would not be the bottom. I had a fish! And it was not a rock fish because by this time we were very familiar with how they felt on the line. They fought openly, but also somewhat swam to the surface, so they were not hard to reel in. You just had to be quick. But this guy did not want to come to the surface, but also was not really fighting. Just staying down. It was a long haul up from 200' but when he did come up we sure were happy we had our net along. He was massive! 34" long and at least 20lbs! Wow! We got three large meals into the freezer, and two stayed in the fridge. 

 The biggest fish caught so far, and yes, my arm is getting very tired.

See how it measures up.

Jason gets the job of cleaning and filleting.

We used the head and guts in our crab traps and caught seven large rock crab! What a feast, with lots going into the fridge!!! 

In the evening we zipped down to the other end of the bay, two nautical miles away, and saw a grizzly bear feeding in a beautiful grassy spot on the shore. He was super cute, with dark brown legs, lighter brown body, and a large golden brown head. Wow, what a day!!  

 No, the bear is not in the picture, but it was a lovely bay.

The wind picked up from the SE in the afternoon and evening and we had some big weather cells coming down the valley towards us, first sun, then clouds, big wind gusts, rain for a bit, a rainbow, then sun again. The wind got pretty strong at times, but the waves did not pick up and the holding was good. 
On May 18th and 19th (Saturday and Sunday),when we pulled up our crab traps again we had a total of 15 large rock crab! Apparently they enjoy ling cod as much as we do!! We kept 8 of the biggest, and let the rest go. We have been having rock crab cleaning sessions, and it is very time consuming, and a somewhat tedious job. It is not bad if you are just cleaning and eating them as you go it just makes for a long dinner session, but we wanted to clean them all and have the meat to use and put in the freezer. After getting seven crab the first day and eight the second that was a lot of crab meat. We have been having some epic meals; fresh fish and crab the first night, then fried fish and crab cakes which were mouth wateringly amazing, and then fish-and-crab fried rice!  The weather had changed to be absolutely perfect in our sheltered anchorage even though it was NW winds in the strait. In addition to fishing, we did some boat projects and laundry. We also saw dolphins in the current when we were out fishing.

A feast of crab!

Today, Monday, May 20th we pulled up anchor at 05:15 and are currently riding an ebb tide down Johnstone Strait. We are heading for Hanson Island and the Broughton Archipelago.