Taylor Bay to Draney Inlet

Today we’re off to explore Draney Inlet.  I was looking around on the charts for something new and found this inlet that is guarded by a narrows with significant current flow.  The Hamiltons write about exploring Draney Inlet in “The Secret Coast”, and they were high on Draney.  We tend to like similar anchorages and explorations, so Karen was sold.

It’s only a couple of miles from Taylor Bay across Rivers Inlet to Draney Inlet. Low slack at the entrance was forecasted to be 8:30am. As we approached the dogleg entrance from Rivers Inlet, the current was still ebbing notably.  We waited another 15 minutes and it was still ebbing, but a bit less. We decided to go for it and found the current – especially in the dogleg – to be running 2 to 4 knots outbound, on our nose. Passage was fine, but some hand steering was needed to keep OceanFlyer pointing in the right direction when she got into certain parts of the current flow. Because the dogleg makes the passage blind to opposing traffic, a Sécurité call is warranted.

Having the current in the bow was fine, but I commented that I would not like to make that passage with that much current on my stern. Later, Karen found an old youtube video of a tug towing a log boom through the narrows. That had to be challenging.

Clearly, published slack was not correct. Upon further investigation, there is an asterisk that says “based on local knowledge.”  Perhaps the local knowledge is right on some tidal exchanges, but not this one.

It’s 12 miles to the head of the inlet, our final destination. Impressive granite mountains, waterfalls and numerous landslides lined both sides as we made our way to the head, right off the Lockhart Gordon creek delta.

Impress scenery in Draney Inlet

We anchored in what would be 72 feet of water at high tide and set a 4-to-1 scope, backing down uphill to the end of the rode until we sat in 40 feet.

Backdpen toward the alluvial Fan

A 10-20 knot breeze held held us steady within our anchor circle and kept the boat cool and the flying bugs at bay.

We had read about excellent dinghy exploration territory up the creek at high tide. I have to say, the low tide view of the delta/alluvial fan of sediment we needed to cross was a bit daunting. There was no obvious pathway through. Lots of deadheads and tree stumps and sandbars.

 We launched the drone at low tide to get a good preview of the creek itself and help determine the best route across the delta to enter it tomorrow in the dinghy. We also launched the drone at higher tide, to get a sense of what landmarks would be visible to help us navigate tomorrow. Based on the drone photos, I knew this was going to be one of the more challenging entries we’ve done in a while.

looking for the path into Lockhart Gordon creek

looking back down the inlet

staring to move up the the approach to the creek to record as much inforamtion at low tide

the start of the creek itself can be seen on the right side

i printed out these photos and took them with me in the dinghy

another look from the creek toward the west most inlet

incoming tide makes for a very differnt image

We shall see what tomorrow brings!