Cruise
to Princess Louisa Inlet
Second
Installment: June 3, 2013 to June 8,
2013
Silva
Bay, BC, anchorage to Princess Louisa Inlet and back to La Conner
The
end of the first installment to Princess Louisa Inlet left us at Silva
Bay. We stayed there, waiting on the
weather to calm in the Strait of Georgia.
Jerry and I, Jim and Christie Caldwell, and Jim’s brother, Chuck (with
whom we were cruising) took advantage of our stay at Silva Bay to take a hike
to Drumbeg Park, through the temperate rain forest. We came across this old 56 Chevy, slowly
rusting along the trail and Jim Caldwell could not resist posing for the
cameras!
The
park has a fabulous view of Gabriola Passage and the route we had taken just a
few days before. Silva Bay is just
around the corner from here. We had a
warm, sunny afternoon for our walk and enjoyed stretching our legs. We met a man at the park who lived just west
of Gabriola Passage. He had retired
there after a career in Vancouver. He
said it was glorious place to live! Their
weather was very mild, since they lived so close to the water.
Finally,
on Monday, June 3, the winds across the Strait of Georgia sounded do-able. For us that means less than 20 knots and not
opposing the water flow. It wasn’t the
smoothest crossing we’ve had, but with the wind behind us we crossed
quickly. In the photo you can see NOETA
coming up on our port beam and just the barest hint of white caps.
We
decided we liked crossing from Silva Bay, rather than Nanaimo, as we’ve done in
the past. This route put us in a more
direct approach to Merry Island light and Welcome Passage. At this point, we’re back on the British
Columbia mainland side of the Strait and more protected water.
We
cruised north up Agamemnon Channel and saw this interesting trailer house on
stilts in a little fishing settlement.
Rather a unique way to deal with the housing shortage!
It
took us about 5.5 hours to cruise the 45 miles between Silva Bay and this
night’s stop at the little settlement of Egmont. We moored at Backeddy Marina, rather than the
public dock. Even though the public dock
is “public” it’s reserved for the local shrimpers. You can see Cosmo Place at the end of the
dock, NOETA and a large yacht, “Forever”, plus a lot of smaller sailboats and
fishing boats. We’ll see Forever again,
anchored at Chatterbox Falls.
We
arrived at Egmont at 1 PM and decided to take advantage of lots of remaining
daylight hours to walk Sechelt Rapids on Skookumchuck Inlet. (“Skookumchuck” means rapid water). During the big tide changes (spring tides)
standing waves of 12 feet or more develop along with currents of up to 14
knots! The hardy (crazy?) surfers and
kayakers flock to these big waves to test their skill. If you’re curious about the action of this
water, do a search on YouTube for Sechelt Rapids
We were
there in the afternoon on a flood tide…dramatic but not huge. Quiet pools lined the shore and in these calm
waters we saw striking purple starfish of all sizes. There must be something special about the
water here to grow these pretty ones.
The
next morning Jerry and Jim went back to see the ebb tide at the rapids, which
is always bigger. Christie and I just
weren’t up to another five-mile hike through the forest! Jerry said the ebb tide was well worth the
hike and, of course, he felt pretty good that he had walked the 5 miles
again!
During
these ebbs, huge whirlpools appear…large enough to swallow whole boats. There have been lots of drowning deaths here:
most recently two rescue volunteers died when their RIB (rigid inflatable boat)
overturned in the current. Also on
YouTube is a video of a tugboat capsizing as the barge it was towing pulled it
under!
Tuesday,
June 4, we timed our departure with “low slack” so we could take the boats
through Sechelt Rapids. The rapids are a
little side trip on our way to Princess Louisa Inlet, but we were curious to
view the rapids from the boat on slack.
I must say, I was a little uneasy at the whole idea, but Jim and Jerry
timed our transit perfectly.
It’s
only 40 NM from Egmont to the public dock at Chatterbox Falls, at the head of
Princess Louisa Inlet, but it’s some of the prettiest country we’ve seen in
British Columbia. In fact Erle Stanley
Gardner said, There is no scenery in the world that can beat it. Not
that I've seen the rest of the world. I don't need to, I've seen Princess
Louisa Inlet.”
I’ll
just bore you with a few more shots that I couldn’t resist.
In
the photo above, NOETA is posing below a peak and waterfalls in Princess Royal
Reach.
To
travel to the inlet we cruised through three reaches: Prince of Wales Reach, Princess Royal Reach,
and Queens Reach. (Why these three
short, straight fjords are called reaches escapes me!) Evidence of glacial activity was all around
us…from the peaks thousands of feet overhead to the depth sounder reporting
thousands of feet below our keel.
