Next Leg of the Inside Passage – Blunden Harbour to Fury Cove Day 14: June 15 2022

 The alarm sounded at 4 am.  Early I know. But today we want to get to the next sound along the inside passage to Alaska.  That sound would be Fitz Hugh Sound.  It is the beginning of our next leg of the watery highway to Alaska.

The anchor came up and we moved out of Blunden Harbour at 4:30 am.  Blunden Harbour is popular stopping spot for boaters up this way.  In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the harbour housed a fairly large first nation village.  Lots of native cedar lodges that once dotted the shoreline are now long gone.  All that remains of the native village are few big cedar poles laying out over the massive midden beach.  These large downed logs used to be part of a massive long house.

The light of day was just bright enough to make out the rock hazards, as we snaked our way out of the Harbour and into Queen Charlette Strait.   I left early for two reasons.  The first reason was to catch the tidal current that would be going our way.  The second was to get into Fitz Hugh Sound before the afternoon north westerlies blow down from Queen Charlotte Sound.

The passage to Fitz Hugh Sound would take us out into the Pacific Ocean.  For 25 miles or more we would be in unprotected waters, and subject to the ocean waves.  Those swells from the ocean, that started way out at sea make landfall along the rocky coast of the BC mainland.  

As passed the end of Vancouver Island I had an unobstructed view of Japan to the west.  Well that is, if the earth was flat. In reality I could only see 15 miles or so.  The ocean was glassy.  The swells are all that moved the water this morning.  And those waves were only a meter high or less.  We rocked back and forth gently as we motored toward Fitz Hugh Sound.

We pass Cape Caution at 8:45 am.  Cape Caution is a point that juts out the furthest into the Pacific Ocean along this stretch of BC coastline.  There is a shoal that runs out from the point.  With the shallow depths of 3o to 60 feet made us steer out more into the Pacific Ocean.  Normally the waves of the Pacific Ocean are pounding the beach, in front of Cape Caution, causing all kinds of sea foam to be produced.  But today the wave gently rolled up the rocks on the point, and then slowly receded back into the ocean.

We saw numerous Sea Otters off the Cape Caution shoal.  They were swimming along on their backs.  The shallow depths here must make it easy for them dive and forage of food along the bottom here.  We never got close enough to photograph one.  They always dove long before they got into a decent photographic distance.

After passing Cape Caution, we changed our course.  Our new course took us to southern tip of Cavert Island, and the entrance into Fitz Hugh Sound.  We didn’t immediately go into the sound.  Instead we stopped at Grief Bay, on the sound end of Calvert Island. 

Grief Bay is exposed to the Pacific Ocean and has a nice sandy beach, with lots of driftwood.  I had stopped here in 2015, when on my cruise to Haida Gwaii.  At that time there was a lot of tsunami debris on the beach.  I was hoping this year we might find something cool stuff that had floated in during the winter.  But that was not the case. 

Heather and I spent about an hour and a half exploring the beach.  We only found a few shells, but we did see a number of animal tracks on the beach.  We assumed there were from the sea otter’s tracks we saw them swimming around the kelp infested cove. 

The sea otters where very shy.  As we approach in the big boat or dinghy they would dive under long before we got even close enough to take a picture, with my telephoto lens.  Maybe they the great otter massacre that occurred in the late 1800’s has now been implanted in their DNA to stay away from man.

After getting back to the boat I decided to drop my fishing line to the bottom to see if I could catch dinner.  I did hook two flounders.  I threw them both back.  After pulling up the anchor we headed for Fury Cove, which was a little less than 7 miles away.  Fury Cove is a BC marine park.  The wind was going our way, so we sailed.  We sailed at 3.5 to 4 knots almost all the way there. 

Inside of Fury Cove we found 4 other boats already anchored.  One of them, a big power boat named “Megabyte”.  They were cleaning a salmon off their swim step.  We anchored right next to them in 45 feet of water.  When the motor stopped it was 4:25 pm.

This afternoon it was fairly nice, with broken clouds and blue sky.  A good solar panel day.  But just before we anchored in Fury Bay Heather said “I think the weather is turning. It looks like rain is coming back”.  I sure hope it doesn’t start raining.

Once anchored Heather was down cooking dinner.  I put the crab pot down, and relaxed while dinner cooked.  Chicken pasta dinner.  Very good.

With dinner done, it was time to go ashore.  From the boat the beaches look like a tropical paradise, with white sandy beaches and lush green vegetation along the shoreline.  But I knew the beach was a midden beach instead of sand from ground up coral.  And the vegetation wasn’t palm trees, but different species of evergreen trees. 

As we headed toward the beach it started raining.  That didn’t put a damper on our exploring.   We toured along the shoreline, which is a marine park.  There is a cabin on the beach used by kayakers.  But today the site is closed.  There were a couple of signs posted “Park Close due to COVID-19”.

Once our exploration was complete, it was back to the boat.  It was only 7 pm.  I jotted down the miles traveled, and sailed today and then climbed in bed. Didn’t take me long to go to sleep.

White Midden Beach of Fury Cove



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