Joe’s Bay to Pinkerton Islands

Cloudy start to the morning

Today was a battle between the sun and the clouds. When I got up shortly after sunrise, there was a yellow glow to the eastern sky. You could see the warmth of the sun trying to break through the low ceiling.

Not long after, the rain started. As we enjoyed a slow leisurely morning the rain continued — sometimes a light mist, sometimes a heavy rain.

The rain finally gave way to grey skies and the kayakers started to appear so we decided to explore the Broken Islands from the comfort of Alaskan Dream. 

I don't understand the paddleboard out here in the wilderness

We took a circuitous route to our planned anchorage in Jarvis Lagoon. Along our route we saw seals, sea lions, humpbacks and all manner of kayakers, both paddling and on the beach at the various camp sites that dot the islands. As we rounded Hand Island, we saw a rather large ship. It was similar in configuration to the Uchuck III we had seen in Friendly Cove.

Karen speculated that it was the M/V Frances Barkley . She had read that that ship brought in kayakers and dropped them at the Sechelt Lodge as the starting point for their explorations of the Broken Group. We turned and followed the ship to its landing at the lodge. They dropped off a few passengers and cargo and as we stopped Alaskan Dream near the Lodge to watch, the captain put the Frances Barkley in reverse and continued his travels, as did we.

Frances Barkley at the Sechelt Lodge

The day before, we had followed White Tiger on the AIS as they entered Jarvis Lagoon. We had not seen their AIS signal since and suspected they may still be in the lagoon. As we entered the narrow and circuitous entrance, we spotted a sailboat in the outer anchorage. The woman on board looked as if she wanted to tell us something but we had neither the time nor the fairway to stop and chat. (we later learned she was trying to tell us it was FULL inside the lagoon!)  I was totally focused on making good our way through the challenging entrance. Once inside the lagoon we found White Tiger.

We cautiously toured  around the small lagoon, taking sounding to see if we could find a spot to anchor with enough room to keep us off the bottom at low tide and to also keep us away from White Tiger and her anchor and rode. It was tight, and while we might have found one spot, it was just too tight to be enjoyable. And...we were on a plus 10 foot tide and we were showing only 5 feet under the keel! So out we went.

Some of the locals give us the once over

Next we checked out the one boat anchorage on the east side of Jarvis and since it required a stern tie and there was already some fetch coming into the anchorage, we decided we would look elsewhere.

So our next destination was north, just outside the boundaries of the park. It was the Pinkerton Islands. Owing to the fact that these islands are not in the park, we knew from the guidebooks that there was a house and a float-house where we were going. Usually that rules out an anchorage because we are looking for more solitude. But we also noted that there were many small islands and lots of drying areas, two things that are very attractive to us for exploring.

Fishing camp in the Pinkertons

The Pinkertons were as advertised and we found a nice spot just past the float-house. There was a sport fisher stern-tied across the channel and one other boat anchored in the large anchorage shown in the Douglass and Douglass book, but they were out of sight once we were anchored. Soon, a small converted fishing vessel called the Shy Ann came into the area and went straight over to the small dock near the A-Frame house on the small central island.

Mobile "fishing camp" 

Pinkerton Island home

As low tide came upon us, I spotted a bear on the flats behind that small island. We saw the same black bear four times and he roamed the flats in search of dinner. Next time we’ll anchor in the eastern cove closer to the flats.

Dinner was halibut tacos...and then a peaceful night.

You can see the drying flats as low tide approaches

High tide covers it all up