July 09, 2024

Blunden Harbour to Muirhead Islands, Drury Inlet

July 09, 2024/ Robert Minkus

We are now in a pattern of foggy mornings. The visibility for our trip today from Blunden to the Muirhead Islands in Drury Inlet ranged from 150 feet to ½ mile.

As we left the fog behind in Queen Charlotte Sound and turned up Wells Passage, we saw a buck swimming across our path. We slowed, and the buck took our stern and continued his long swim to get to the other side.

The entrance to Drury Inlet is guarded by Stuart Narrows. Slack is predicted to be 10 minutes after high or low at Alert Bay. There is some latitude when passing though the rapids depending on your boat and the tidal exchange, but at full current these narrows should not be challenged. It’s not unusual to see boats anchored in Helen Bay just NW of the narrows as they await slack current. None were there as we entered this time, and passage through the narrows was uneventful.

We broke up the cruise to the Muirheads with a detour past Jennis Bay. We often made Jennis Bay Marina a mandatory stop back in its heyday. We spent many fall days there kayaking, enjoying great company and celebrating birthdays of Alison’s kids.

Sadly, Alison is long gone, having moved on with life. Two years ago when we were last in Drury, a floating lumber camp was in the east side of the bay near the marina, but this year they are on the south shore of Drury Inlet. That changed certainly cleaned up the look of Jennis Bay.

We wanted to try a different anchorage in the Muirheads this year. We have always anchored in the one boat cove on the NE side of the islands inbetween the guitar shaped islet and the islet immediately NW. But when we were last year, we visited a boat that chose to anchor on the south side of the islands in the cove farthest west and liked what we saw, especially as they were not stern tied.

**looking east down drury inlet form our muirheads anchorage**

This anchorage provides delightful views in all directions. The only downside is that the west winds and fetch can build here. Our heavy boat handled the moderate afternoon fetch well, so no problem. The third alternative to anchor is the south cove, which also has nice views and offers better protection from the westerlies.

**entrance to actress passage in the upper left corner of the image**

Feeling the need to stretch our legs, we took a dinghy ride to the old logging dock just NE of the entrance to Sutherland Bay. You can see it clearly from our anchorage. The dock is still suitable to land the dinghy and gives you access to logging roads for a hike.

We continued our tour into Sutherland Bay, checking it out as a potential anchorage. The winds started to pick up and fetch to build, so we turned around and headed back to OceanFlyer, where we spent a peaceful night.

July 08, 2024

Millbrook Cove to Blunden Harbour

July 08, 2024/ Robert Minkus

We awoke to fog. That was not in the forecast!

We picked today to go around Cape Caution because forecasted sea state was the calmest we’ve seen for weeks.

The blessing with fog is that with fog comes calm seas. We left right behind the Outer Reef we followed in yesterday. It did not take long before he disappeared from sight. In fact, the first two hours of our trip were in fog with visibility of 1 mile to much less. I kept finding small, go- fast targets on the radar with no AIS and Karen kept a sharp eye to see them if she could. Sometimes even if they were 1/8 mile away, there was no joy. The seas were calm, though, with ripples and less than one foot swell.

**not much to see in the fog, even as the sun makes an attempt to burn it off**

Even after we left the fog on our stern, the seas remained almost flat, improving as we made our way south.

We passed our good friends aboard Alaskan Dream (OceanFlyer’s sister ship) as we were both abeam Cape Caution. They were heading north for their annual fishing trip, towing their Grady White. We exchanged greetings on the VHF but never saw them in the fog.

We entered Blunden, passing a large farmed-fish transport vessel anchored just outside the entry. Blunden looked just like last time: sunny, windy and whitecapped. We enjoyed a peaceful afternoon relaxing.

July 07, 2024

Draney Inlet to Millbrook Cove

July 07, 2024/ Robert Minkus

Today we are going to position ourselves to round Cape Caution tomorrow morning. The high-pressure ridge is still with us, making for clear but hazy skies.

So far Predict Wind has done an uncanny job of forecasting. I can only think of one day in the last two months where they missed the prediction. They continue to level up their game. And they are telling us that tomorrow is the day to make the crossing.

We calculated our departure from our anchorage based on published slack, adjusted a bit later based on what we experienced on the way in. We enjoyed our 12 mile run back to the narrows. Draney Inlet is characterized by tall and steep granite mountains on both sides. The result is a large number of slides. I suspect you would see lots of mini waterfalls in the rainy season, but now, in early July, the only consistent waterfall is the charted one at the last bend before you reach the head. That one is serviced by Caroline Lake. Apparently there is a hike up to the lake by the waterfall, but we cannot confirm it. At this time of year, the waterfall was just OK, not spectacular, so we spent our time exploring the creek instead.

On the way back, we took another look at the narrow, rocky entrance to Allard Bay (supposedly an anchorage just inside, then dinghy to the head to a waterfall at high tide) and down Robert Arm. Both look worth exploring next time.

As we approached the narrows, things looked a lot better than they did when we entered. At these tidal exchanges (11’), low slack appears to be as much as 30 minutes after what is published. We left about 15 minutes after published slack. It looked good to the eye, no turbulence, but we still had about 2 kts of current on the stern.

Because we entered and exited Draney Inlet at low slack, we have no information about whether high slack is closer to published times. Low slack was fine, as Draney Narrows are deep enough at any tide.

