Prince Rupert to Port McNeill – “The long way home” – Part 2

The morning of August 16 we left Shearwater Marina for Codville Lagoon, dropping prawn pots before we anchored.  Since it was still early, we dropped the kayaks into the water and paddled to shore.  We then hiked 2 km trail to Sagar Lake and its lovely sandy shores.

After picking up our prawn pots (enough for a meal or two) on the way out, we headed down to fish outside Gold Stream Harbor.  We’ve anchored there in the past but the forecasted strong westerly winds persuaded us to continue further south after fishing (unproductive) to Fish Egg Inlet.  We dropped prawn pots part way in then worked our way to the very back and anchored in the shallow waters of Oyster Bay.

The next morning, August 18, we headed out to fish Addenbroke Island where we had seen lots of guide sport fishing boats the day before.  They were there when we arrived and we joined the melee, a blundering 50’ goliath amongst more agile 20’ davids.  While Marcia got some good hits on her gear there was no firm bite.  We stopped to pull our prawn pots as went back into Fish Egg Inlet to anchor.  The first pot had a nice haul of prawns, the second pot felt equally heavy as we pulled it in but its heft came from an octopus in it surrounded by prawn carcasses.  We opened the pot and let the octopus ooze its way back into the water. 

We were concerned with the third pot as the line was initially snagged on the bottom but we ultimately retrieved it and its load of prawns to the surface.  We reset the pots but in a location a distance away from where we returned the octopus.  For the night we anchor in a cove south of a passage called “The Narrows”.

After the excitement of the day before, when we pull pots we aren’t sure what to expect.  The first two pots had a good number of prawns but the third one we pulled up had another octopus.  This octopus was a bit smaller than the previous days catch and we quickly returned him to the water.  We decided to give this area a rest and did not reset the prawn pots.  We first fished Addenbroke where we had two good hooks but Kurt botched the netting at the swim step on the first fish and the line at the hook broke on the second one.  We headed off next to Gold Stream to fish the afternoon bite.  After a couple of hours trolling (and not seeing any other boats fishing), we conclude the fish aren’t here.  We head to Pruth Bay for the night.  As we make our way there, we watch our engine hour gauge roll over another thousand hours of operation to 4,000.

Figuring that Addenbroke Island is “the” place for fishing, we head back there on Saturday, August 20.  After several days of no fish caught, Marcia hooks and brings up a nice size coho salmon.  We call it a day and head to Green Island to anchor.  After the fish is cleaned and fileted, we drop the kayaks and paddle around this delightful anchorage.

We had been monitoring weather for crossing around Cape Caution, one of the few sections of the Inside Passage with prolonged exposure to ocean swells and conditions.  We decided that Monday, August 22, looked like good conditions. On August 21, we first fished Addenbroke Island where Marcia caught one more coho salmon then we headed into Fury Cove to join the other boats waiting to cross.

The next morning, August 22, started off nicely but the NW wind did pick up as the day progressed.  We put our stabilizing fish in the water to reduce the boat’s rolling motion caused by ocean swell which it did nicely.  Our original intent was to stop at Blunden Harbor but when we started to go in, the wind was brisk enough that there were white caps in the anchorage so we continued on.  We ended up in Napier Bay on N Broughton Island which was very calm but not particularly scenic on account of past logging activity.

The next day we headed into Drury Inlet and make our way to Jennis Bay Marina. Considerable logging has taken place in the area which offer logging roads on which to walk so we did a 5 mile round trip hike to a vista overlooking Drury Inlet and Jennis Bay.  At happy hour we were able to meet the other boaters on the dock, a treat you can’t easily do if your anchored out (especially you are by yourself).

The Broughtons are a compact area so it was a short day to the next anchorage in Burly Bay in MacKenzie Sound.  A dramatic cliff stands above the anchorage. 

On Thursday, August 25, we worked our way along the inside channels to the cozy and quiet anchorage in Lady Boot Cove (aka “East of Eden Cove”) on Eden Island.  It is ony a 1 or 2 boat anchorage and you have no visibility as to whether anyone is in it until you are almost in.  We had it to ourselves for the night.

We completed this leg of our journey the next morning when we traveled through the thick fog blanketing Queen Charlotte Strait to Port McNeill arriving late morning on August 26, 23 days after leaving Prince Rupert