S.V. CAMBRIA: April 2017

Fiordland Recreational Area (Part 2)

Friday, April 28, 2017TheCambrians

It’s Way Back Wednesday (or Flashback Friday, in this case), an opportunity to dig through the files and pull out an old blog post to shed some new light on it. Over the years, I’ve written several posts about anchorages we’ve stayed in, including first-hand anchoring information (i.e. holding, protection, GPS coordinates), historical information and things to do. To date, I’ve done 26 of these (they can all be found on our Destinations page) and they’re some of my favourite posts. For the next six months, I’ll be highlighting one every Wednesday (from south to north) and adding a few new ones in where I can. This week, it’s a return to Mussel Inlet in Fiordland Recreational Area.

Disclaimer: This blog article is not to be used for navigation. It is solely an account of our personal experience and anchor location in Mussel Inlet during calm weather conditions. What worked for us at one particular time is no guarantee or indication that it will work for others. There are no services and any boat that enters should be self-sufficient.

One of the things we love the most about cruising in British Columbia is the number of glacial fjords and inlets there are to explore and the opportunity to travel into the mountains . . . by boat. It’s a humbling experience and something we never seem to get tired of doing.

In an area already known for its dramatic scenery and beauty, Fiordland Recreational Area stands out from the rest: A place where glaciers have carved sheer granite cliffs, reaching heights over 1,000 metres (3,300 feet), waterfalls rumble to the sea and wildlife roams the shore. Located in the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation territory, the nature reserve is managed in cooperation with the provincial government and includes 76,825 hectares and two main inlets – Kynoch and Mussel.

By most accounts, Kynoch Inlet is the best. But we disagree. Though only five nautical miles long, Mussel Inlet is equally as beautiful and has just as much to offer the visiting boat . . . maybe more.

According to the BC Parks website, the Mussel River and Poison Cove estuaries, located at the head of Mussel Inlet, are among the most valuable wildlife habitat along the Central Coast, particularly for bears (both black and grizzly). Strict guidelines for visiting the area are in place and enforced, none of which are found in cruising guides. Many are geared towards commercial enterprises but apply to the visiting cruising vessel as well and are listed at the bottom of the page as they appear on the BC Parks website.

Despite the opportunities for an extraordinary wilderness experience while surrounded by dramatic scenery, Fiordland has one major shortcoming – the lack of good anchorages. We’d love to be able to spend the night tucked away in one of its stunning bays and extend our time there but, apart from a few hours anchored at the head of Mussel Inlet, we’ve been unsuccessful so far.

Possible Anchorages and Bays within Mussel Inlet:

Oatswich Bay:

Home to beautiful Lizzette Falls, the bay is too deep and steep-to for convenient anchoring.

David Bay:

Located on the south side of Mussel Inlet near the mouth, David Bay is striking but the head of the bay is steep-to and deep.

Mussel Bay:

In our opinion, Mussel Bay is a temporary day anchorage due to inflow winds and poor holding in sand. Anchorage can be found along the eastern shore off the mud flats of the Mussel River in depths of 10 – 20 metres (22 – 33 feet). From the head of Mussel Inlet, you’re 20 nautical miles (as the crow flies) from the head of Gardner Canal – now on the southern face of the same mountain range, most of the glaciers have long since melted.

Poison Cove:

Named by Captain George Vancouver when several of his men fell ill after eating mussels tainted with PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning) gathered there, Poison Cove offers better protection from wind than Mussel Inlet and is beautiful, ending in an alpine estuary. The center channel is steep-to and goes from depths of 50 metres (165 feet) to 5 metres (16.5 feet) very quickly but it might be possible to find temporary anchorage in 20 metres (66 feet) along either the north or south shore – we’ve never tried.

Windy Bay:

The safest overnight anchorage (again, this is only our opinion) is Windy Bay which is located outside the park boundaries along the southern shore of Sheep Passage. Anchorage can be found throughout the large bay in depths around 15 metres (50 feet) where the holding is good in sand and mud.

Special Regulations Mussel River (Laig) / Poison Cove (Peak Fall Season)

When you arrive in the Mussel River / Poison Cove Area, please contact the Mussel River Guardian Watchmen on Marine Channel 6. As listed below, there are very specific rules and regulations for this area

LAND BASED GUIDED ACCESSS ONLY IN SEPTEMBER in 2014 – with a permitted guide.

