Echo Bay, BC to LaConner, WA September 4 - 12

Raindancer at Echo Bay Marina

     While we were in Echo Bay we also met Jim and Kathy on Raindancer, a lovely 60 foot Selene.  Jim and Kathy are apple farmers from Wenatchee, WA, and have been boating and coming to Alaska for years.  In fact, Jim came to Alaska as a teenager.  They had lots of great stories to tell and we’re always ready to hear boating adventures.  They were also headed south Sunday morning, 9/4, so we travelled together for a ways. swapping stories.

Beautiful scenery in Blackfish Sound

     Sunday morning we headed southwest through the edge of the Broughton’s and out into Blackfish Sound.  We had lovely weather and some spectacular scenery.  This photo is taken of the mainland BC mountains to the east.  Obviously, they are high enough so that they are always snow covered.  Our route took us out into Queen Charlotte Strait, which has the reputation of being windy and rough.  We were fortunate, though, and fairly smooth water and not a lot of wind.

     Our destination for anchorage on Sunday night was Douglas Bay in Forward harbor.  Ironically we had thought we would anchor here on our way north in May, but had lots of daylight left when we arrived at this pont so we kept going and eventually anchored in Baresides Bay, Port Neville.  That was a particularly ugly anchorage!

     Forward harbor is just on the north end of all those rapids we went through on the way up with Chuck.  (Do you remember that story?  We thought we had 3 sets of rapids to traverse.  We knew we needed to arrive at the first set of rapids just before “slack water” and check and rechecked our calculations.  We ended up following “Georgia Lee”, a big cruiser through the rapids and, after successfully making through those three sets of rapids we were feeling pretty smug.  The Georgia Lee captain really burst our bubble when he told us we had two more sets of rapids to go!) 

Sunrise in Forward Harbor

     Our anchorage in Forward Harbor, near Rainmaker, was lovely.  We dropped the dinghy so we could join Jim and Kathy for dinner.  What a treat to “eat out” in the middle of nowhere!  Eventually there were four boats in addition to ours anchored here for the night.  Yep, a pretty place!  The photo is of Forward Harbor at sunrise on Monday morning.

     Monday morning we pulled out of Forward Harbor, turned south, and almost immediately were in the first set of rapids…Whirlpool Rapids.  Our plan was to go through the rapids at high water slack…and we would chase this perfect condition as we proceeded south.  The five sets of rapids cover a distance of about 30 miles…almost four hours of travelling time for us, at 8 knots an hour.  Our goal, as always, was navigate the rapids in calm water and avoid the whirlpools that can form in these areas…and we did just that!  We had no problems at all.  Hmmmm, maybe we’ve learned a thing or two in our travels this summer.

Dahl's porpoises in Cordero Channel

     Jim, Kathy, and Raindancer left us after Green Point Rapids, choosing to spend another night in this lovely country.  We continued on.  The most exciting event through the rapids was seeing this flock? flotilla? herd?  bevy? of Dahl's porpoises headed north in the channel.  There must have been 3 or 40 of them swimming past us...arcing and jumping through the water.  Quite a site!

Resort in Big Bay

     About halfway through the run, we came to an area called Big Bay…just after Dent Rapids.  This area has several big resorts, complete with docks, power boats, and golf courses crawling up the steep hillsides.  Since this was Labor Day…both in the US and Canada…everyone seemed to be frantically packing in a last day of fun on the water.  This photo shows you one of the more spectacular resorts.

Sunset at Squirrel Cove

     We spent Monday night (Labor Day) in Squirrel Cove.  We had stopped here on the way up, but had moored at the small dock.  This time we proceeded into the cove and a very quiet, but busy anchorage.  I counted 16 other boats anchored here.  Although pretty, it wasn’t the isolated, serene anchorages we’ve become accustomed to.  This anchorage is on the edge of Desolation Sound, a very popular cruising destination and very accessible from Canada and Washington.  We didn’t explore Desolation Sound itself…it’s supposed to be beautiful…and put it on the list for next year.

