July 6th Saturday

From: Telegraph Cove          To:  Boat Bay, West Cracroft Is.
Start time: 0600        Finish time: 1300      Distance: 28 km
Tide: Alert Bay
0356     4.6
1202     0.6
1734     4.1
2253     2.0

Current: Blackney Passage
Turns   Max     kts
0152     0442     + 0
0709     1052     -3.5
1327     1716     +0.8
2015     2313     -2.9

     Climbed out of bed at 4:00 a.m. and started carrying the kayak and all my gear to the boat ramp - so much stuff. I knew it would all fit into the boat because I’d done a practice run at home but it seemed to be going a lot slower then I was hoping for. Hopefully, I’ll get faster with a little practice. Looked out at the strait, the conditions couldn’t have been better. The forecast for today was NW 0 to 15 knots in the morning and increasing to 15 to 20 around noon I needed to cross Johnstone Strait before the wind came up but first I wanted to paddle down the Vancouver island side a ways to avoid the currents around Blackney Passage.

All packed up and almost ready to leave 

     By 6:00 a.m. the boat was packed Trish and I said are farewells and I was off. There was just a slight ripple on the water. I looked at my chart while I rounded Wastell Point, remembering the first time I’d paddled out this way in 1995. I had taken my 12-year-old son out to Mamalilaculla in our double kayak. He was home schooling at the time and I was teaching him about navigation. As I looked at the old chart, I saw there was still the faint penciled line of our route from 20 years before. It was good to be here again. I miss living on the North Island.
     I rounded Blinkhorn Peninsula and beached for a short break at a well established campsite, then followed the shore line east. I was only a few feet away from a rock bluff when the bow of my kayak startled a sea lion that was hidden from my few.  He suddenly dropped from his rock ledge into the water about 3 feet in front of me, my heart skipped a beat (or two) and I could feel the pressure wave of his fin under me as he quickly swam away. That was too close for comfort. I backed off the rock bluffs after that.

Looking west from West Crackoft Island  

     I continued east listening to channel 71 for marine traffic that might be coming my way. When all was clear I cut across the strait towards Sophia Islands, then along West Cracroft Island. Suddenly I found myself in the middle of about a 100 Pacific white-sided dolphins all heading west. They jumped randomly out of the water, landing back down again in a split second. Some were just a few feet away. This was such an amazing site while sitting low on the water.
     I stopped at Boat Bay for the night. There are two developed campsites here, both looked like they might belong to a kayak tour company, with a nice kitchen area and many tent platforms to choose from. I was glad to have the place to myself, but then that’s why I was here so early in the season, that and I knew there would be lots of water in the creeks still. Trish bought me a really good bottle of Bushmills Irish Whisky a couple of months ago, so I cracked it open and had my first shot while enjoying the scenery. The mountains on the Vancouver Island side of the strait rise almost straight out of the waters edge climbing to impressive heights - what a beautiful site. I also had a good view of Robson Bight almost straight across from me. According to Galois, the Kwakwaka’ wakw name of this site, Usaq, is “said to mean ‘gray haired’ i.e. with burnt trees” and Franz Boas listed it as a place of origin for the Komkiutis. This site has also been claimed by Trish’s grandmother’s band the Matilpi. 
     After a hardy campfire stew I was in bed around 9:00.

The view from my campsite at Boat Bay