Blunden Harbour and Robinson Island

On June 5^th (Wednesday) we got up a bit early, and raised anchor and headed out. We wanted to catch the last of the ebbing tide for our trip out of Grappler Sound and up Queen Charlotte Strait. We had a good push from the current, and were actually surprised by how much turbulence there was around where Drury Inlet joins with Wells Passage. While going through this area of upwelling we saw a pod of dolphins zigzagging their way back and forth through it. 

Out in Queen Charlotte Strait we were amazed by how much the current was still affecting us, and we were still seeing areas of visible current. Motoring at an rpm that would usually have us going around seven knots we were doing over nine knots.
We anchored behind one of the many islands in Blunden Harbour. After lunch and some time of making water the wind picked up from the SE, and we were getting the full strength of it along with the chop on the water. So we pulled up anchor and moved in behind a different island that gave us some good protection from the 25-knot wind. We enjoyed the storminess from our cockpit and watched the clouds hurtle by above us. Then we watched as a line of blue sky approached and we had a while of sun with majestic clouds whipping by before a very dark cloud approached and all of a sudden it was torrential rain! When this blew past our wind suddenly changed direction from South East to South West and we were back in the brunt of it with 20-knot steady winds and 25-knot gusts. Eventually the winds died down and we were left on glassy water once again.

On June 6^th(Thursday) we moved our anchorage spot again, because in order to tuck ourselves out of the wind the day before we had also anchored in somewhat shallow water and we wanted to move before the low, low tide of the day. After re-anchoring we went out in our kayaks to explore the low tide shoreline. The visibility was pretty good which was a nice change since we have been having pretty poor visibility, which makes viewing our extensive saltwater aquarium a challenge. 

We saw massive crabs of three types: Dungeness, rock, and box crab. Of course we saw all the other things you would expect to see at low, low tide: many types of starfish, sea slugs, fish, etc. We also were on the hunt for sea cucumbers, and through our time of exploring we managed to harvest 10 of them. They made for a delicious dinner!! I can’t believe they aren't more popular, and served in restaurants, they are so good!! 

Filleted sea cucumbers.

We also saw lots of Red Throated Loons. Some in pairs, a group of three, and some that were by themselves. We are used to seeing the Common Loon normally by itself, the Red Throated Loon, however, seems to regularly be in pairs. They have a very odd call! To me the Common Loon call is one of the many beautiful sounds of nature, an almost eerie and surreal sound. The Red Throated Loon call in comparison is more like that of a lost kitten combined with the quack of a Mallard duck. It is definitely a unique birdcall, and although it took us a while to figure out exactly what it was, it is now an easily recognized call. 

We paddled our way up to the entrance of a lagoon, and with it being low tide we found a very fast and rapid flowing river coming out. Unfortunately the shoreline did not allow us to portage our kayaks into the lagoon as we had been hoping. We did try to find a route through the bush, but decided it was not worth the effort since the area was strewn with incredibly slippery logs all crisscrossed in our path. We did make our way to about the midway point of the rapids to have a look. Very neat! 

Looking up toward the lagoon from the midway point.

Looking back down toward the ocean from the midway point.

We made our way back to the boat for some lunch and a rest before we headed out again for a high-tide paddle. The area around our anchorage was very unique with the number of areas that dried at low tide. There were entire sections with islands and bays that dried on a low tide. Kayaking through the same area at high tide and at low tide was like being in a whole new area. It was totally unrecognizable. A large amount of the area that we had earlier seen as land was now underwater. Incredible. 

There is one area that is called Deer Cove on the chart that was a massive area that we had previously seen dry, and will hopefully get to explore at a high tide before we leave the area. 

After lunch we beelined it back to the lagoon hoping to sneak in and out for a peek at high tide. Here we found something that we were not expecting because we had not seen it at our other lagoons. At high tide the ocean was actually higher than the lagoon because through the small lagoon entrance enough water could not flow to keep the areas equalized. As a result at high tide there was a rapid, fast flowing "river" flowing into the lagoon, and the equalization time instead of occurring at high tide actually occurred twice. Once as the tide was rising and then again as it was falling. 

Looking at the rapidly flowing river into the lagoon.

We decided that the rapids did not look too bad and that we should be ok to ride them into the lagoon. Woo-hoo what a ride! Then we were in. 

Looking back at the rapids we had just come through.

Now the trick became timing getting back out before the rapids became too bad the other way. We gave ourselves an hour to be back. We did not want to be stuck in the lagoon for the night. There were three branches to the lagoon and none of it was charted. We picked the one straight in front of us since it looked the coolest -- being quite narrow. The forest around us seemed very raw, with lots of massive dead standing trees, and many forked tops to the dead trees could be seen throughout. We kept up a good pace paddling since we only had half an hour to paddle before we had to turn back. 

We saw a seal that was chasing schools of fish in an area of current. We could see the splashing from a distance, and when we got closer it became clear what was causing the commotion. We also spotted a mom black bear on the shore with two cubs that she sent up into the bushes when we came by. After watching us intently she went back to what she was doing. She was working her way along the shore, crouching down and reaching way into the water with her front paws. Presumably looking for food, maybe feeling for crabs or fish. 