We started to see more recreational fishing boats as we headed down Rivers Inlet toward the mouth and made our way past Open Bight (great beaches if the wind and weather are right!) and Cranstown Point, Head, Kelp Head and False Egg Island into Smith Inlet. We actually retraced part of our journey from the beginning of the cruise, when we rounded the same area from Smith to Rivers northbound.

Another new destination for us: Millbrook Cove. We’ve read about it for years and it is described as an excellent anchorage whether you are preparing to cross Cape Caution southbound or have just crossed and are looking for a resting spot before continuing your journey north.

As we approached the cove, we saw another target on AIS was also headed there. This was a large Outer Reef motor yacht, so we hoped there would be room for us.

**looking into Millbrook cove from smith inlet**

**looking out to smith inlet from millbrook cove**

The entrance is flanked by small islets and some rocky shoals with kelp clearly showing the no-go areas. These entry islets and shoals are well marked on the charts. However, there is shallow water in the north of the cove where the shoaling extends out much further than charted. There were several boats at anchor when we entered, but we found room near one of the islets near the entry and had a beautiful view. The cove has at least one dwelling, and some old pilings that may have once been docks. Definitely well protected and a great place to stop before we head further south.

**at high tide the obstruction are just below the surface. shelf extends further than charted**

**another look at the “surprise” shallows**

July 06, 2024

Draney Inlet Lay Day

July 06, 2024/ Robert Minkus

Today is the day.

We have traveled the 1.5 hours up the inlet to position ourselves to go up the Lockhart Gordon Creek at high tide.

Yesterday we sat and gathered information for the dinghy journey. We watched a full tide cycle and took drone photos at various tide levels. All this informs our route planning and gives some level of confidence before making the trip.

One hour before the high tide at the Draney Inlet reporting station, we set out on a lower-high tide of 10.29 feet. My tide charts indicated we would be on a still rising tide and would have two hours before the water returned to the same level, plenty of time to explore.

The route I planned was to leave the island on my starboard side and then turn left and north, setting a course toward the large pile of debris at the north side of the inlet. Coincidentally, there was a very visible current flow marked by water smoother than the surrounding water featuring a trail of visible surface bubbles.

This current flow was almost identical to my planned path, so I positioned the dinghy in the middle of it and split my attention between the depth sounder and the water. This outer approach saw depths from 7-8 feet with an occasional 6 foot. I saw only a few obstacles that were sunken logs. Generally, no factor.

**Island on the right. DeBris Pile on the LEft. THe stream of bubbles I followed on this day.**

As you pass the landslide debris you start to enter the more defined deeper water that runs along the north side. I had picked out a few major logs in the photos that I thought would be visible at today’s higher water. Using them and the current flow as guides, we made our way into the river proper.

The river is flanked by grassy growth on both sides at it meanders at about 10-ish feet of depth.

Following my instincts from going down many rivers, we made our way until we saw a large tree downed across the river. These are commonly known as sweepters by kayakers as they tend to sweep kayakers out of their vessels as they try and sneak under.

**the water shallows as we approach our first sweeper**

As we got closer, I saw that the tree did not go all the way to the opposite shore. It actually fell 8 feet short of the opposite shore. The question then became is there enough water that close to the shoreline to pass. Only one way to find out. I approached slowly, taking the raised engine in and out of gear while maintaining one eye on the depth finder and the other on the pebble bottom.

We made it past with 1.7 feet under the dinghy, and then the depth held at about 3.6 feet for a while.

Our next sweeper was a much larger partially fallen tree. It lay at about a 20-degree angle. As we approached, it became apparent that there was enough clearance to take the dinghy underneath without being “swept over”. All we needed was enough water where we planned to pass beneath.

**we’re going to have ot go under this sweeper**

That depth was about 1.6 feet, and we continued at that depth, eventually reaching the terminus marked by rocks and tree debris. It took us about 40 minutes to get to the head.

All in all, we traveled about two miles to the head of the creek from OceanFlyer. It was less of a challenge than the photos first showed. We had enough water, sun at our backs and a realistic preview from the drone photos.

The river is really pretty, and we dropped anchor a few times on the way out to just sit back and enjoy the view. It’s clearly bear territory, but we didn’t see any, despite keeping a sharp eye out.

Later, though, as we were relaxing after stowing the dinghy aboard OceanFlyer, I looked up and saw a critter in the grassy outcropping behind the boat. I called out “critter” because it first I thought it might be a smaller mammal.

But we shorty realized it was a grizzly that came to attack the tall sedge grass. Karen noted just how big his head and ears were. We watched for almost an hour as he enjoyed the buffet on an outcropping. Looking through the binoculars, you could see he was stuffing that sedge in with a passion. To our surprise, when he was satiated, he then jumped in the water and swam at least 50-75 yards to a small islet that was attached to the shore via a fallen tree land-bridge. He climbed out, shook off the saltwater and disappeared into the woods.

**a quick glance over the shoulder before disappearing into the woods**

Draney Inlet isn’t a place many cruisers explore, but we really enjoyed it and thought it well worth the visit. The fact that there wasn’t another boat around made it even more special.

July 05, 2024

Taylor Bay to Draney Inlet

July 05, 2024/ Robert Minkus

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.

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.

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.