02. Quadra Island / Granite Bay to the Walker Group. Logging miles part 2

'Just logging miles' day 2. Another long day planned. Up anchor at 5:30am to try and beat the wind in Johnstone Strait. The forecast is 10-20 knots increasing to 15-25. Current is with us for the morning, which will help while the wind is down but could be terrible once it starts blowing.


At Chatham Points at 6:15 - the Johnstone Strait starts! We make 11.2 knots, 8.2 cruise and 3 knots current, right up the middle. We get to Ripple Point at 7:00 and it certainly lives up to its name, though only for 1/2 a mile or so. Current is up to 4.1 knots around the point. By 8:00 we are at Helmken Island/Current Passage. The current forecast at this time is 1.09 knots and we see 1.5, so about right.  Interesting that there is more current (4 knots) between Hardwicke Pt and Helmken Island than Current passage! One to remember for next time.....
Wind is down and we are just logging miles. The Strait is long and without stopping to explore anywhere is a bit dull. By 11:00 we are by Robson Bight - no whales like we experienced last year. By 1:20 we are at Alert Bay and SOG is down to 6 knots (2.3 against).
We stop in Port NcNeill at 2:15. As it is the last major spot we would be at for some time we top up the tanks and run up to get a few supplies. The marina found us a temp slip we could tie up at whilst going shopping for an hour. Nice! We have always been impressed with Port NcNeill as a reprovisioning spot. The IGA is very well stocked (including lots of the UTH tetra-pak milk we could not find in Vancouver). They let you use the shopping carts to get supplies back to the docks and simply leave them at the top of the ramp - they pick them up later. Good fishing and Marine supplies too.
A quick stop though. We leave by 4:00 to get to give us time to get to the anchorage before dark. We shoot for the Walker Group, one of a number of popular stops before rounding Cape Caution (others include Gods Pocket, Clam Cove, Allison Harbour on the mainland). It is a lumpy and breezy trip as we get into Queen Charlotte Strait with 20 knots against the tide. We see our first whale breaching off in the distance. Anchor down in the Walker Group between Kent and Staples Islands at 8:00 pm. It was very well protected deep in the cove with room for a few boats. Another sailboat elected to anchor in the bay to the east. It was a bit deep but they seemed to do fine. We went through Shelter Passage, around Staples Island and entered from the east - right through all the bull kelp which typically is cause to stay clear!

Once into the anchorage it appeared as if we could have made it from the west and saved some time - it is tight though.



West entrance to the anchorage - tight!



Another long day with 103 nautical miles logged.

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