Allison Harbour

On June 9^th(Sunday) we raised anchor in Blunden Harbour at 06:45 and headed into Queen Charlotte Strait. Although South East winds were forecasted there was no wind and the water was a milky looking glass and, except for the swells, our trip was flat calm. We spotted a frenzy of birds in the distance, and as we approached it became clear that they were all eagles. There were probably at least 25 of them, and we could see more on their way. Two flew right across our path on a beeline for the action. The eagles were circling and then swooping and dropping right down to the water, talons out to grab something. They were doing this in a continual line approach one after the other. The odd thing was that there was no evidence of them actually eating anything, and none of them seemed to be flying away with their talons full. It was most peculiar.
We came into Allison Harbour, and anchored in a small bay that we have now named Moon Jelly Bay because of the incredible number of Moon jellyfish that were there. It was a cloudy day with rain showers all morning so we got geared up in our rain gear and headed out fishing. In total, in less then three hours, in three different spots, we caught 5 rock fish of different types. Two were copper rockfish, one was a quillback rockfish and the other two we are not totally sure. We think one may have been a dark dusky rockfish and the other a second quillback, but it looked different. We also caught one male kelp greenling and a sea cucumber :) Wow!! What a catch. We headed back home to deal with our haul and set our crab traps with the carcasses.

While we were out fishing we saw our first sea otter of the trip! While jigging we saw some splashing in the distance, and with binoculars we confirmed our suspicion that it was in fact a sea otter. He was out in the water, away from islands and any visible kelp bed, seemingly just cruising along, flipping over, rolling, splashing, rubbing his furry head, and lifting up out of the water to look around. So adorably cute! I hope we get to see many more!

On June 10^th(Monday), our morning started off with a noisy time of water making. After that we got all geared up in our rain gear again, and headed out in Kiki. We headed up Schooner Channel against a surprising amount of current to Nakwakto Rapids. The rapids are apparently one of the world’s fastest tidal rapids. It is less than a sixth of a mile wide and is the only opening to 85 nautical miles of inlets. Within this opening is a small island called Turret Rock and although both channels on either side of the rapids are very deep, 250' on one side, the water suddenly hits a wall that passes at only 50'. All of this combined with the sharp angle at which the water has to flow through the narrows creates a dramatic collision of water. 

We did not really know what to expect before getting there, and we had been hoping that we could get somewhat close, beach our tender and walk closer. We did not end up doing that, but we sure got a good show. Apparently the time of slack current is at approximately half tide, the point at which the water outside and the water inside the inlets equalize. Then at full low or high tide is the time of most current, which for an ebb tide can reach 17 knots. We spent about three hours in the area, and we watched a lot of changes. 

When we first got there the side that we were on was fairly calm with little current. As things changed our area became a massive back eddy filled with boils and fast flowing water. The way in which all the different streams of water were converging created an area that would repetitively form a massive whirlpool. One after another whirlpools of varying degrees of massiveness would form, start spinning their way down stream with the current, start to dissipate, and then when their downward force was no longer enough a massive upwelling would boil and erupt at the surface releasing the water that had been sucked down. 

A couple of times we saw waves rushing over the water's surface releasing a massive amount of water from the narrows. It was as though the rest of the water was ice and someone had thrown a bucket of water across the surface, the way the front edge curled itself as it flowed, spread out, and disappeared. It was often the change in sound that would alert us to something incredible, the sound was phenomenal!
We did some fishing in the side areas drifting along with the current, and then motoring away from the main stream, as we would be continually pulled towards it. The fishing was great, although most were small and got released. We pulled into a small nook with some kelp and floated out of the current to have our hot picnic lunch of soup and sandwiches. We stayed at the rapids until max current, and like I said it was quite interesting to watch the changes in the currents, everything was in continuous motion. An area of relative calm one minute could be an area of moving whirlpools and upwellings the next. Wow!!!
Within the rapids we were surprised to see different types if diving birds. They were right out in it, often right at the edge of a massive whirlpool. We were very surprised to see our first Rhinoceros Auklet there. He popped up right in front of our tender, swam around for a bit before diving back down. Apparently they usually fish offshore so it is interesting that he was there fishing. We also saw a seal bobbing along in the rapids before diving down again.
We headed back down Schooner Channel and did some fishing. Our hot spots from yesterday’s fishing were relatively quiet, but we found a reef that turned out to be a great spot. The swells were much bigger than yesterday, and all along the shoreline was a continual surge and crash. Out at our reef, which was just below the surface, there was a continuous repetitive crash and surge. It looked really neat. Just one spot in the middle of calm was a constant cresting and crashing wave.
One time when I was jigging, I had just put my line down when I felt a bite, then another, then my line went weird, it wasn't pulling tight as though it was on the bottom so I pulled it up to check it and make sure I had not caught any weeds. As it was nearing the surface I could see it coming up, but there was something else coming up too. As my lure popped out of the water, out flew a fish right behind it!  It jumped right out of the water and towards the boat. I think it was a Dark Dusky Rockfish. I can’t believe it followed my lure up from the bottom. It was so funny looking, having a fish fly out of the water after my lure. We caught a couple of good-sized Kelp Greenlings there, and also a good-sized Rockfish. We had all the fish we wanted, so we headed home to deal with our catch. 

