Cullen Harbour, Claydon Bay, and Turnbull Cove

May 26th - June 4th

On the evening of May 26^th (Sunday) we went out for a lovely evening kayak at our anchorage in Waddington Bay. We paddled to the outside of the small islands and enjoyed the stillness of the world around us. It was so calm and quiet that we could hear the distinct puff...puff...puff of two different groups of porpoises. We eventually were able to pick out one porpoise with its little black fin surfacing way in the distance. The other, we never did see, as we were looking into the light of the setting sun. Back on board we had a cup of hot chocolate to ward off the evening chill before heading to bed. 

On May 27^th(Monday) we raised anchor and headed to Cullen Harbour on Broughton Island. We snaked our way through many little islands and islets, passing by a barren rock covered in sea lions. When we anchored in Cullen Harbour we had the place to ourselves. We spent a bit of time exploring with our tender while putting out the crab trap. We also found a spot to drop our prawn trap inside the lagoon. This lagoon was nothing like the one we went to in Von Donop Inlet because the entrance to it was navigable at all tides. It also had a second small entrance that would only dry at low tide. 

The commercial prawn fishery is open right now so we have to be much more careful about where we put our trap in order to stay out of their way. They also seem to have traps everywhere. Out from Waddington Bay we saw them setting traps and it was interesting. I had always thought that below each orange buoy was a trap, but that is not the way it is. Instead they snake out a whole line of traps, we saw them drop more than ten in a twisting line with an orange buoy at each end. So their traps are stretched out all over the bottom in a deep area. This is why we have to be so careful where we put our trap down.
We went out exploring the area around our anchorage in our kayaks. We went out to the outside of the islands, and we can now really tell that we are getting into an area of more open water. All of the trees and shrubs along the shore are wind swept, and we were riding not only the chop from the wind but also swells. It was quite impressive how well protected our anchorage was. It was blowing hard out on the outside of the islands and very choppy with swells, but just inside it was lovely and calm and warm. 

We enjoyed drifting through the many shallow areas at low tide and exploring some of the bays. Jason picked us two different types of seaweed to have with dinner, and we both agreed that they were quite tasty freshly picked. They made a great addition to our three-fish fried-rice that we had for dinner. 

On May 28^th (Tuesday) we made water in the morning, and then we went out to pull up our traps. When we first pulled up our prawn trap we thought it was empty, but then we noticed that there were actually a few prawns in the trap, but they were just white or almost clear with red spots. We are used to the bright red prawns that show up so easily in the trap. We let three small ones go, and kept five. Not much, but better than nothing. We also kept three crabs and headed back to the boat to get ready to move anchorages. 

We headed out and turned west to head out and around Broughton Island. We saw three separate groups of dolphins, all of them were heading the opposite way as us and moving at a good speed. It’s so nice to see so many of them and to get to watch them porpoising through the waves. 

As we headed out we could see a massive fog bank in the distance. 

Oncoming fog and the light on the water.

It stretched across the whole width of Queen Charlotte Strait, from the mainland to Vancouver Island. One side was grey, but the other side was white and puffy looking. We could see the top of it and it was pillowy, like the bottom of a cloud. We saw two cruise ships in the distance slowly emerge from the fog on the Vancouver Island side. As we traveled towards the fog bank, it traveled towards us, and we watched as it engulfed an island and then crept along the shore. Pretty soon we were enveloped in a fog bubble. We continued on and eventually we emerged with the fog lifting around us. We were presented with a most beautiful view as we headed up Wells Passage. The fog still lurked in the islands around us and it was very beautiful in the sunshine. 

Out of the fog.

We did some downwind sailing on our way up the passage before coming into another lovely anchorage that was empty before our arrival. We sat on our foredeck and enjoyed our new surroundings. We saw two loons and at first we thought they were juveniles, but with the help of binoculars and our bird identification book we identified them as Red Throated Loons. I don't think I have ever seen this type before.
On May 29^th (Wednesday) we had high fog and drizzle in the morning, same as we had had yesterday morning. It started to burn off around 11:00 and became a beautiful sunny day. We did some fishing and exploring. We caught lots of fish at first, including several small flounders of two different types. We also caught some rockfish and a Sculpin, which was our first. We let them all go, as they were all somewhat small and we kept fishing. Eventually we caught a good-sized Rockfish which was our dinner! 

