Desolation Sound to April Pointe Marina, July 8th-9th

From Sue:

Though the weather forecast was for a sunny day the clouds chose not to burn off. We spent the morning doing a little trip planning to see if we would have enough time to make it up to up to Alaska. After deciding that it was possible, we looked around the anchorage (and all the fantastic plastic boats) and thought, hey let’s keep moving. But first Pete went to check the crab and prawn pots and lucky for us, we got our first good catch of the trip. 44 spotted prawns crawled into our pot overnight, and after spending a bit of time trying to remember how to clean, peel & cook them we had them all prepped for dinner.

Our next transit would take us to April Pointe to get situated closer to Seymour Narrows so we could time the currents to our advantage.

From Pete:

The area between the middle of Vancouver Island and the mainland (between the Straits of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound) is packed with islands and inlets, and between these islands and inlets the current flows with the incoming and outgoing tides. Currents at some of the narrower passes that fill and drain larger bays and inlets can reach 12-14 knots and create treacherous rapids at max current. There are two ebbs and two floods each day, plus the effect of winds and other local conditions to consider when planning a transit through these various narrows and straits.

From Sue:

For our transit from Desolation Sound to April Pointe (where we would wait for favorable current conditions before going through Seymour narrows) showed thirty seven miles - about 5 hours going our normal cruising speed. We’d arrive just in time for dinner – perfect. And so everything was for most of the trip. We saw whales breaching in the distance, bald eagles flying around, and the sun decided to join us. Treated ourselves to underway showers. But then as we rounded Cape Mudge on Quadra Island we noticed another power boat headed right to the shore. What the heck was he doing? Then we hit the current. Our speed dropped from 7.0 knots down to 2.0. Looking at one of the many cruising books we have we read up on the nasty Discovery Passage current that we were now fighting. It said if you hug the shoreline there are back eddies that can help propel you. We watched the other power boat go flying by us (running about 100 feet off the shoreline) into the distant horizon. We eventually followed his lead and got a bit of a ride on the back eddy close to shore, though we realize now we should do all our homework prior to leaving. Even with the back eddy close to shore, we had to fight the current for the last hour or so of the journey. It was a slow, whirlpooly slog that keeps you on edge and is very tiring. 

Once in the harbor, we just wanted to drop the hook and make dinner. But that was not to be so easy either. The bottom was fouled w/kelp and our anchor could not get a good hold. We tried 3 times before finally giving up and headed over to the little marina with the giant yachts. 

After pulling up next to the mini-mega yacht called Galilee (as that seemed fitting) I whipped up a delicious dinner of Shrimp Scampi and we sat and enjoyed our well-earned meal. We also took a little walk on shore to the April Pointe Resort and had a look around. The place is nice but mostly empty as the fishing season doesn’t start for another week. 

There are a couple of  really big mega yachts here including Huntress which is a 180’ steel hulled mega yacht owned by a guy who used to own the Seattle Mariners (and has a net worth around $2 billion). Huntress charters out at $250,000 per week (low season)! 

Feeling like a small fish in a big pond at this marina as we sit and wait for the tide to slack at Seymour Narrows so we can safely pass through. If all goes well we should be through Johnstone Straits and into the Broughtons in a day or so.