Back in our anchorage we checked our crab traps. We have two styles of traps. One is a collapsible round trap and the other is a collapsible square trap. We know from past experience that depending on how the circle trap lands the crabs can sometimes get out and will only stay in the trap if they have something to eat. We had given them a carcass, but we had failed to check our traps in the morning. By the time we pulled them up we found an empty trap with a couple of pieces of fish skin and bare bone scraps. Amazing! They had had a feast. 

Our square trap is much more fail-safe, as the crabs cannot get back out. We had three crabs in this trap, but we only kept the one biggest which was very big for a rock crab. We reset our traps out with new carcasses left over from yesterday, and then dealt with our fish. 

On June 11^th(Tuesday) it was a very foggy morning, but we wanted to go kayaking around the many sets of islands, and the fog was supposed to clear, so we packed a hot lunch and headed out exploring. We worked our way along the shoreline out of Allison Harbour and across to Murray Labyrinth, which was a maze of islands and islets. Many of the areas that we were kayaking over would have been dry at low tide so the water was quite shallow and great viewing. 

On our way across to the islands we saw our second sea otter! Yay. Unfortunately he was in the distance, but it upped our hopes of seeing more. 

We worked our way through some of the many passages and channels between and around the islands before making the jump to the Deloraine Islands. As we were on the outer side of the islands we saw a porpoise. We also saw a river otter feeding, and two ravens who gave us quite the talkative show. We found a very cool split between two islands’ cliffs with a very large boulder wedged part way down. 

When we made the next jump across to the Emily Group the fog started to lift and we suddenly had some beautiful views with fog and sun and distant mountain peaks poking up. Jason saw a whale in the distance so we floated and watched hoping that it would reappear. Just as we started paddling again we heard a whale blow close on our starboard side. We looked, and the whale surfaced not far away. He must have swum right by or under us. It was very cool! 

Out at the Emily Group we were on the look out for a spot to get ashore for a picnic. We were hungry, but the tide was low which made getting ashore much harder with all the slippery seaweed and sharp barnacle and mussel shells, combined with the continual surging and breaking of swells. Finally on the most outer island of the group we found a spot on the lee side of the island. It was still getting the surges from the swells but we were able to time our approach and get into a beaching area.

Unfortunately the fog started to come back in and soon after starting our picnic we were surrounded by fog. We could not see the island that we new was close by behind us or anything in front or to the sides. We could hear a big boat, but could not see it. Then just for a few seconds the fog broke enough for us to see the top of big cranes. Must have been a tug with a barge. We had a lovely picnic in a beautiful spot despite the fog.

  

Since the wind was picking up we did not linger long and started to make our way back. We were island hopping our way back into the anchorage, limiting the amount of time that we were totally out of sight of land. When we were closer we stopped off at Frederick Islands and tried jigging from the kayaks for the first time. We were using our hand lines instead of fishing rods for ease in the kayaks. We were drifting too quickly with the wind so we tied ourselves to a piece of bull kelp at the edge of a kelp bed and drifted back until we sat anchored. We caught a male Kelp Greenling, and it all worked very well in the kayaks. Yay.
Back home we pulled up our crab traps and put everything away in such a way that we could move anchorages the next day if the fog was not too bad. It was another very full day of kayaking and exploring. :) 

On June 12^th(Wednesday) we moved anchorages to Miles Inlet. Just a short move of approximately seven nautical miles. We plan to spend a few days in Miles Inlet depending on the weather before making the jump around Cape Caution. We may or may not have cell service for sending more updates, as we are slowly getting further and further away from such. 

On our way up the coast to Miles Inlet we passed Eno Island. :)

Our chart plotter showing Eno Island coming up on our starboard side.

Eno Island.