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Spirit of Freedom's
Gunkhole Adventure 2006
Part Six
Cliff flew into Prideaux Haven for his extended vacation on July 29. It
poured down rain the first night he was there....harder than I have ever seen it
rain before. The dink, which was off the davits, had 6" of water in it in the
morning! The sun came out late in the morning on the 30th and we raised anchor
and headed to Refuge cove for fuel, laundry and groceries. After a stop there we
headed to Squirrel Cove for the night. We saw Liz at Refuge and visited with her
a bit and made tenative plans to meet in Seattle for the boat show next January.
Our plan is to visit the Octopus Islands and then head thru the Upper Rapids to
Johnstone Strait and then on to the Broughtons.
We arrived early at Hole-In-The-Wall Rapids, so we dropped
anchor in Florence Cove to wait. (Photo is east entrance to Hole-In-The-Wall) It is really a nice spot...deep,
and seemed to
have good holding, at least for temporary purposes. The Octopus Islands were
lovely, however the marine park was packed, so we anchored in Waiatt Bay, which
while open, has fairly good protection and excellent holding. We launched the
dink and found the Cruisers Cabin, and collected driftwood to make our plaque.
While we were in the Octopus Islands dinked around the area and hiked to Small Inlet. I
also changed the oil and completely cleaned the boat. The wind howled for two days
non-stop in the anchorage so we had a couple of sleepless nights. "Forever Young"
(another Sceptre) was anchored nearby and we had a short visit with them. (He
actually built Spirit). They were returning from the Queen Charlottes, early,
because the weather had been so bad.
We had planned on only a day or possibly two in the islands,
but the weather on Johnstone Strait was pretty awful, blowing 35+ knots with
gale warnings, so we ended up spending four days waiting for weather before we
gave up and headed back out Hole-In-The-Wall Rapids, and heading up the inside thru the Yuculta, Gillard, Dent, Whirlpool and Greenpointe Rapids.
The last photo in this group is of the "midden" at the head of Waiatt Bay. A "midden"
is basically the kitchen dumping ground for centuries of Indians...places where
they gathered shellfish and discarded the shells. Midden's are found throughout
the Pacific NW, some of them being carbon-dated back over 2,000 years.
We left
the Octopus group early in the am on August 4 to catch the slack at Hole In
The Wall Rapids, dropping
anchor once again in Florence Cove to wait for the slack to enter the Yuculta Rapids and
then on thru Gillard and Dent Rapids. We also killed some time motoring over to
the abandoned village of Church House. With Dent Rapids running up to 12 knots,
and the others making 7 knots on large tides, all with good sized whirlpools,
you really need to catch them at the right time! Basically it was a piece of
cake because we timed it right. It was funny...we were hanging at the south end
of Yuculta, with several other boats...all seemed to be waiting for someone to
make the first move. We left, and they all followed, right in line behind us!
However, when we got to Gillard Rapids early, and pulled into Big Bay to wait,
the others behind us continued on. We watched as they were pummeled, tossed,
banged around and rocked because they went thru too early. We waited for only
ten minutes and sailed right on through, actually passing up the other boats on
the other side of Dent Rapids! Finally we were making our way north to the
Broughtons!
We dropped anchor in Shoal Harbor and dinked into the
Pub...one of the boats that followed us thru the rapids insisted on buying us a
round of beer...they said they were so nervous about it that they were glad that
somebody obviously experienced led them through. We didn't have the heart
(nerve?) to tell them we had never been through before ourselves! Besides that,
we didn't want to buy our own beer! :>) Our preferred route is to leave Hole
In The Wall, go through the lower rapids and up to Nodale Channel and back
inside.
Late the next morning we left to make the Green Pointe Rapids
and then on through Whirlpool Rapids dropping anchor in Forward Harbor...where I
really screwed up! We were anchoring in 80' of water and I THOUGHT my anchor
chain was marked 10' from the end...but it wasn't. All my anchor chain went
running out...thank goodness it was safety tied on! We had a hell of a hard time
pulling it back because the wind was really setting us back hard. After getting
the chain back on the windless, I marked it! It was windy until shortly after
dark, then it died down. The anchorage was really filled up, mostly with
commercial fishing boats heading north, but about 10 private vessels that were
waiting for a weather window.
Photos: Church House, entrance to the Yuculta's, at anchor at Shoal Bay and
Forward Harbor anchorage
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The
weather finally cooperated and we headed out under power onto Johnstone Strait
at 6:00 am with low grey foggy skies. Sunderland Channel was very bumpy, but
other than some confused lumps off of Port Neville, Johnstone was pretty smooth
all in all with little or no wind. Halfway to Port Harvey a revised forecast was posted with gale
warnings, be we made it to the anchorage behind Matilipi Island in Havanah
Channel before it arrived. We needed to wait for slack to go through Chatham
Channel to get into the Broughtons. While we were waiting we were treated to
huge herring balls surfacing with a loud explosion of sound, water and bright
flashes.
We upped anchor at 2:45 pm and headed to Chatham Channel
and ran it with no problems----- after we were thru the channel the country
changed like we had come through a doorway into another world. Very rugged,
steep cliffs falling into the water, and the sky cleared and all was gorgeous,
we were surrounded by even more mountains with snowcapped peaks, and rugged
islands with no shores to land on.
