Day 8 - Thurston Bay to Forward Bay (coastal mainland)

We awoke in our secluded little anchorage and turned on the VHF radio weather forecast. They were calling for gale force winds in the Johnstone Strait in the coming days, a small stretch of which we need to pass through to get to the heart of the Broughton Archipelago. We had a decision to make – go as originally planned today to the Shoal Bay Music Festival (a mere 90 minute trip from here) and pass through Johnstone Strait as the storm brews, or get as far as we can today so that we can enter Johnstone Strait in the early morning hours, when winds are usually at their calmest. Since we had already relaxed a bit with short motoring days as of late, and since heading into gale force winds makes for a choppy, sucky ride, we opted for the latter option.

We travelled up Nodales Channel and into Cordero Channel north of East Thurlow Island. As we passed by the mouth of Shoal Bay we saw many a boat anchored or tied to the government dock, all about to get their groove on. But we continued along Cordero Channel past West Thurlow Island, for the first time overlapping part of our journey from last summer. Cap’n Adam navigated the turbulent water as we made our way west, passing briefly though pockets of internet reception. Between the coastal mainland and Hardwick Island we crossed the aptly named Whirlpool Rapids, then tucked ourselves into Forward Harbour, a popular anchorage in a bay of the coastal mainland. We shared this spot with 16 other boats, some of whom decided to anchor ominously close to each other. This is one of the advantages of an aluminum boat – if someone arrives late and decides unwisely (despite a warning) to anchor too close to us, it is not our boat that will get damaged if we smash into each other during the night. We may get a bit of their paint on our boat, but they will need to repair the gaping hole ripped into their fibreglass hull.

We dingied to shore as the sun was getting ready to leave us for the day, and followed a flotsam-and-jetsom marked path to a small beach on the other side of the spit. A nice little hike through ferns, fallen trees, salal, cedars and firs. An early night tonight, as we will get up early tomorrow morning for our trip through the Johnstone Strait.

Day 7 - Octopus Island Marine Park to Thurston Bay (Sonora Island)

Some pre-departure research informed us that the Upper and Lower Rapids between Quadra and Sonora Islands could get gnarly. In fact, when the water is at maximum flood or ebb tide, a standing wave is formed from a current of up to 9 knots, with “dangerous overfalls and eddies”. The memory of yesterday’s Beazly Passage fresh in our minds, we planned our voyage for when the current was slack. Slack current is kind of like the top of a swinging pendulum – for a brief moment before upswing turns into downswing, movement stops. It was this transition of flood current to ebb current and its calmer waters that we wanted to pass over.

As luck would have it, our Tide & Current Chart informed us that transitional time was at 9:30 am, when we usually get the day’s journey underway anyways. A sailboat and a power boat were ahead of us, and we watched as the power boat seemed to swing on a pivot up to 45 degrees at the current’s whim. Cap’n Adam and Thunderpussy had no difficulty at all however, navigating the swirling water with ease.

Once through the rapids, we continued through Okisollo Channel with its fish farms and logging camps. A brief motor through Discovery Passage between Vancouver Island and Sonora Island, then into Nodales Channel until Thurston Bay of Sonora Island. Winding our way through a shallow and narrow waterway, we anchored in an isolated bay where huge cedars and firs were sheared flat on their bottom boughs where they kissed the high water mark. We’ve reached that latitude where mosquitos have been usurped by horseflies. Oh stealthy horseflies, why can’t you be more like your blue-bummed cousins who we can hear coming from a mile away? Bug screens over hatches and Cap’n Adam armed with his insect killing dishrag, we were thankful for the cool northern breeze which took the edge off of the sizzling rays of the sun.