This week Nordic Sun II covered 149.9 miles. Less than 50 of those got us closer to Alaska. These extra miles allow me to visit other remote, and seldom visited BC oceanside destinations.
Our first stopped was at Weehanie Hot Spring. Which in my opinion, is not so hot,
water-wise. Not only that but the
publicized park buoy was missing. That was
the second time we have found a missing park buoy. This was my least favorite
hots springs yet, so maybe it was not so hot after all.
Weewanie Hot Spring
Next, we moved on to James Bay. Here we did find a few crabs in our pot, like
16. I picked out the big ones, to fill
my limit and threw the rest back. Our
prawn trap also yielded enough prawns for a meal, but we had them as sundowner
snacks one evening.
Look at all those crabs!!!
We found an unexplored lagoon, Foch Lagoon. By reading our guidebook, “Exploring the North
Coast of British Columbia”, the authors had not ventured into the lagoon, but
only mentioned it. Ah ha, a place not
yet explored. We had to see what was in the lagoon, so I could document it in
my journal. I felt like a real adventurer
who was traveling up an uncharted inlet, much like the famous explorer Captain
Cook.
The lagoon is not easy to enter. It is a tidal lagoon, which means the
entrances is guarded with rapids. We
waited for near slack water, and then entered the lagoon. What we found reminded me of Princes Louisa
Inlet. It had its raging tidal rapids, at
the entrance. Then once through that,
there was a narrow channel flanked by steep granite walls, with many ribbon
waterfalls cascading down. One of those
waterfalls was impressive and massive. Only
difference between Foch Lagoon and Princess Louisa is “We are the only ones
here”. That is just the way we like it.
The waterfall of Foch Lagoon
While we were in the lagoon. I decided to put my last 5
gallons of diesel, from a jug on deck, into our tank. That’s when I discovered, all my deck tanks
were empty. Oops. We only had about 2 gallons of diesel left in
the tank. Which was not enough to make
it to the next fuel dock. Thankfully we
were able to transit the tidal lagoon under power before we ran out of
diesel. Once out, we found wind and sail
all the way to the fuel dock at Hartley Bay.
Hartley Bay Fuel Dock
We were now back on the watery highway to Alaska. With our tanks topped off we traveled up the
narrow Grenville channel and stayed in a cove called Nettle basin. The basin had another waterfall that dumped
into the sea, named Verney Falls. I had
heard that, if you hiked up in the woods, behind the falls, you would find
another waterfall.
Being the adventuring type, I decided to trek back in the dense,
moss-covered woods, in bear country to see the upper Verney Falls. Might not be the wisest, but I did have my
bear spray. The trail was steep, with rocks and fallen trees in my path. I lost
the trail a few times and had to bushwhack my way at times. I was really having the explorer experience,
for sure. Was I concerned about getting
lost? Yes! But I did bring my phone, which has GPS and mapping
software to track of where I went.
I eventually made it to the upper falls. My T-Shirt was drench with sweat, and I was
filling like my tank was about ½ empty.
I stopped, had some water, and a peanut bar, to give me energy to
continue. While resting I watched the
water flow over the falls.
With a revived energy level, I decided to trek further up
and around the edge of Lowe Lake. I
found a fresh bear print in the sand along the sandy lake shoreline. That got
me looking over my shoulder, and talking to myself (noise to scare off the
bears), as I skirted around the edge of the lake.
I closed out week 4 of this adventure, by making it to my
last fuel stop in Canada, Prince Rupert. Also my most expensive fuel stop. I was planning
on spending the night at the Cow Bay marina here, but it was all booked up
until mid-August. That had me going to
Plan B, which was to anchor out in the quite Pillsbury Cove.
If you have questions or comments about this post, feel to
leave a comment on my journal site. Until
the next installment, Happy adventuring.
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