Pulp mill at Powell River, Malaspina Strait

     We made a fuel stop in Powell River, on the Malaspina Strait.  Powell River has a huge pulp mill and this is the mill that replaced the pulp mill at Ocean Falls, that sad little abandoned town we had visited.  We resolved to never stop here again…the fuel dock was difficult to get to, tiny and very expensive.  At this point we were sooooo ready to get back to the US!

Pender Harbor houses

     The folks on a sailboat next to us in our slip in LaConner recommended stopping in Pender Harbor.  They love this spot, just half an hour or so north of Vancouver, and we decided that would be our stop on Tuesday night.  Since we’ve become big fans of anchoring out, we did not even consider using one of the many moorages in Pender Harbor, and there were lots of marinas!  It’s a very crowded place with lots of houses on the hillsides.  Our boating book references directed us to an anchorage in front of a park with “good holding in sticky mud”.  We had a difficult time anchoring…could not get the anchor to bite!  We could hear it dragging over the rocks.  Never good!  Finally we got the anchor to hold and it was a good thing…we had lots of boats anchored around us…took everybody several times to get a good anchor set.  Although we had a warm, sunny afternoon and a quiet night, we both slept with one eye open, worrying about our anchor holding.  We left at daylight the next morning and were glad to leave!

     Tuesday our destination was Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island, in the US!  Yippee!!  We crossed the Strait of Georgia with absolutely no problems.  The seas were flat and the winds were calm.  I love it when it’s like that!  We chose Prevost Harbor because we’d been there before with both Jill and Bob and Donald and Dorothy.  We remembered it to be a quiet little anchorage, well-protected and out of the way.  Well, apparently the Canadians have discovered it…it’s only about 5 miles over the border!  I think there were 20 boats anchored there around us!  It was a lovely, warm, sunny afternoon so we didn’t really mind all of our neighbors.  We’ve had so few sunny days that it was a pleasure to sit in the cockpit, read our books, and watch the dinghies buzz around the harbor.

Smokey exploring the neighboring nordic tug

     Our slip in LaConner would not be available to us until the end of the weekend (we had sublet our slip for the summer) so we took off for Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes.  Greg, the boat broker we used to purchase Cosmo Place, has become a good friend and he can always find a slip for us on his Nordic Tug dock.  As it turned out, we rafted to another Nordic Tug and sat right next to the shore.  We had a great view of the bark park, and the marina.  Smokey really enjoyed wandering the decks of the boat to which we rafted.

     We were able to walk to the grocery store and get wonderful fresh produce…something we didn’t see much of in Canada!  It was great to be back inn contact with friends and family through cell phone and Internet service.  We even went to the movies one night and saw “The Help” about black maids in Mississippi during the 60’s.  It was excellent! 

Sunset bonfire in Washington Park

     Saturday we were invited to a potluck supper/bonfire in Washington Park on the north side of Anacortes, facing Guemes Channel.  It was a clear, crisp evening and we watched the full moon rise over the trees.  Magic!

     Sunday morning we went to church at Anacortes Lutheran and caught up with the many folks we’ve become acquainted with there.  It felt like we were home!

     Monday afternoon our slip was free, so we brought the boat back to LaConner.  I’m working frantically to get the last entry to the blog finished.  Jerry is changing oil and then we begin cleaning the boat, inside and out.  The cat fur alone will keep me busy for a few days.  We’ll also wax the outside of the boat and winterize it, so that we can leave it for several months.

     So, there you have it…the whole story of our trip.  We were gone 16 weeks and one day and put 357 hours on the engine.  How many miles?  Well, I don’t know since the boat doesn’t have an odometer.  Figuring the distances is a winter project using the navigation software.  That will take me awhile!  Had I been a little more on the ball, I would have been figuring distances since we departed…oh well!

     We are already talking about next year’s trip to Alaska and hope you will be able to come along!