Echo Bay to Sullvan Bay then retrace back to Bremerton

This is the last blog on this trip we took to the Brouhton Islands in the summer(?) of 2008. I did a lousy job of putting it together since the spaces between the photos is way too much but when i tried to fix that, i lost the whole damn thing.

so bear with me if you want to see the photos etc.

I have a lot of photos that show the area up there.

This is view some float homes at Sullivan Bay

We left Echo Bay for Sullivan Bay which is at the north end of the Broughton Islands. It has very nice float homes there and is close to some good salmon fishing. However, during this trip no one reported good fishing.

The manaager of this marina showed me where to fish for prawns and how to do it. Finally i caught some.

We left here for our return trip and planned to go back to Lagoon Cove since it is the last stop before having to travel over 40 miles to Blind Channel.

This is at Sullivan Bay. No place to get to land here but the floating homes are more to my style than Potts Lagoon.

This shows the few buildings here - restaurant and store,.and some of the float homes which are fairly new. The owners all pitched in and bought this marina so they can control things like the upkeep etc.

We got back to Lagoon Cove and stayed for two days waiting for the right conditions as it would get pretty foggy in the mornings now. While there, a group of large Grand Banks trawlers came in all in a row. It was a charter out of Bellingham and the people can fly to Anchorage and "captain" the boat back with the group or go from Bellingham and fly home or boat back again. They are all novices except a couple of them and of course they have a professional captain lead the "ducklings" So when they said they were going in the fog down Johnstone Straits, I knew Merlyn would go if they were with us and so asked them if we could tag along. It was 8 trawlers and a Bayliner. The leader would radio the group regularly to say how fast were were going ( 4 to 7 knots) and warn us of debris in the water - currents etc.

Here is Prime Time in the Johnstone Straits as viewed from one of the GB boats. As soon as we got far enough south to see the fog was lifting, we parted from them and went through Johnstone Straits and Current Pass to get to Blind Channel and they went up Sunderland Channel. We got there an hour and 45 minutes sooner!

Here is a photo of Squirrel Cove where we stopped on the way back after we left Blind Channel. This was a very crowded anchorage and we had a hard time getting a place that was not too close to another boat. We ended up in the outer bay but it was ok. Then we headed for Secret Cove. Both of these trips were quite long like about 5 hours each.

Here is another of Squirrel Cove.

Here is Merlyn at Secret Cove which is across Georgia Straits from Naniamo and we planned to wait for calm weather, but due to Whiskey Golf being planned for that day - 2days later, we made the decision to leave one day early. That was not a good idea as the captain said she'd never ever cross any straits again. But i did not dare tell her that we had the Rosario Straits left to cross. :>)

We left early the second morning and sure enough the wind did blow a bit and so we took water over the windshield and lots of salt spray. Not good for friendly relations.

Here is one of the worst floating homes right in the harbor at Naniamo! And, the Dinghy Pub is still there after 20 some years. it has expanded and now has ferries bringing tourists every hour. the food is just ok. But it is grease and salt so i like it.

This is Thetis Island Marina near another marina morewell-known as Telegraph Harbor. we like this one better and saw our condo neighbors here Brian and Cindy Belka by chance.

This is Genoa Bay marina one of our favorite places. the restaurant is very good especially the roast duck! The bay has lots of good anchorage too.

Here is the next stop - Brentwood Bay hotel and marina next to Buchart Gardens. It is a newer hotel and very nice with a great restaurant and a pub. I could n ot resist the photo of the sunset as we did not see many due to the weather.

Brentwood has a thousand condos on the water there.

One of the best things was the fireworks display on Saturday night. Every Saturday during the summer they have the show at Buchart Gardens and it is well worth seeing if you like a good fireworks show.

From here we went to Sidney (blah) and then back to Roche Harbor for 6 days! We then went to Anacortes to have some work done onthe boat and then to Kingston for 2 days as the weather began to improve once we left Brentwood.

This is how Lexi felt when we got to Kingston and that shows how the other half of the crew felt too.

It is good to be home. We learned a lot about the Broughtons, about the boat, and about each other.

Two months on a boat will do that. Merlyn was a good sport to even go and she helped me a lot through the trip.

SEE YA

Potts Lagoon to Echo Bay

I AM SORRY these pics are in reverse order.
thhis is the fuel dock at Sullivan Bay.
