AREA CLOSED TO WILDLIFE VIEWING AFTER OCTOBER 15.

Water-Based Viewing Guidelines:

Check in with Mussel River Guardian Watchmen.

Maximum one vessel viewing at a time.

No viewing or boat access upstream of the lower Mussel River Island.

Jet boats are not permitted.

Maximum 18 people in total and all vessels must stay grouped together.

Stay at least 50 M (160 ft) away from bears.

Land- Based Viewing Guidelines:

Allowed with caution but not recommended.

Check in with Mussel River Guardian Watchmen.

Look for a series of rock cairns which will indicate viewing location; do not wander, proceed directly to viewing site and back to your vessel when safe to do so.

No visitor access on lower Mussel River Island and the Mussel Estuary other than designated viewing site. These areas are off limits to viewing, hiking or any other form of access.

Maximum of 14 people permitted on shore at one time. Visitors MUST stay grouped together.

Bear spray required by at least one person who is trained in its use.

Firearms may not be carried while viewing.

No pets are permitted in viewing areas.

Food is not recommended.

For more information, visit BC Parks Fiordland page on their website or the Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu.

Central Coast Destinations Fiordland

Fiordland Recreational Area (Part 1) | Way Back Wednesday

Wednesday, April 26, 2017TheCambrians

It’s Way Back Wednesday, an opportunity to dig through the files and pull out an old blog post to shed some new light on it. Over the years, I’ve written several posts about anchorages we’ve stayed in, including first-hand anchoring information (i.e. holding, protection, GPS coordinates), historical information and things to do. To date, I’ve done 26 of these (they can all be found on our Destinations page) and they’re some of my favourite posts. For the next six months, I’ll be highlighting one every Wednesday (from south to north) and adding a few new ones in where I can. This week, it’s a return to Kynoch Inlet in Fiordland Recreational Area.

Disclaimer: This blog article is not to be used for navigation. It is solely an account of our personal experience and anchor location in Kynoch Inlet during calm weather conditions. What worked for us at one particular time is no guarantee or indication that it will work for others. There are no services and any boat that enters should be self-sufficient.

The Central Coast of British Columbia, from Cape Caution to McInnis Island, is home to thousands of miles of coastline that has seen little change since the glaciers retreated 15,000 years ago. Visiting is like sailing back in time. And nowhere is that more evident than Fiordland Recreational Area. Kynoch Inlet, in particular.

Kynoch Inlet is only 10 miles long but is packed with spectacular scenery: The channel is narrow and everything seems to close in around you. The shoreline disappears into the sea along vertical granite walls. Snow-covered ranges reach heights above 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) and dramatic glacial bowls peak out between the layers of mountains and granite domes. Like most of the Central Coast, it truly has to be seen to be believed.

Arriving at the head of Kynoch Inlet is a little disappointing because the journey appears to be over, but it’s not. Just on the other side of the rapids that protect its entrance lies Culpepper Lagoon, one of the most beautiful sections of Fiordland.

The entrance into Culpepper Lagoon is not charted and we have NOT taken Cambria inside, only our dinghy. So, we don’t have any first-hand information to share. What we can pass on is what we’ve learned from other people:

You should NOT anchor in the northern corner near the entrance to the lagoon because the current is too strong.
Fog can make early morning departures difficult.
If you chose to leave at any time other than slack tide, you will get pushed around and have one heck of a ride (actually, we saw that one first hand).
Grizzly bears roam the shoreline at the head of the lagoon at low tide.
It can be difficult to find a place to anchor, especially if another boat is already in the lagoon.

There are no current predictions for Culpepper Lagoon itself but, from our experience, the times listed for Hiekish Narrows are good indicators. While waiting for slack to occur, temporary anchorage can be found at the head of Kynoch Inlet off the Kainet Creek in 10 – 20 metres (33 to 66 feet).

For more information on entering the lagoon in your vessel, consult the Douglass book, “Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia”.

