On Saturday we raised the anchor at 5 AM to make the crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound around Cape Caution. This is one of two places along the Inside Passage that is open to the Pacific Ocean. It was an easy crossing, with very mild weather conditions. We did encounter some head seas just before the Cape that were big enough for our bulbous bow to come completely out of the water and slam back down. We had heard about this from other Nordhavn 50s… it was loud, but not a big deal. We arrived at Pruth Bay early in the afternoon after 55 miles underway.
Pruth Bay is on Calvert Island, and is home to the Hakai Beach Institute https://www.hakai.org/. There are well-maintained trails through the grounds that lead to spectacular sand beaches on the ocean side of the island. The trail to the North Beach was a bit adventurous but lots of fun.
My photos don’t do the place justice. We will update the post with some more when we get more than just a thread of connectivity.
On Sunday we traveled another 33 miles North to Codville Lagoon provincial park. We found the “easy” anchoring spots full… it seems that there are more boats than usual heading North this year. We dropped the anchor in somewhat deeper water (but typical of Alaska anchoring depths) and had a hell of a time getting our brand new 138 lb anchor to set. We wound up dragging halfway across the anchorage before getting a good set. I am calling this strike one against the Sarca Excel anchor.
Our fresh water pump issues have continued. We keep thinking we have resolved the problem, only to have it crop up again a few hours later. Again last night, the pump must have overheated from constantly ticking over and would not start. I started rummaging through our stash of replacement pumps looking for a replacement different from the cursed Jabsco VFlo. I found a really heavy duty gear driven pump purchased in 2016 by the previous owners. It looked like a promising solution, but I was one fitting short of being able to plumb it in. I then pulled out another spare pump, a 2010 vintage Jabsco Par Max. Lower capacity, not variable speed… but it worked (at least so far).
We are off today to Shearwater for some provisions and crab/shrimp/fish bait. It’s been raining pretty steadily since yesterday afternoon, supposed to end this afternoon. At least it washes some of the accumulated salt off the boat.
MV Miss Miranda 