Kelsey Bay June 9, 2011
We left Campbell river today about 1100 to run the 8 miles to Seymour narrows. The slack is at 120 pm, If our math is right it will take us two hours to get there bucking the 4 knot currents. As it turns out were their an hour earlier so we end up challenging the rapids that are still running at about 3 knots against us. It goes fineand we pop thru without incident. A couple of strong eddies and swirls turned us a bit but nothing substantial was encountered. Then the current changed in our favor and gave us a push all the way to Kelsey bay. The winds that environment Canada was predicting never materialized and so the run up was quite pleasant.
Kelsey bay is a small fishing village located next to the Salmon river just north of Helmlicken Island and Race Passage. Their was very little room to tie up the boat and we ended up hanging over the end of a dock by about 15 feet. Ther rest of the space is taken up by derelict and well used fishing vessels of all sorts. There was not another liesure recreational boat in their and I doubt highly if they ever see many vessels like ours here. There is nothing ashore. It is the end of a road, there is a small campground and a run down boatyard and two or three residences in poor state of repair. The ferry dock is deteriorationg and no longer in use and the marina has seen better days. The people were very nice and helpful however. I would not recommend this as anything but an emergency stop and even then any boat larger than ours would be hard pressed to find any spot to tie up. The protection from a large storm is questionable at best and uncomfortable at least. I would not opt for this stop but Fran loves it and it does have its own character and flavor so being here is a unique experience. The view up channel is spectacular and that makes it somewhat worthwhile.
Kelsey Bay is not on the list of do overs.
We met up with a solo kyaker heading around the island. He was looking for a water fill up and ended up with dinneer and a place to bed down for the night. Graham was from Duncan, near Maple Bay,Nice guy.
July 10,
No Whales, Fran is bummed. The whale wathcers are reporting fleeting sightings of the elusive creatures and so far nothing. Blackney passage is the best bet for seeing them and we are now north of that.
Plenty more opportunity so I am sure Fran will get her whale fix
Johnstone strait is flat calm today. No wind no waves, perfect run all the way from chatham point yesterday to Pt Mcneil today.
this is slow. Getting used to the slow progress but I do not think I will become a sailboat fan after this extended experience. Visibility is much worse from the cockpit of a sailboat than from my flybridge. Fuel consumption is certainly better but the progress is painfully slow.
At least we had pretty fair currents and they were not to awful this morning as we followed the southern shore and took advantage of some back eddies.
On to Pt Mcneil. Weather is holding and it looks like wednesday when we round Cape Scott the conditions will be ideal.
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