Here is the pig on a spit made from a boat propeller shaft.

Here is how all of these places are able to provide fuel and electricity. This fuel barge carries petroleum and propane.



a This is Windsong resort across the little bay from Echo Bay it is an "artist's marina. No power, water or other niceties. But pierre andhis investors bought it out last January. The use it for overflow when they are packed with the pig roast boaters.


















This house is part of Windsong and is on a barge set on a tide grid. It was the home of the original Windsong owner/couple who ended up divorced. then it just sat for the last 10 years or so. Looks like a ghost house.
This pic is of Pierre who had a marina at Pierre's Lodge near Echo Bay. He and his wife, Tove bought Echo Bay and moved their major buildings here. They are well-known for the pig roast they do every Sat night. They change the theme around this is pirates night. we all are pirates.
Here are Merlyn and Richard at the pig roast we had a very good tijme. we happended to be with three other boats from our yacht club. Lots of joking and fun. the night before, merlyn and i had dinner here at steak night. I was complaining to the people we just met at our table about forgetting my meds for acid reflux. The guy next to me happens to be a GP in Canada and he gave me NEXIUM for 5 weeks supply to get well untll we are back. Wow!

Echo Bay looking back out the entry that is Deerleap to the left an old and "famous" yatch belonged to movie stars. Well, something like that :>)

I plan to send more pics in the next day or two - we are headed south and are at Blind Channel yestereday we traveled 50 miles south from lagoon Cove. While at Sullivan Bay i learned more about shrimping and actually caught some.

The tale of our traveling on Johnstone Straits south in fog is a little amusing and will cover that next.

sea ya

Thank Jackie for collecting our mail!

Lagoon Cove to Potts Lagoon

These are floating homes on PottsLagoon a former logging camp. apparently you can just anchor here and build your home. they were pretty rustic.















This is Pott Lagoon looking toward the narrow entrance

This was the most delapidated of the floating homes.

We left Lagoon Cove to Potts Lagoon as my friend Doug said that was a good place to get crabs and shrimp. We anchored near the end of the lagoon but ended up close to a commercial fish boat and that proved to be a mistake. The weather had turned and it was cold and rainy. We spent the night without much sleep because the chain tothe anchor banged, slammed and groaned and the wind howled through the lagoon. My boat swung on the anchor like a pendulum on a clock and each time we would get close to that fish boat. I was
afraid we would get too close and we would have to move the boat.





About 3 am merlyn could go back to the bed for a little sleep as the wind died down.





The rain continued for the next day and finally let up that second night. We got a quiet night and were glad for that. I had not put out any traps due to the cold rain etc.





The morning after that quiet night we decided to leave and go to Echo Bay but when i was using the winch to get the anchor up, it began to strain - a bad sign.





It turned out we had caught the end of a huge cable used by the loggers years ago in this lagoon and with my good luck, i was able to get the anchor to the bow pulpit. There i saw the cable and decided to just grab it and heave it off. I could not budge it as it was very heavy. One end hung over one fluke and the rest over the other and into the water as far as i could see down into the water. Ok, i will hacksaw it off. Yeah, the blade was softer than the stainless steel cable. I did not know it was stainless as it was solid black corrosion on its surface.





But who should arrive to save the day but one of those traditional sail boaters and he said, "tie the cable to your bow pulpit and lower the anchor slowly to me and i will get the cable off. Then you cut the rope hold the cable to the bow." What a brain! I was so dumb. Of course it worked and we were on our way.





I chose to go the route through Beware Passage since that is about 10 miles less than the other choice. the problem is, that route is through narrow passages littereed with rocks aboveand below the water. We could not even see the passage until we were right on it. Thanks to Nobeltec we could see the boat's location relative to the rocks. It was a little nerve racking too.





We got to Echo Bay which was a broken down little marina for sale at least three years and had just sold to Pierre xx who owned a marina near by. He is famous for his pig roasts and had gotten so popular that he bought this place and moved the operation here. In four monthshe re-built the marina to a pretty nice place. Part of the breakwater is one of the pontoons from the I-90 floating bridge that we all so happlily replaced.





We are required to stay for two nights to partake in the pig roast.