We found a really neat lagoon area. On the chart it is called an Overflow Basin and not a lagoon, and I am not sure why that is. Either way, on an ebbing tide the entrance was a fast flowing river that was way too shallow to go up by boat. It was full of starfish and other sea life, and the lagoon itself looked like a really neat area to explore.

Waterfall at the overflow basis.

On May 30^th (Thursday) we made "a trip into town" in the morning. We loaded up our tender with diesel jerry cans, a propane tank, and our recycling, and skipped across the calm water through the islands to the floating resort/community of Sullivan Bay.  We were able to fill up our jerry cans, top up our propane tank, and get rid of our recycling, as well as grab some limited groceries. Everyone was very friendly, and it is quite clear that we are well ahead of the crowd as the entire marina was empty, and the store shelves were quite barren.  

It was a pretty bay with all parts of the community on floating docks. Apparently they used to be located in the bay that we were anchored in, but moved locations a few years ago.

Back in Claydon Bay we found a good patch of sea asparagus and picked some to try with dinner. We had discovered this tasty ocean side vegetable back around Mound Island, but had not had a chance to pick any quantity and had only had it raw. Today we fried it lightly with a bit of garlic, salt, and pepper and found it to be a delicious meal complement. 

We saw a family of mergansers with probably about eight super tiny chicks. They were a good distance off, and their mom was hurriedly leading them towards the cover of shore. Through binoculars we could see that some of the chicks were catching a ride on Mom’s back, while the others scurried across the water behind her.
In our crab traps we were stoked to get Dungeness crab! Unfortunately they were all girls, but they were big. We kept the large male rock crabs, and put our traps back in hoping we might get a male Dungeness. Dungeness crabs have much softer shells and are much, much easier to clean.  Both crabs, I think, have delicious meat, but the rock crabs are much harder and more time consuming to clean.

On May 31^st (Friday) we pulled up our crab traps in the morning and got more Dungeness, but all females again. Oh well. We went ashore and picked a bunch of sea asparagus to have in the fridge before we pulled up anchor and moved anchorages up to Turnbull Cove. 

When we passed Watson Point I hopped in the tender and did a photo shoot of our girl going through the channel with the beautiful majestic mountain in the background. (No pictures included as they were done on the large camera, not the iphone.)

When we anchored in Turnbull Cove we had fresh bread for lunch. I had put it in to cook just before leaving Claydon Bay, after making the dough up the night before. So easy! I love it!
In the evening we did the short but steep hike up to Huaskin Lake, and enjoyed the different plants, animals, and smells of a fresh water environment. We also watched small fish surface and our hopes of catching some trout increased. We made plans to backpack our kayaks up to the lake and spend a day fishing and exploring. 

On June 2^nd (Sunday) we got up early (05:30) and headed out in our kayaks riding the last of the ebb of a low, low tide out and over to the area with the lagoon and overflow basin. 

Along the way through the channel where there was mostly steep cliffs on one side I got to check out all the urchins and anemones while Jason trolled for fish. Unfortunately we generally have had very bad luck with fishing in this area. We have caught some very small fish and that’s about it. We did see one good-sized fish jump that was of a salmon variety, lots of seals, and even a sea lion, but no dinner-worthy fish. 

We went to the overflow basin first, and we could hear the waterfall before we could see it. Because the tide was so low there was a large salt-water waterfall gushing out of the basin. Some rocks in front of the falls were out of water and redirecting the water around either side. There was so, so much foam in front, and it was neat to kayak through it as it sounded quite cool as the bubbles were popping. 

In the bubbles of the falls.

We made our way up along the shore as far as we could, and found a rock that we were able to get out on. The shore was just a jumbled line of loose and slippery rocks which made our portage somewhat slow, but it was not far up and over to the basin. Unfortunately the visibility of the water was quite poor, but we did get to see many rock crabs. We also saw a type of crab that we have not seen before. It was in the muddy shallows at the end of the basin, and it had thinner legs and was partially purple. Quite pretty. At the end of the basin the shore was a large area of beautiful green grass, but unfortunately there were no animals having it for breakfast while we were there. By the time we portaged out of the basin the tide had come in quite a ways, but there was still a good-size waterfall flowing out. 