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Central Coast Destinations Spiller Channel

Spiller Channel | Way Back Wednesday

Wednesday, April 05, 2017TheCambrians

Disclaimer: This blog article is not to be used for navigation. It is solely an account of our personal experience and anchor locations in Spiller Channel during settled weather conditions. What worked for us at one particular time is no guarantee or indication that it will work for others. There are no services in the immediate area and any boat that enters Spiller Channel should be self-sufficient. It is our advice, however, that ONLY dinghies with adequately powered outboard motors enter Ellerslie Lagoon.

When it came to destinations, Spiller Channel wasn't exactly calling our name: The surrounding hills are low and have been heavily logged, a practice that continues today, so the scenery isn’t what we’d consider “enticing”. But in “Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia,” Douglass has this to say about the waterfall located at its head:

Ellerslie Falls . . . in our opinion are the best on the entire British Columbia coast and arguably the entire west coast of North America (p. 201).

A few years ago, we finally allowed ourselves to be influenced by their bold words and made a trip up to see what the excitement was all about . . . and we’re glad we did.

If there’s one thing you can say about Spiller Channel, it’s that it gets off to a slow start: A major logging operation is in full-swing at the southern end of Yeo Island and is one of the first sights to greet you. The channel itself is subject to inflow winds and, when there’s an outgoing tide, the water can be choppy. And the few anchorages located along the passage aren’t very scenic, so the one and only attraction appears to be 20 miles in. In all fairness, we skipped Spiller Inlet and the anchorages north of Coldwell Peninsula, which may or may not be worth visiting, but we did spend a night in Neekas Cove, just off Neekas Inlet.

Neekas Cove isn’t much to look at: The bay ends in a mud flat with log stumps and fallen trees littering the head. The surrounding hills are low and many of them have been clear-cut in the past. But the anchorage is a welcomed break from the chop along Spiller Channel and offers good protection and holding in mud.

Five miles beyond Neekas Inlet, the channel forks –Spiller Inlet to the north and Ellerslie Bay to the west – and the scenery improves. Ellerslie Bay, home to the lagoon and falls, feels closed-off and intimate thanks to the twist and turns of the main channel. Unfortunately, it’s too deep for convenient anchoring but several options in reasonable depths can be found just south of the bay in Ellerslie Anchorage East, a beautiful and quiet spot surrounded by tree-covered hills and steep, rocky shores.

But we weren’t there to enjoy the anchorage. We were there to see the waterfall; and to do that, we needed to get inside the lagoon.

The entrance to Ellerslie Lagoon is infamous because it’s shallow, rocky, uncharted and protected by rapids that roar for all but a few minutes throughout the tidal cycle. The depth in the entrance is reported to be somewhere between four and seven feet at maximum water. Needless to say, our plan was to go in by dinghy.

The problem (or at least one of them) is that the seabed level of the lagoon is approximately 1.8 metres (6 feet) higher than the seabed in Ellerslie Bay, so overfalls are common. The entrance is also rock-strewn, providing the perfect environment for turbulent water. The constant flow from the waterfall adds to the confusion. And the water is muskeg, so visibility is poor. But when it comes to calculating slack tide, the difference in seabed levels is the biggest challenge.

This is NOT an accurate depiction of the seabed for Ellerslie Bay and Lagoon (the bottom is rocky and uneven), only a very basic drawing to illustrate one of the challenges of entering the lagoon.

With at least a two metre differential, we knew that the incoming tide would have to rise beyond that height before the water level inside the lagoon and in Ellerslie Bay would be the equal – according to the Douglass book, that would be approximately two hours after low tide was predicted for Bella Bella. For the day we entered the lagoon that was 11:43 am, giving us a 1:43 pm entry time. We arrived early and stood off the rapids to watch and wait. At 1:56 pm, David and I went through. The current was still running against us at more than one knot, but the overfalls had stopped. Our friends, Bill and Sylvia, went through five minutes later and the water flow had slowed down to at least half that speed.

Once inside, the depth of lagoon drops to approximately 13 metres (43 feet) and allows some breathing room, but the hazards don’t stop there: A second set of narrows about a third of the way in extends from a shoal along the southwest shore. The depth here is similar to the entrance and, despite the fact that we were searching for the shallows, a few rocks caught us by surprise because of the murky water. Just beyond the second narrows, there’s a large section of deadheads in the southwest corner of the lagoon. After that, the lagoon opens up to the east with depths of 6 to 16 metres (20 to 53 feet) and, apart from rocks around some the shoreline, it seems to be clear but we can’t be sure: The water is so brown it’s difficult to see anything.