Photos: We arrived in
the Broughton's
We were visited by a little bird who flew onto the boat,
completely unafraid of us, or our cat DC.
He flittered all around, flew below,
then back out and finally landed right in front of DC who had been napping! She
opened up her eyes, and you could just see that it didn't quite register with
her that there was a little bird sitting beside her! I quickly snatched up the
bird, just as DC 's eyes widened...did she ever give me a dirty look when I sent
that little bird on his way!
Then the problems started, or rather finally revealed
itself clearly. I had been hearing a slight intermittent rattle for the last two
or three weeks while under power, but had been unable to locate the source. It
had really been bugging me. And then, while we we crossing Knight Inlet with
25knots of wind on the nose the sound became 100% worse...and steady...and then
the PSS burped. Which it is not supposed to do. I popped down below, and saw
that some water had come in with the burp, but that the PSS was not leaking. So
we continued on, into deeper isolation heading for Kawatsi Bay. It was late, we
were very tired but the afternoon was still beautiful and the surroundings
breath-taking. Over the next two hours the PSS burped twice again...but all
seemed to be holding. We continued on, under power as there was either no wind at
all or 25+ on the nose in the various rocky channels we were motoring
through. This is out of my logbook: "By 6:45 PM PSS burping & my stomach in
knots. We motor out of huge NW winds & into gorgeous Kawatsi Bay and anchor and
shore tie, I KNOW there is a serious problem. Anchored & secure @ 8:30PM. LONG
DAY-STRESSED & EXHAUSTED!!! Salmon jumping all around us." We had made our
first anchorage in the Broughtons.
Kwatisi Bay is really the quintessence of the "Broughton"
anchorage, you are surrounded by cloud-shrouded mountains, evergreens, deep
water and waterfalls; jumping salmon, huge herring balls and sea lions hauling
out on nearby rocks and welcoming porpoises. When the clouds clear you
oooh & ahhh...when the clouds close in, it feels very close.
Photos: Kwatisi Bay anchorage, DC on deck, Rockslide into bay
I decided
that we needed to be tied up to a dock (preferably!) while I sorted out the
problem with the pss. I radioed Kwatisi Bay Marina and made arrangements to come
in to their dock; they were around the corner from where we were anchored. They
said they could make some room for us, and put us around the back so that I
could work on the boat. I got
down into the engine room and found that the bellows on the pss were not
compressed, but obviously the stainless steel collar had not moved! The hose
clamps holding the bellows were all loose. We still are not certain exactly what
happened; however my best guess is that it was not properly reinstalled (not
compressed) when the boat was hauled in 2005 to have the skeg rebuilt in Sidney,
BC. Since I don't motor that much, it was not a real issue until we motored for
56 miles! Then the problem revealed itself. However, there HAD been warning
signals, the intermittent "rattle" I had been hearing but could not locate; so I
am kicking myself a bit!
The owners of Kwatisi Bay marina were marvelous! They had a
precarious cell phone connection which they allowed me to use to call Cody (my
mechanic-guru), to pick his brain. Unfortunately it didn't work too well when
there was a cloud cover hiding the antenna on top of the mountain! Thanks to Max
(the owner of the marina) we were able to recompress the pss and put in new
set-screws to hold it. I had extra setscrews for it onboard, but I was not
nearly strong enough to do the job. So Max did it for me...absolutely
wonderful!!! Basically he saved our summer.... even though I still did not ever
trust the pss completely for the next month-and-half until we returned home. Unfortunately I really didn't relax about the pss for the rest of the cruise...I just didn't trust it.
Photos: Kwatisi Bay Marina, the backside!
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After
getting the pss problem fixed (I hoped) we headed out to explore the Broughtons.
The first day we arrived the sun was out and the sky was clear and the views
gorgeous. However, from the second day on we didn't get very much sun at all.
Only one afternoon and evening of rain...but the days were grey and COLD.
We visited Cypress Harbor which was lovely with great
views and a good anchorage in Berry Cove...wonderful dinking around
there.
We
visited Sullivan Bay to do laundry, which was an experience! Especially
since Cliff got arrested while we were there! Ugly story I WON'T go into! I put
all our clothes in the washers, added the soap etc. and then turned them on and
watched with dismay while the DARK BROWN water poured
into
my laundry!!! My whites definitely did NOT come out white! We had heard about
the tannin in the water in many parts up here, but dismissed it from our mind as
we have a water-maker and never need to fill up at marinas...but my laundry!!
We were on our way to Turnbull Cove, when I found
water in the engine room again, under the shaft...Yikes!! Just a trickle, but
coming not from the pss, but from the raw water feed to the exhaust system. So,
another problem developing...and we were in an area where you MOTOR, and don't
sail. Narrow passages, lots of rocks, wind coming from a different direction
every time you turn a corner. Ok...just a wee more stress! I spent the rest of
the cruise keeping a close eye on the exhaust system.
NEXT -------
Go to Part Seven of 2006 Gunkhole Adventure
Go to Part One of 2006 Gunkhole Adventure
Go to Part Two of
2006 Gunkhole Adventure
Go to Part Three of
2006 Gunkhole Adventure
Go to Part Four of 2006 Gunkhole Adventure
Go to Part Five of 2006 Gunkhole Adventure
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