We did not make it to the end of the arm, but we could see a beautiful grassy area at the end. There were quite a few beautiful grassy areas that we paddled by. It would have been very cool to have had a day to explore the lagoon. Of course as soon as we turned around the wind and rain picked up and pelted against us. Thankfully the wind did not keep up for our whole paddle back. Back at the entrance it turned out that we were actually too early. Better too early than too late however, and we tucked ourselves under some branches along the shore to stay out of the rain while we waited for the tide to drop enough on the outside so that the water would equalize and the current would subside enough for us to get out.

Eventually we were getting a chill from being wet and decided that the current looked manageable for us to paddle out, even though it was still flowing in. We gave it a try and although there were a few times when I was not sure that I was making any progress, we definitely warmed back up quickly, and bit by bit we slipped forward across the water and finally made it into more still water on the other side. Phew :)

Back home we had a late, delicious dinner of our freshly harvested sea cucumbers!!

On June 7^th(Friday) we awoke to sunshine! Yay! However, the stillness of the early morning left us, and as the morning progressed the forecasted winds from the North West started to pick up. By late afternoon we were back into 25-knot of wind. 

Kiki on shore  at low tide.

Unfortunately this area was a Rockfish Conservation Zone, and so we were not allowed to fish. We did, however, put out our crab trap yesterday with some chicken bone scraps, and we pulled it up today. We had two large Dungeness Crabs. One was a female, but the other was a male. Yay! Our first Dungeness crab of the trip! Not bad in exchange for our food scraps. When we first pulled up the trap I actually thought he might be a different type of crab. If you remember me mentioning the different type of crabs that we had seen in the shallows of one of the Lagoons near Turnbull Cove that were quite purple? Well this guy was very much more purple than the female Dungeness. Since we had a bit of cell service we were able to look it up and figure out that the smaller crabs of the lagoon were Graceful or Slender Crabs, but they only grow to be four inches. Our crab in the trap was in fact a Dungeness, which apparently can be quite purple. 

We have had some time to look in our bird book to reference pictures of birds that we have seen. While kayaking in one of the lagoons near Turnbull Cove we saw a pair of ducks that although similar to the Common Merganser, were different. It turns out that they were Red-breasted Mergansers, the male is very beautiful.  

We also had a pair of swallows flying around our boat again while anchored in Claydon Bay. Beautiful birds, such acrobatic flyers and they were coming so close we got to see them really well. We even had one land on our bow rail for a while, and we could really see the shimmering green of its head and back. I didn't realize it, but there are nine different types of swallows in Western North America and these guys were Tree Swallows. At the far end of Huaskin Lake (the lake that we hiked up to with our kayaks a few days ago) we saw five beautiful little birds that turned out to be Cedar Waxwings!

June 8^th(Saturday) 

When our "chores" were done we headed out in our kayaks to do some more exploring at low tide. This time we paddled to the outside of the anchorage around to the Queen Charlotte Strait side of Robinson Island. It was a perfect day for it, as it was nice and calm with just a gentle swell rolling in. The visibility was also a lot better on the outside. It was quite a different ecosystem out there compared to the inside shores, and we enjoyed working our way slowly along the shoreline. 

We saw both green and red urchins, giant rock scallops, kelp greenlings, Rockfish, leather stars and other starfish, sea cucumbers, northern abalone, and a new type of animal that we had not noticed before that turned out to be a giant pacific chiton. We of course saw many more cool creatures, but these were some of our favourites. 

We paddled around and through many gardens of bull kelp and enjoyed the smooth rocks and wind-blown trees of the shoreline. The rocks were very diverse and pretty with many colours and shapes throughout. 

Rocks along the shore of Robinson Island.

When we got to the other end of Robinson Island we turned around and paddled back past the entrance to the anchorage. We had spotted what looked like a shell midden beach in the distance, and we wanted to check it out. It turned out to be sand!! It was beautiful, our first sandy beach since Savary Island (right at the beginning of our trip). It turned out that the whole bay was sand, and shallow under the incoming tide. A lovely area. 

 Kayaks on the beach and a chance to walk in the sand.

I think if we had been allowed to fish in the area that we would probably have stayed for a few more days. It was a fantastic area. 

Lovely sandy beach at the end of the arm.

We fought our way against the wind back into the anchorage before going to check out a couple more areas. If you remember Deer Cove that I mentioned a couple of days ago that we had seen as an area that fully dried at low tide. Well we wanted to check it out, as well as the area across from it, at high tide. We could now easily paddle all over the areas that we had previously seen as mud flats, seaweed gardens and boulder fields. It was definitely neat to see it at both stages and we also found an area of sea asparagus. We harvested a bunch before continuing on. 

After fighting the wind all the way back to our boat we were quite tired. We went out to pull up our crab traps, and we had one big rock crab and one female Dungeness. The nice thing was that with the rock crab we now had one rock crab and yesterday’s one Dungeness for dinner, which meant we both got a half of each type. They both are delicious, but it really is amazing how much easier Dungeness crabs are to clean!!  It was a delicious dinner with two types of crab, left over crab ravioli, fresh sea asparagus, and fresh bread! Another great day!!