Prince Rupert to Port McNeill – “The long way home” – Part 1

After celebrating Marcia’s birthday at the Cow Bay Café, we continued the next leg of our journey south by heading over to Edye Pass on the north side of Porcher Island and fishing the afternoon slack.  Marcia got her first Canadian coho salmon of the season before we headed into Hunt Inlet for the night.

The next day, August 4, we made the trek down Ogden and Petrel Channels towards Principe Channel.  We were continually surprised at the remarkable changes in our speed over ground due to eddies and back eddies as we went around the many points and bends in Petrel Channel.  As we entered Principe Channel, we encountered the forecast NW winds of 20-25 knots.  We ferried 2 miles across Principe Channel and anchored for the night in Colby Bay.

On August 5, we did a short day and went to the north cove of Patterson Inlet, also know as  Princess Diana Cove.  It was an extraordinarily lovely anchorage, land locked with steep mountains on two sides and lower hills on the other two.  We dropped the kayaks down and paddled around the anchorage.

The next day was devoted to fishing, stopping first in Otter Channel for the early slack, then heading up to the NW corner of Gill Island for the afternoon.  The salmon successfully eluded Marcia at both although there were some good hits at the lure.  We anchored in Hawk Bay on Fin Island for the night.

August 7 was another fishing day with the early bite being at Money Point at the south tip of Hawkesbury Island and the afternoon bite again at the NW corner of Gill Island.  Marcia released 2 pink salmons but no coho salmon were caught.  The very convenient Hawk Bay was again the anchorage.

We headed out the next morning for Laredo Channel, stopping first at Ulric Point for a little fishing.  Marcia managed to coax a salmon into remaining hooked (the Canadian fishing regulations require barbless hooks for salmon fishing) so we didn’t come away empty handed.  Our destination for the night was Alston Cove in Laredo Inlet, a very lovely anchorage.

We continued our explorations in Laredo Inlet the next day, first looking for some halibut fishing areas which proved to be illusory, then dropping some prawn pots outside the Bay of Plenty (a promising name!) where we anchored for the night.

The next morning, August 10, we pulled the first pot with some hopeful expectations which were dashed when we found the pot was totally bare of sea life even though the bait (salmon belly and herring) were stripped clean.  Our expectations now set appropriately, the next two pots did not disappoint when they too were barren.  We continued to the head of Laredo Inlet, which was lovely but had no suitable anchorage so we turned around retraced our path out.  We timed our exit to fish the entry just north of Hastings Island.  Marcia reeled in a lovely coho salmon for the effort.  Our anchorage for the night was Meyers Narrow Cove just off of Meyers Passage.

An early start the next day saw us through Meyers Narrow at slack and then through Milbanke Sound and into Seaforth Channel before the forecasted afternoon winds started.  We fished Idol Point along the way and Marcia was blessed with two coho salmon for her efforts.  We had a lovely afternoon and night anchored in Wigham Cove.

On Friday, August 12, we first headed over to Shearwater Marina hoping to be able to get moorage for the night.  Being high season for the area, the docks were full so we made reservations for the following Monday.  With time on our hands, we cruised up Roscoe Inlet, a spectacularly beautiful channel carved out by a glacier.  It would be even nicer in early season when snow melt from higher elevations cascaded down the steep rocky slopes.  We anchored at the very end sharing it with a sailboat.

Our explorations continued the next day when we exited Roscoe Inlet and headed up Spiller Inlet.  The views were not as nice as the surrounding slopes were less steep and obvious signs of recent and ongoing logging marred them.  We anchored the night in the east cove of Ellerslie Bay.

The next morning, we headed to Idol Point where Marcia again caught two coho.  Idol Point was the obvious hot spot as close to a dozen boats were fishing the area.  For our anchorage, we headed to Discovery Cove on Cunningham Island.

On Monday, August 15, we traveled the short distance to Shearwater, where after a brief wait, we got onto the dock and proceeded to do chores (laundry and an oil change) and some light provisioning.

(To be continued)