Because of the weather/winds it looks like we will not be
able to cross Queen Charlotte Strait until Sunday at the earliest. So we have decided to take in what is called the
“Discovery Coast” starting in Ocean Falls.
This route will be protected from the high winds and will give us a
chance to go up the Burke Channel, Dean Channel, take in Bella Coola in North
Bentinck Arm and finally reaching Queen Charlotte Strait on Sunday or Monday to
cross the Strait hopefully in calm seas.
Today’s journey leaving Shearwater took us through Gunboat
Passage, a little tricky in a couple of spots, but it cut a couple of hours off
the passage. We originally thought we
would travel south in Lama Passage circling around Denny Island to head up
Fisher Channel to Ocean Falls, but Singawing headed north through Gunboat
Passage which was a much more direct route.
Gunboat Passage connects Seaforth Channel with Fisher Channel.
Bruce spent quite a bit of time studying the charts to make
sure we had the right route through Gunboat Passage. The range markers are the key to the
western part of the passage. The passage
is narrow, windy in spots and has numerous rocks, reefs and kelp patches. The water is very murky and has shallow spots
to watch for.
Heading north on Fisher Channel there is a lovely town at
the head of Cousins Inlet called Ocean Falls.
When you come to the top of Cousins Inlet you see a community which is
called Martin Valley.
Continue on around Coolidge Point and you see the falls,
which is the spillway from an old dam.
You then see a big mill – which is the old Crown Zellerbach mill which
closed 35 years ago. Inside the mill
today is a small machine shop which employs five people. The rest of the building is empty.
As you look at the town close up you can see that it’s
pretty much a ghost town with almost all of these buildings in this small city empty
and in various stages of decay.
When you come into the harbor at Ocean Falls the tie-ups to
the docks are on a first come basis and if the docks are full you have to raft
up to another boat.
When we were heading up Cousins Inlet we saw Singawing just
leaving Ocean Falls so we chatted for a few minutes in mid-channel.
We called ahead to Sea Witch on our VHF radio and found that
there was room at the dock just across from Sea Witch and Vikinghavn (which
were meet both boats in Rescue Cove).
During the afternoon we hiked up to the dam, waterfall and
lake with Jeff & Gail from Sea Witch.
And spent some time walking through the ghost town looking into
some of these abandoned buildings!
Walking down from the dam we met up with Tom & Adie from
M/V Vikinghavn and they joined us & Sea Witch for a spectacular pot luck
for dinner.
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