Peter & Judy
New member
Very Quiet in the Broughtons
We have just returned from our first cruise in the Broughtons off the NE coast of Vancouver Island, BC. We has a very enjoyable time with a variety of weather and no or minimal smoke from the wildfires that are burning in the interior of BC. We launched from the Alder Bay Campsite which is located between Port McNeil and Telegraph Cove. It is a private campground that provided us with a campsite the day before (C$30), a launch for (C$10) and longterm secure parking (C$5/day). It has a good launch site located about 2 miles from Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. It provides good access to the Broughton Archipelago Marine Park and the surrounding cruising areas. What struck us is how quiet the area was this year which made for very enjoyable cruising. On a busy day we would see maybe 6 boats and a busy anchorage would have 3 boats in it. Often we had entire anchorages to ourselves. We spent every night on the hook, as is our preference. We did stop at a couple of Marinas for a look. At Sullivan Bay we were the only boat tied to the dock. We visited the marina and spoke with the skeleton staff. They were averaging about 4-5 boats mooring for the night, the restaurant was closed and the general store hand only enough food to sustain life for a short while. They told us the their 3000 feet of moorage space is mostly full and often they need to raft boats in normal years. With Covid and a closed border they were missing their main customer base that is at least 90% American. We went into Echo Bay and the story is the same there. Pierre has retired and sold the marina to the First Nations and they are operating it now. Covid has been very difficult for these small marinas that depend on foreign traffic to survive. We did talk with a few other Canadian boaters, who like us were enjoying the solitude and the common comment was that since Covid “We got out waters back”. We found the boating very enjoyable here with good anchorages and little wind. There are a few currents that you might need to plan for. Each day we drop our kayaks and go for a morning and evening paddle if possible. Fog was common in the morning. We did shore tie while anchoring, as is our normal practice as this keeps the flat bottomed C-Dory from travelling all over the anchorage. We saw lots of humpback whales, proposes, dolphins and black bears. Yesterday we visited Alert Bay and the U’mista Cultural Center which is a must see. Thick fog in Johnson’s strait slowed out crossing back to Alder Bay and we were happy to benefit from GPS, radar and a fog horn.
We never went higher than hull speed (6 knots) as we like to like to view the beauty of nature and take photos. There are lots of logs in these waters, so you need to watch out. I am always amazed at the fuel efficiency of a C-Dory, especially when you keep the speed down. In two weeks of cruising we travelled 182 NM’s (337 Km’s) and used 137 litres (36 US gallons) of fuel.
We are now taking a few days off in Port Alberni before going on a kayak camping trip in the Broken Group of Pacific Rim National Park. Then we plan to he’d out on another cruise in Nootka Sound for a couple of weeks before heading bacc to Alberta.
We have just returned from our first cruise in the Broughtons off the NE coast of Vancouver Island, BC. We has a very enjoyable time with a variety of weather and no or minimal smoke from the wildfires that are burning in the interior of BC. We launched from the Alder Bay Campsite which is located between Port McNeil and Telegraph Cove. It is a private campground that provided us with a campsite the day before (C$30), a launch for (C$10) and longterm secure parking (C$5/day). It has a good launch site located about 2 miles from Alert Bay on Cormorant Island. It provides good access to the Broughton Archipelago Marine Park and the surrounding cruising areas. What struck us is how quiet the area was this year which made for very enjoyable cruising. On a busy day we would see maybe 6 boats and a busy anchorage would have 3 boats in it. Often we had entire anchorages to ourselves. We spent every night on the hook, as is our preference. We did stop at a couple of Marinas for a look. At Sullivan Bay we were the only boat tied to the dock. We visited the marina and spoke with the skeleton staff. They were averaging about 4-5 boats mooring for the night, the restaurant was closed and the general store hand only enough food to sustain life for a short while. They told us the their 3000 feet of moorage space is mostly full and often they need to raft boats in normal years. With Covid and a closed border they were missing their main customer base that is at least 90% American. We went into Echo Bay and the story is the same there. Pierre has retired and sold the marina to the First Nations and they are operating it now. Covid has been very difficult for these small marinas that depend on foreign traffic to survive. We did talk with a few other Canadian boaters, who like us were enjoying the solitude and the common comment was that since Covid “We got out waters back”. We found the boating very enjoyable here with good anchorages and little wind. There are a few currents that you might need to plan for. Each day we drop our kayaks and go for a morning and evening paddle if possible. Fog was common in the morning. We did shore tie while anchoring, as is our normal practice as this keeps the flat bottomed C-Dory from travelling all over the anchorage. We saw lots of humpback whales, proposes, dolphins and black bears. Yesterday we visited Alert Bay and the U’mista Cultural Center which is a must see. Thick fog in Johnson’s strait slowed out crossing back to Alder Bay and we were happy to benefit from GPS, radar and a fog horn.
We never went higher than hull speed (6 knots) as we like to like to view the beauty of nature and take photos. There are lots of logs in these waters, so you need to watch out. I am always amazed at the fuel efficiency of a C-Dory, especially when you keep the speed down. In two weeks of cruising we travelled 182 NM’s (337 Km’s) and used 137 litres (36 US gallons) of fuel.
We are now taking a few days off in Port Alberni before going on a kayak camping trip in the Broken Group of Pacific Rim National Park. Then we plan to he’d out on another cruise in Nootka Sound for a couple of weeks before heading bacc to Alberta.
:wink: Really.
