North Harbour to Pamphlet Cove
/The skies have lifted and the sun is trying to make an appearance. After a bacon and jelly on toast breakfast sandwich, we headed over to Winter Harbour to top off our water and visit the store to see if we could fill in some holes in the pantry.
Rounding the mark to Winter Harbour
The public docks have water as does the fuel dock. It’s a short walk over to the general store (The Outpost) using the boardwalk that is at the top of the docks.
The docks at Winter Harbour
Taking the boardwalk shortcut
The Outpost is not an overly stocked store, but you can find the very basics. Since Winter Harbour is serviced by a road from Port Hardy, I think the full time residents shop there and do not support the store. It only serves the boaters and fishermen. Speaking of fishermen, Karen says that Winter Harbour means “place with small fishing boats”. Because you can drive here, many Canadians trailer their fishing boats to launch here and then camp, staying in their campers or in one of the “rustic” fishing lodges here.
The Outpost general store
"The Cat" at The Outpost
I love all the configurations of Post Offices we find
They are not the luxury fly-in fishing camps. They’re simple and basic, a notch up from camping but the result is there are lots of small boats running all around Winter Harbour and into the Pacific Ocean and up Quatsino Sound. They have been our constant companions ever since yesterday as we approached Quatsino Light.
Home Sweet Home for the fish crazy guys
Farewell to Winter Harbour
Our next anchorage is East Cove in Koprino Harbour. It is written up as something special, but when we arrived we turned our nose up and moved on. There is a vast amount of logging in Quatsino Sound, and the view now, in 2012 for East Cove, is of a hill where recent logging has removed all the trees. This was the first time we have ever seen a cargo vessel being loaded with logs destined, I presume, for the Far East. The large ship was anchored behind Drake Island and log booms were being towed to it and from there loaded using the ship's four massive cranes.
In addition to logging, there are numerous fish farms in the Sound. Lastly, we downgraded this Sound because of all the homes along the shores. This too I believe is driven by the fact there are roads here that make their way back to the rest of Vancouver Island. Not quite desolate enough for our tastes. Oh, I forgot to mention the horse flies. They did not bite but were a nuisance, nevertheless. They joined us in Winter Harbour and reappeared at each anchorage. Up came the screens. Hopefully they will lose interest and go attack some locals at their houses.
Leaving East Cove, we traveled further northeast to Pamphlet Cove, a small secluded cove with room for a few boats. Safe and secure, the screens in place, we settled in to do some cooking and watch the never-ending stream of small fishing boats pass us by. Thankfully, their wake never reached Alaskan Dream.
We get checked out by the residents of Pamphlet Cove
About 4:30 a small sailboat poked its noise into the Cove but did a 180 and motored away. Karen’s secluded anchorage remains intact.
The floating fishing camp in Pamphlet Cove