Muirhead Islands to England Point Cove

Up at eight...and we are greeted by overcast skies, mist and fog. The run of good weather was over, at least for the day. As is often the case, the timing of today’s travels will be dictated by the tides. The entrance to Actaeon Sound is guarded by Snake Passage and high slack tide at Snake was not until 11:30am. Of course this was no problem, given our predilection to sleep in and spend the morning lounging around. It’s our vacation after all.

The anchor came up clean to Karen’s delight (she is the anchor wench, after all). We had a great set to the anchor the day before, and that often means the anchor comes up filled with mud. But with a clean anchor aboard, we departed our peaceful anchorage for our next adventure.

Snake Passage is well charted with kelp that helps mark the dangers. At high slack it was an uneventful pass. Of course, at high slack this narrow fairway looks much wider, with all the dangers lurking below the water.

Behind Snake Pass, the Sound opens up. Its so peaceful and pretty, almost like a wide tree-lined river.

As we motored up the sound, we stopped at the entrance to Bond Lagoon and pointed our nose into the entrance to scope it out. The entrance looks as if the fairway is good but we did not have enough water under the keel to make the passage into the lagoon. We will save this lagoon for another visit.

We snooped at Creasy Bay and saw the logging camp on the Venturi Logger barge, complete with a small helicopter. Behind that is a derelict barge that looks a lot shabbier than pictured in Hamilton's Secret Coast!

Have Logging Camp Will Travel

We passed our planned anchorage at England Point Cove and continued on to explore the entrance to Tsibass Lagoon. It must have been perfect slack, as there was no strong ebb to be seen. But you can tell this entrance is very narrow and not for Arctic Star. If we had a high speed dinghy, we'd definitely have gone in to explore.

On our way back to England Point, we took a look at Gleyka Cove, which seems have an abandoned logging camp and is marked with tons of floating logs that had numerous seals hauled out on them. Predictably, Karen, the critter chaser, directed the helm to change course and go visit the local mammals. They had such soulful faces, and were in a rainbow of seal colors: grey ones, brown ones, Dalmatian colored ones and brown spotted ones.

After the Loggers Leave, the Seals Take Over

We decided to anchor in England Point Cove, a highly recommended anchorage by the Hamilton's and by us! It's a lovely one boat (to us) anchorage. There are great views out a couple of directions and the prime anchor spot is easy to pick out. We set the anchor easily in the grey and misty skies.

We later took the dinghy back to Gleyka Cove, because the Hamiltons said you can walk along the North Creek to some abandoned trucks and stuff from the old logging days. We landed North of the creek with no issue and tied the dinghy off to a tree. Tall grass obscured holes and unsure footing was the name of the day as we followed a bear path (complete with fresh scat) to the rocky creek. Taking a look at the creek and the underbrush, we knew this wasn't going to work as a fun and easy walk.

Entrance to the Creek

There Be Bear Here!!

So we retrieved the dinghy and decided to dock at the logging camp and explore the logging roads. One the way there, we almost ran over a long, just-submerged fresh water line that ran from shore to the camp. Gotta be ever vigilant! At first glance, it just seemed like a long piece of kelp.

Docked at the camp, there was a rickety ramp to shore. It had a "leaning tower of Pisa" characteristic, and Karen was very skeptical because it was so askew and steep. Bob walked it with no issues and no fear, and so Karen grumblingly followed. The house at the top of the ramp was abandoned, with just a blue hard hat sitting on a log as a reminder of days gone by. We walked around and explored the log sluice that channeled logs down towards the holding pen where the seals were hauled out.

Home Sweet Home for the Loggers that used to work at Gleyka Cove

Of course Bob had to go first to check it out. It was a lot more stable than it looks.

I Wonder How Many Hours were Spent in that Chair

Someone Put a Flag on the Islet that Marks the Entrance to England Point Cove

We took the dinghy over to see our seal friends one more time before returning to the boat for a feast of marinated grilled pork and maple glazed carrots.