As we came around Patrick
Point, between Princess Royal and Queens Reaches, we met a pod of 5 orcas. Yay!!
It was great to have NOETA travelling with us so they could get this
great shot of Cosmo Place.
We floated and watch these
amazing sea mammals slowly swim down in reach, and we thought they were
probably just out for a lovely afternoon cruise.
We were somewhat prepared for
the fantastic scenery since we had just read the book, “Adventuring to Princess
Louisa Inlet”, by Betty Wright. We had
met Betty at Anacortes Lutheran Church a few months ago and sat and listened, slack-jawed,
as she regaled us with her adventures.
She and her husband took an 18’ powerboat from Anacortes to Chatterbox
Falls in 1957! She’s in her 80’s now,
and still telling her stories and showing her slides to anyone who is
interested. In fact, we saw her again at
the Nordic Tug Rendezvous in Anacortes a couple of weeks later.
Entry into Princess Louisa
Inlet includes transiting Malibu Rapids.
Yep, another tight squeeze through which water rushes four times a
day. The NOETA crew had been here
before, so we let them take the lead as we crossed the rapids at high
slack. It’s a short, blind dogleg, so we
made our “Securite, Securite” call, warning other boaters that we were coming
through. Complicating the passage is the
point around which we travelled, home to Malibu Beach Camp. This camp, run by Younglife (a non-sectarian
Christian organization for teenagers) is on the point in the middle of the
rapids. In the photo above, NOETA is
passing in front of the swimming pool, where about 50 kids were swimming and
waving to us as we passed. It was an
unusual boating moment: watching the
chart plotter to dodge the rocks and shallows as these campers were diving and
rowing, and skiing and sailing around us!
Later in the day, we took the
dinghies back down the inlet for a tour of the camp. The history of the facility is interesting. From Wikipedia: Thomas F. Hamilton began
construction of the Malibu Club in 1940, named after his yacht, the MV Malibu.
This was the first of a planned series of resorts throughout Princess Louisa Inlet.
The club opened in July 1941, but its operations were suspended until the end
of World War II
in 1945. From that point until 1950, the
facility was open as a premium resort. Visitors included John Wayne, Senator
John F. Kennedy, Barbara Stanwyck, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope. The club faced
financial problems due to the limited transportation access and the limited
two-month window of good weather. In 1948, a polio death and related quarantine
further damaged business prospects. Hamilton's Malibu Club was closed in 1950.
Young Life,
a Christian association, agreed to purchase the facilities from Hamilton in
December 1953 and has operated the Malibu Club facility since. Hamilton had put
a $1,000,000 price tag on the property, but sold it to Jim Rayburn,
the founder of Young Life, for $300,000 after visiting other Young Life camps
in the area.
It’s about 4 NM from Malibu
Rapids to Chatterbox Falls, down another lovely fjord. The screen shot of the chart plotter above shows
our location moored at the public dock.
Since we were there early in the season we had few neighbors. We’ve heard that at the peak of the season
both the dock and the inlet are full of boats.
Anchoring here would be exciting…in 400+ feet of water!
Chatterbox Falls begin high
up on the cliff in the left of the photo and are really a collection of lots of
little falls from above. Since the snow
was still melting on the peaks around us, we saw many falls and cascades, as
the water tumbled down to the inlet. As
you can imagine, the noise of the falls was dramatic, and the name “Chatterbox”
for the falls was very apt.
We visited with a couple from
Victoria who was moored at the dock.
They were from Victoria and spend a couple of months here in the spring
before all the crowds arrived. Imagine
what that would be like: no electricity,
no available water (and no watermaker on the boat!), no nearby grocery stores,
and no crowds! You can see from the
photo of their boat they’ve used every square inch of deck space for storage. The white canvas on top of the house is set
to catch rainwater. They fish and crab
and prawn in the inlet and have brought freeze-dried supplies. This wouldn’t work for us, but they love
their life here and enjoy the solitude.
Although there aren’t many
hiking trails, we did walk out onto the beach below the falls at low tide and
closer to the falls. Along the trail
there is a pavilion erected to the memory of Jim MacDonald. He purchased the area in 1919 and lived there
for many years, finally donating it to the Princess Louisa International
Society in 1963. BC Parks has owned it
since 1964.
It was a wet, humid walk and
we definitely needed our rain gear. Along the way we passed this huge fallen tree,
with a good sized tree growing out of the trunk. We’ve seen lots of these as we’ve explored
the rain forests in British Columbia and SE Alaska.