Forward Harbor to Lagoon Cove

This is Lagoon Cove's meeting hall for boaters wherethey serveup fresh-cooked shrimp and you bring an appetizer for all.

We left Blind Channel and headed ouot to Greene Point Rapids where the water was running but not enough to influence the boat much. We got to Forward Harbor by traversing the scary Whirlpool rapids. They were nothing even an hour after slack current so we are lucky.

These photos show the heightof the mountains around theharbor and the calm water.

We headed for Lagoon Cove in the morning up the Johnstone Straits which are usually very rough but as luck would have it, we were on a lake the whole way.





We had to traverse Chtham Channel that is very narrow and i was apprehensive since you have to line up two markers one in front and one at the rear to stay in deep enough water, but that too was not much of a problem and luck still held since a tug was coming the opposite way and by speeding up i got through before having to give way to it.





Lagoon Cove is very nice. I plan to do some crabbing and fishing for shrimp finally.





see ya

Blind Bay to Forward Harbor

Blind Channel look toward route to FWD Harbor.

refuge cove and beyond to echo bay

This is "ape mount" our name for it at Blind Channel

Looking back at Gillard Rapids from Dent.

Refuge Cove Store

We spent a night here and fueled up - $6.30 per US gallon. The store had a lot of good stuff for sale and we enjoyed the stay but left the next day for Dent Island. To get there, we have to traverse the DREADED rapids. The Yaculta Rapids and the Gillard Rapids to the marina. We plan to get to them at slack current. Merlyn is very worried after reading Wagoners reports about them. I call Wagoner's the "scardy cat" version of boating advice.

We came to the rapids and Merlyn and i were pleased to see they were calm!

Well, as you can see, i have no idea how to space the pics out so they make more sense. the one at the left is DentIsland Lodge. This place is totally rebuilt and VERY fancy compared to all the otehr places. It is owned by the Nordstroms and another "well known" Seattle family. It caters to her yatch and those of her acquaintances but it is open to the public. most of the boats there are about 55 feet to 70 feet but then, there are some 27 ft and one 47 too. :>)

The moorage rate is unheard of even in Seattle - $3.50 pere foot overall length so a 47 is really 54. Then you can have dinner for $90 per person. IT was delicious and very well prepared etc. and service was as expected. There is Merlyn standing before the smaller rapids next to Dent Island lodge. it is called Canoe rapids and many smaller charter fishing boats go up it even when it is flowing pretty fast.

We are headed to Blind Channel in the morning going through the Dent Rapids.

Well of course it was slack current time and they were tame, but i will say that for a slack current they were pretty active.

Blind Channel is pretty good they have a complete store, fuel, etc. and a restaurant so we had dinner there. It was ok but that is all. Two Roche Harbor Yacht club boats showed up on their way north too. We had lunch together and a good time being experts. Their schedule is short and i cannot understand why anyone would go all this way for a two week stay. But they have been here many times and love it.

We stayed two nights becuase it was so nice and the weather has been wonderful so far.

Prime Time to Naniamo and the to Pender Harbor then Refuge Cove

lots of contruction going on in Naniamo

We left Montague and went through Dodd Narrows at slack current so avoided the rough currents. We got on a new dock at some condominium project part of the port's marina. it was a nice dock. Huge boats around us so i felt lucky to be on it.

view from PT in Pender Harbor

We did a lot of shopping for groceries and stuff like well, champagne! After two nights we headed across the Georgia Straits and met up with some good sized waves and wind but not too awful, just had to go slow. We made it to Pender Harbor after leaving Nanaimo at 5:30 AM it was about 11 AM. Pender Harbor is a nice place but we stayed at the wrong marina and so were subject to a lot of boat wakes. Doug Brown my favorite retail real estate broker, was at the back of the bay at Garden Inn and hotel/marina. He is taking his 42 Grand Banks to Campbell River to meet up with his son and his wife. He had a friend helping him navigate to here - Dick Lundquist. So, we left Grand Times after a couple beers and lunch.

After two nights we headed for Grac Hrbor in Desolation Sound. It is a nice little bay almost surrounded by mountains - well hills. we stayed two nights in the QUIET bay. A welcome relief from Naniamo and even Pender.

We were without internet but had phones there and that was a surprise. Now after 2 nights there we are at Refuge Cove for fuel, and some provisions like clothes for Merlyn, a chart for me.