Five days in Clayoquot Sound

 July 9^th – July 14^th Five Days in Clayoquot Sound

 

With weather predictions of variable winds 5-15 we decide to head north since the alternative is to wait for winds that would be NW 10-20, on the nose in the afternoon.  We untie from the 52 Steps Dock around 0800 and head out along the coast for an arrival around Hot Springs Cove in the early afternoon.  Along the way we dodge crab pots and salmon fishermen.  The wind is variable yet so minimal that we don’t even put the headsail out.  The seas are rough.  We begin to see sea otters and continue to see more and more of them as we head north.  Waggoner’s Guide indicates that the sea otters have moved into Sydney Inlet enough to decimate the crab population, which we confirm later after we anchor. 

As we near our turn into Clayoquot we are stunned to start seeing whales leisurely feeding along the surface.  We do not see enough of them to decide if they are Gray or Humpback.  Dousing the throttle and floating in neutral we count many of them, from small to gigantic!  We enjoy watching them gently move along, showing an occasional very small dorsal fin on their very large, often spotted backs.  One comes up within 30 yards of the stern putting Pam’s anxiety meter a little more towards the red zone.  Once nearly extinct, these whales have come back and this local population has been increasing in numbers as studied by a local group.  They actually have a library of over 600 “whale tale” photographs from this area, the method of identifying each whale individually.  We see no “tales” as the whales simply continue to feed along the surface. 

In the distance we have also spotted the largest Coast Guard vessel we have ever seen, the 242 foot long Canadian CG Vessel “Atlantic Raven” says the AIS.  She is anchored near the entrance to Sidney Inlet. 

 Next adventure is a hover over an underwater large rock, netting two large rockfish, one Copper and one Black, dinner for a couple of nights.  Carl will clean them on our fish cleaning station that Pam rigged up for him a few years back.  We then mosey into what we call “Baseball” cove, sometimes called Hootlah Kootlah, and on the charts the two are sometimes transposed, with “Baseball” showing as an unknown cove.  The CG vessel may well wonder that this US flagged sailing vessel has been doing as it approached, first hovering in one place for quite some time, then in another spot, and then slowly slinking past them into the anchorage.

 

Normally we would have gone straight into Hot Springs Cove, tossed out an anchor and walked the 1.2-mile boardwalk to the amazing ocean touching hot springs.  Alas, it is still closed to outsiders, perhaps due to covid, perhaps not.  Pam, in emailing back and forth with the group who administers the area and they confirm that, indeed, even the boardwalk is closed to anyone except the local First Nations Nuu Chah Nulth people.  We will not be able to add the year 2022 to “our” board on the boardwalk, like we have since first arriving here in 2014.  

Settling in on the hook in Baseball, Carl confirms that there are only tiny crabs with his exploratory use of his “crabhawk,” a small folding net that you use on the end of a fishing pole.  You dip the net down with bait (fish carcass in this case), let it sit on the bottom for a while, and then pull it up quickly.  He instead takes off in ET3, our dinghy, for an evening of fishing.  He is quite happy to return with a nice lingcod.  He says the big one got away but he does show Pam what the big one left behind, and approximately 12” octopus that was in the jaws of the ling when the ling spit out Carl’s hook.  Pam declined to cook up the octopus so it too became crab food.  

Watching the weather and not wanting to venture out in high NW winds again, we choose to go further into the sound to a nice quiet anchorage in Bottleneck Cove.  As we approach, we again fish a “rock pile” coming up with another nice lingcod to put in the freezer.  We see a dinghy approaching and have a nice visit with Dennis and Larae from s/v Sonata.  They are anchored across the inlet but will be moving in to Bottleneck later today.  They keep their boat in Anacortes and actually are full time live-a-boards.  They have been out about 2 months and lost their refrigeration along the way.  We hand them a boat card and a bag of fresh rockfish fillets and wish them well.  Later they return and anchor around the bend in this nice, roomy anchorage.  We see Larae on her paddle board the next day as we spend a leisurely morning in the dinghy, keeping enough rockfish for a meal or two over the next few days. 

On the morning of the 14^th, we listen to the 0400 weather and make a change of plans.  We had decided to go deeper into Clayoquot given the high NW winds predicted, and planned an 0700 departure so we could make a safe approach at slack water through Hayden passage.  However, the winds look just about right, and the seas have calmed a tad so we instead ride the rest of the ebb tide out and head north around Estevan in light 5-15 knot SE winds on “2 meter” seas.  We have enough wind to set the headsail and we make a decent six-hour motor sail up and around Estevan Point. 

We pass up Hesquiat Harbour and Cougar Annie’s Garden, having had a wonderful visit there in 2019 when we circumnavigated the island.  We have wonderful memories of spending a day with Peter, helping him cut cedar slabs by hand and touring the amazing architecture and gardens that he has so lovingly been overseeing for so many years.  There is no indication in internet reading that he is still doing that, and in fact, he had indicated in 2019 that there might have been a potential buyer for the operation.

We also pass by Friendly Cove.  It is not a kind anchorage and is often too full.  We have stayed in the past and thoroughly enjoyed touring the lighthouse and talking with the light keepers.  The local church/community center has wonderful cedar carving works, and stained-glass windows from its previous history, when the area passed from Spain to England back in the 1700’s.  Worth a stop if you have not been.

We opt instead for Santa Gertrudis cove, just past Friendly Cove, and anchor in the small anchorage.  Upon entering there is one very small fishing boat.  Soon another comes and then a decent sized sailboat.  We explain where our anchor is and they opt to go further in and stern tie as well as set anchor.  Another beautiful, canoe stern sailboat ventures in the next morning and Pam visits with them as she sips her morning coffee, telling them where our anchor is.  They too choose further in with stern tie so no one will be fouling each other’s anchors. 

 The 15^th is officially a rain day meaning lots of reading, sitting on the hook, and in my case, typing up this current blog entry.  We stay just out of the rain in the cockpit with the help of a couple of Pam’s “rain curtains,” sunbrella with zippers and tie downs that keep the rain out but still let the view in.  She had to re-stich the zippers by hand while on the hook in Baseball as the thread had worn out from constant UV exposure.  That is it for this entry, now, back to my book and a cup of hot tea while the rain gently continues.