We then paddled over to the other lagoon, which as it turned out we were simply able to paddle our way into on the rising tide. Inside that lagoon we found a fast flowing fresh-water river. We got out of our kayaks and went up river a bit to check it out, and found a long system of fish ladders that appeared to be quite old. The river split around a central island and the fish ladders were up one side.

In both lagoons we saw lots of ducks, including one family of mergansers.
We rode the tail end of the flood tide back to our anchorage. 

Back on board we had a great afternoon of cooking. First we made ravioli pasta dough and a filling made of part of a can of Moroccan Red Truffle that we had, rock crab, miso, and cheese. It tasted great! We hand rolled, stuffed, and formed ravioli and made a tomato sauce. 

Jason making ravioli.

We made biscuits to go with the pasta, and had the very last of our surprisingly still crispy lettuce as salad fingers. Each piece of lettuce was left whole and had a drizzle of dressing and a few croutons.  Fresh chocolate cake with icing rounded off the meal as dessert. It was an epic meal! 

It was a delicious dinner.

On June 3^rd (Monday) we took our tender over to Roaringhole Rapids in the morning. We had been there before at mid-tide and it wasn't much, but yesterday when we were kayaking to the lagoon and it was almost low, low tide we had looked over because we heard what sounded like a raging waterfall, and we could see what looked like a wall of water.

Today it was no different. Because of how low the tide was, and because of all the water from Nepah Lagoon trying to get out, it was creating an over-fall. Not really a waterfall because the water was not falling over land, but instead over itself trying to get out. It essentially looked like a large waterfall in a river with raging rapids below it! It was very cool! As we were watching it, we saw two black bears grazing their way along the shore. We went closer and watched them foraging along the low tide line. 

Roaringhole Rapids

Back on the boat we got all ready to go up to Huaskin lake. We paddled our kayaks to shore and then deflated them and packed them up. We hiked them up to the lake, and re-inflated them and headed out.

Pumping up the kayaks.

It was a cloudy day, and we had showers on and off, often accompanied with wind as a dark cloud moved by. We were very hopeful that we would catch some trout and we both had lines trolling for the whole time. The lake turned out to not be a very hospitable lake for people. We only found two spots on the whole shoreline of the eastern arm where it was possible to get out of the kayaks and onto shore. The first spot was almost a mini beach area with enough room to do some casts from shore and walk around a bit over the logs.

One small spot to try to cast from.

The second spot was at the very end of the arm where a small stream came out and there was a spot of marshy turf. The rest of the shoreline was either too steep to stand on or strewn with logs. Logs were everywhere, all along the shore and just floating around moving as the winds blew, and drifting back away from shore when the winds were calm. 

Logs are everywhere along the shore.

In total we ended up paddling about 12 nautical miles, and although we saw a Red Throated Loon, an Osprey, and a King Fisher, all fishing birds, we only got one bite. Jason almost had a good sized trout into the kayak when it flipped off the hook and swam away. The rest of our almost seven hours of trolling the shoreline we got nothing. After having mainly light winds for our paddle down to the end of the arm, although it should be noted that what wind we did have was against us, on our paddle back the wind picked up and was against us the whole way. We got back very tired and fish less.

On June 4^th (Tuesday) we took a well deserved day of rest after about 20 nautical miles of paddling over the last two days. That is about 37 kms. It was also a productive day as we did laundry, vacuumed, wiped and generally cleaned the boat. 

We took our tender over to one of the lagoons that we had paddled into where we had found the river with the fish ladder. We went at high tide and were able to row the tender right up to the base of the mini waterfall that came out of the last pool of the river. It was perfect because it was quite deep there, with a rock that came out that we were able to tie up to. We ran our outboard in the fresh water and gave the tender and outboard a good fresh water clean. It was a perfect spot. I took advantage of the amount of fresh water to wash my hair and it wasn't even that cold as Jason poured the water over my head.  A lovely productive, and yet restful day.