To leave, we had to wait for the second slack water period which occurs when the tide in the lagoon raises to the same level of Ellerslie Bay. Once again, we arrived well before this was supposed to happen and watched and waited so we didn’t miss the opportunity – the last thing we wanted was to be stuck inside the lagoon overnight in our dinghies. David had reconnoitered the entrance the night before to double check times so we knew what to expect and at 5:40 pm, we exited the lagoon. There was still a slight current running against us in the entrance but the water was navigable by dinghy: High tide for Bella Bella was at 6:04 pm.

Tides for Bella Bella on the day we entered the lagoon with the times we went in and out marked in red.

So, what about the lagoon and falls?

The Douglass guide calls the scenery “outstanding” and the waterfall the best along the BC coast, possibly the entire west coast of North America. Do we agree? No, not really. Is the lagoon pretty? Yes. And Ellerslie Anchorage East is a really nice place to spend a couple of nights – it’s beautiful and has a sense of seclusion that we really enjoy in an anchorage. But is Ellerslie Falls the best? It’s definitely impressive and would be even more so after a heavy rain or early in the season when the falls are running at full chat. But is it the best? I suppose that depends on what you’re looking for in a waterfall. In the end, it doesn’t really matter: We had a good time and are glad we made the trip.

Notes from Cambria’s log:

A cautionary note: this entrance is narrow at best – providing less than two boat widths at its widest point. It is strewn with rocks just waiting to damage the hull or prop of the imprudent skipper. The flow is turbulent due to these rocks and other submerged contours and is not laminar. We have read accounts of other vessels transiting this pass, some of which were fortunate to survive with only minor damage to the hull and prop. Be aware that in the event of sustaining damage to either, you are quite a distance from assistance – would not attempt personally with anything larger than a dinghy with outboard.

Things to consider before entering Ellerslie Lagoon:

If you plan to spend the afternoon inside Ellerslie Lagoon, slack tide occurs at a 4 – 8 – 4 – 8 hour interval (that’s low – high – low – high).

Therefore, it’s best to enter at low water slack and leave at high water slack. Four hours was more than enough time and, frankly, eight hours would have been a difficult stretch.

Once you’re inside the lagoon, there’s no way to leave until the next slack water so make sure you bring everything may you need with you, including a handheld VHF radio in case of an emergency.

The times for high and low water in Bella Bella seem to be accurate indicators for predicting slack water at the lagoon entrance but arrive early and watch and wait. Better still, reconnoiter the entrance the day before and make note of slack tide first-hand.

Ellerslie Lagoon four states:

Lagoon Tidal Outflow – the lagoon water level is higher than the outside sea level in Ellerslie Bay. This state occurs on a falling tide and continues past low tide.

Lagoon Tidal Slack (low) – the sea level and the lagoon level are identical during low water. In our case, this occurred approximately 2h15m after predicted low water for Bella Bella (i.e. 2+ hours after low tide in Ellerslie Bay as the tide was rising).

Lagoon Tidal Inflow – the outside sea level in Ellerslie Bay is higher than the lagoon water level. This state occurs on a rising tide and continues until near maximum water is reached in Ellerslie Bay.

Lagoon Tidal Slack (high) – the second slack water occurs on a rising tide near the predicted time of high water for Bella Bella.

Waypoints of interest:

Spiller Channel Entrance:

Western Approach: 52°15.279’N, 128°15.891’W

Eastern Approach: 52°15.725’N, 128°14.068’W

Neekas Cove Entrance: 52°26.627’N, 128°09.245’W

Anchorage: 52°27.993’N, 128°09.537’W

Ellerslie Lagoon Entrance: 52°31.779’N, 127°00.924’W

Ellerslie Anchorage East: 52°31.258’N, 127°59.398’W

52°30.986’N, 127°59.162’W

For more information about how to enter Ellerslie Lagoon, photographs of the entrance and the hazards to navigation within the lagoon itself, consult the Douglass book, “Exploring the North Coast of British Columbia”.

Fiordland Recreational Area (Part 2)

Fiordland Recreational Area (Part 1) | Way Back Wednesday

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