Pearl Pass to Bend Island

Today we are going to take a roundabout route to our destination, Bend Island in Clio Channel. We want to see some whales so we’re taking a detour through Blackfish Sound.

fog cleaning in pearl pass, one of the beautiful views in this anchorage

It was a reasonably calm day, so it was comfortable to drift at idle in the Sound. We were soon rewarded by seeing a humpback and her calf. We watched for an hour as they fed just off Compton Island.

mom and calf in blackfish sound

Another feature of Blackfish Sound (which is not always visible) is the breathtaking scenery. Snow capped mountain ranges to the East and Vancouver Island mountains to the West. Clear skies and unlimited visibility made for a delightful spot to stop and watch Mother Nature’s glory.

We went briefly out into Johnstone Strait before turning off into Baronet Passage. Currents were not favorable, so we had a slow ride. There was very little traffic, though we saw some AIS targets in Potts Lagoon as we passed by.

Our destination for the night is Bend Island. This anchorage puts us close to Lagoon Cove, our next stop – where we like to arrive reasonably early as the docks are less crowded.

Bend Island is new to us. Karen read about it in the Waggoner Guide.  There are anchorages in both the east and west ends just off the drying area behind the island. We chose the east end, which was more favorable given the winds and fetch in Clio Channel.

oceanflyer anchored in east end of bend island

The drying area behind the island is very well defined on the charts and depending on the tide height, you can clearly see the line of demarcation between drying area and deeper water through distinct changes in water color.

low tide bings the drying areas into focus

The key to anchoring here is determining the balance between water depth and distance back to the drying shoal. We anchored in 50 feet at high tide and put out 200 feet of rode. That was enough to keep us off the shoal and our swing circle just within the width of the anchorage. In anchorages such as this, the boat often tends to just move back and forth in the center of the channel with very little movement towards the shorelines, so we weren’t too worried.

We anchored early enough in the day that we saw a full tide change and confirmed how the boat moved in the current and winds. It was a strange picture, as rather than facing into the wind with our stern to the drying shoal, we often set crosswise in the channel, bow and stern to the rocky shorelines.

we’ll be back to Bend Island anchorage

Rather than set an anchor circle on the Garmin MFD, I set an anchor polygon with the left and right sides narrower than the front to back. That way, especially when sitting crosswise, if we got an unexpected move toward one of the shorelines, we would get an alarm in plenty of time to react.

We were, once again, all alone in this anchorage. It has very a remote feeling despite being not far off Johnstone Strait or from Lagoon Cove.