Culpepper Lagoon Lay Day 1

We awoke to no rain and a few breaks in the clouds, a big improvement over the monsoon in Rescue Bay. It was also near low tide, so I flew the drone to get some good photos of the low water environment, especially the shoaling at the head of the anchorage. This would be a big help to us when we dinghy up the river at high tide. How, you might ask?  In particular, the low water helps show the best “entrance” to the river which is not obvious at high tide.

LOW CLOUD MORNING AT THE HEAD OF CULPEPPER LAGOON

FROM THE AIR YOU BEGIN TO APPRECIATE THE MUD FLATS

LOOKING BACK TO OCEANFLYER FROM THE NORTH FROM THE BEND IN THE NORTH RIVER

Later we launched the dinghy and began to explore the south portion of the anchorage.  But first, we took the dinghy partway into the river’s entrance to leave a path on the dinghy’s GPS I could later follow at high tide.

THE HEAD OF CULPEPPER LAGOON

As we were exploring the sound end looking somewhat futilely for future stern tie opportunities, Karen spotted a brown bear digging in the mud revealed by the low water. We sat for an hour watching him dig up all matter of yummies from the mud. He was clearly hungry and looked like he needed to bulk up a bit after hibernation. Culpepper Lagoon is usually a “count on” spot to see brown bears.

HUNGRY BEAR ENJOYS HIS BREAKFAST

Next, we took the dinghy back a couple miles to the lagoon entrance to see how strongly the current was running 2.5 hours before slack turning to flood. It was ebbing over 3 knots with a well-defined path. You could probably travel with the current into the lagoon, but I would not choose to enter against this current in my 9-knot boat. The swirling eddies would make for a very interesting ride. I’m sure we could make it at full power, but you’d be exhausted, both mentally and physically, from trying to maintain heading control. Given that slack is well predicted off Tom Bay, it’s easy to time a stress-free entry and exit at or close to slack.

We decided to explore the head of Kynoch Inlet, just outside the lagoon entrance, tomorrow with a better-timed approach and hopefully warmer weather.

On the way back to OceanFlyer, we stopped at Riot Creek to see if we could find a good stern tie option there, but again, we didn’t identify anything particularly appealing. The creek is pretty though.

LOOKING BACK TO THE NW DOWN CULPEPPER LAGOON

OCEANFLYER ANCHORED AT THE HEAD OF CULPEPPER LAGOON

AFTERNOOON RAINBOW AT CULPEPPER LAGOON

We lazed about for the rest of the afternoon, just enjoying the silence and majestic beauty of this anchorage.