Again, I have to bore you
with more photos. This was an amazing
spot and I took lots and lots of shots.
Next time we’re together, we’ll be able to bore you even more!
We’re standing on the little
rocky beach in front of the falls. Of
course, we could only do this during low tide!
At high tide all of this disappears underwater.
Cosmo Place and I are on the
public dock at Chatterbox Falls. I was
out for a photo shoot the first morning we were there and Jim Caldwell took my
picture with Cosmo Place. You can
see the sun has just touched the tops of the fjord behind us. It would be another hour before we had sun on
the boat.
As we came in to the inlet, we
did see a family of sea otters floating on the surface. As soon as I had my camera in my hand, they
had disappeared, of course! We watched a
family of mergansers swimming, fishing and exploring the tidelands. I suspect this couple had a nest somewhere
close by. Along the beach and along the
trail we saw blooming wild roses, Alberta’s provincial flower.
Low slack through Malibu
Rapids was at 1145 on Thursday, June 6, so we had a leisurely departure as we
began our return journey to La Conner.
The weather was beautiful and we were soon in our shirtsleeves. The view through the front windows of the
pilothouse was amazing!
Because we had left rather
late, we thought we would anchor or moor somewhere just short of crossing the
Strait of Georgia, and had our eyes on Buccaneer Bay. The afternoon weather report told us that
Friday in the strait would be choppy and windy, so we chose to keep
cruising. Such a good plan! We had a flat crossing and went back to good
ol’ Silva Bay. We moored at the dock at
1940, having traveled 76 NM. That’s a
long run for us!
Since we’d just been in Silva
Bay, we were familiar with the slip assignment they gave us and knew that our moorage would be a skinny little slip. Thankfully we had lots of hands to grab our
lines and ensure a safe “landing”. The
boat across the finger from us was full of partyers and we were a little
concerned about a raucous night next door!
We soon learned that Silva
Bay was holding their annual fishing derby and these folks were among the
participants. They must have seen the
looks on our faces because they quickly offered us a bowl of seafood
chowder…freshly caught and freshly made. I couldn’t resist a picture of my bowl! Of course, poor Jer had to pass, since he’s
allergic to shellfish and this soup was full of shrimp and clams and oysters
and….yum!!!
Friday morning we left Silva
Bay at 1000, anticipating slack water in Gabriola Passage. It was a gusty,
windy day all the way down Trincomalie Channel.
Our crossing of Haro Strait into the US was one of our rougher ones. The wind was gusting to 30 knots on our bow
so we saw plent of white caps as we bounced along. Once again, we were able to clear customs
over the phone as we entered US waters…sure beats stopping at the customs dock!
We really like Friday Harbor,
and have stopped here many times.
Tonight’s moorage put us closer to the ferry terminal and their comings
and goings were quite entertaining. In
the photo you can see one WA state ferry pulling in as the other is
departing.
Ten o’clock Saturday morning
we were headed to La Conner. The tides
in the marina are huge right now, so we tried to time our passage to coincide
with slack water in Swinomish Channel.
Our estimates weren’t too accurate, however, since we cruised down San
Juan Channel on an amazing ebb and were doing 10 knots at 1250 RPM! Consequently, we decided to stop in
Anacortes, Cap Sante Marina, to get some groceries. This accommodating marina will assign us a
slip for a couple of hours, without charge, so we can walk to Safeway…just
across the street. We’ve become pretty
adept at buying a lot of groceries without a car to transport them. We take our portable handcart and load it
up.
As we passed March Point and
refineries there, we saw these two big tankers parked at the dock…unusual to
see two offloading at the same time. The
ship on the right is “British Beech” and I looked up her “vital statistics on
the internet:
·
Ship
Type: Crude oil tanker
·
Year
Built: 2003
·
Length
x Breadth: 240 m X 42 m
·
Gross
Tonnage: 58070 t
·
Deadweight: 106138 t
· Speed recorded (Max / Average): 13.5 / 13 knots
The close-up on the
right shows the crew escape pod. That
would be quite a ride to the water!
We arrived back in La
Conner Saturday afternoon about 1530…perfect timing! The current was negligible and the winds were
calm. We had cruised 328 miles and had
seen new, beautiful waterways. I think
we would go back to Chatterbox Falls again!
It was good to be back
in our home berth, but we’ll have a quick turn around. Ardith and her brother, Jon, and sister-in-law,
Norma, were due on Monday, June 10 for an overnight cruise. We’ll tidy up the boat, wash it down, do some
laundry, and get ready for our next adventure.
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