August 12th -14th Johnstone Strait and Seymour Narrows

August 12^th -14^th Johnstone Strait and Seymour Narrows                    Today we have our farewell brunch with Walt and Odile.  Walt makes awesome pancakes and we contribute some of our homemade link elk sausage made with CJ and Roxanna last fall.  Odile gives us a nice loaf of her homemade bread, we give them dairy products from our larder and we part ways around noon.  

Last B Mondo siting

Our last sighting of B Mondo is as she goes around the tip of Swanson Island with Odile on the tiller and Walt on the stern setting up for salmon trolling.  We eat our “bon voyage” chocolate chip cookies from B Mondo’s oven as we see them motor out of sight.

kayaks enjoying the day

Colorful beach cabins Johnstone Strait

Our bow is headed through West Passage and Blackney Passage on the slack and into Johnstone Strait.  Winds are to be 20 to 30 knots behind us today so we are “going for it.”  While the higher winds never materialized we do push on to Port Neville as conditions are just fine with 3 plus foot waves and winds nearing 20 on the nose, reminiscent of coming up the Washington Coast.  The chilly ride calls for two rounds of hot chocolate which makes me wish the grandkids were here to share it with.  

Port Neville has one tiny government dock which is full.  “Do you want to raft up” yells a nice lady in a power boat at the dock.  “No, but thank you for the offer” we say and head across the inlet to anchor.  Another small fishing boat pulls into the anchorage alongside us.  Some of the higher winds find their way into the anchorage in the middle of the night and we do a quick anchor watch to make sure we are all still in the right place and head back to bed.

Cabin overlooking the Killer Whale sanctuary

The next day we venture back out into Johnstone Strait.  We have checked all possible places to bale off into protected back waters if the Strait conditions deteriorate.  Winds are still predicted NW 20-30 yet never materialize.  We do sail for some of the day and keep a good eye on the guidebook and sailing instructions to know where the tide rips, whirls and eddies will be.  We push on confident that we can make Kanish Bay for our evening anchorage instead of having to bail off into the calmer back waters.

Chatham Point Light House

At 2:15 we round Chatham Point and have officially made our first transit of Johnstone Strait.  Given that this stretch of east west water with high currents and often high to gale force winds is now under our belt we are thankful and enjoy a peaceful anchorage for the evening.  

Container sized floating hazard Johnstone Strait

Sailing Johnstone Strait