Campbell River to Octopus Marine Park
Altech Marine has our windless repaired and finish re-installing it by 1 pm.
Many boaters make Desolation Sound their turn around point and never venture north of here. To reach the Broughtons, one must pass through several tidal areas. Because of the many fjords and the maze of narrow passages combined with the large swing in tides ( up to 14 feet), currents ebb and flood over twelve knots at some of narrow junctions . Some have whirlpools larger than our boat along with many rocks lurking under the surface. These rapids are major obstacles that can not be ignored especially in a boat that only goes eight knots. Slack tide which occurs twice daily, is really the only time to transit these rapids safely. One must be precise in their arrival time as slack last only a few minutes before the currents reverse. And once they reverse, there is a very short window of time until these currents reach their maximum velocity once again sometimes as short as 4 minutes. We will have a series of these passages to figure out over the next few days. Our first set of rapids is at Surge Narrows later today.
Just a few miles from Campbell River, we spot our first whales of the year. We idle as two humpbacks pass off our starboard side.
Arriving to Surge Narrows 45 minutes ahead of slack tide, we circle several times.
This is a great anchorage with beautiful scenery and room for hundreds of boats. With the dinghy down, we search for an old cabin built in the 70’s located on one of the smaller islands.
From the anchorage, we do a great hike with Wendy and Leigh to Newton Lake, three miles up the mountain. It is a beautiful crystal clear lake and a great swimming hole.
Jeff and Leigh retrieved Leigh’s prawn trap today. In it they found three scallops but no prawns. We all try our luck at fishing but catch only a few small rock fish.
Total Miles Today: 30
Total Miles This Year: 652
Waiatt Bay to Forward Harbor:
We are up early for our transit of Upper and Lower Okisollo Rapids, only three miles from the anchorage. Like Surge Narrows, these rapids also need to be transited at slack. Our Waggoner Guide book states “ The rapids running at 9 knots are freighting to watch. A wall of white water stretches across the channel until slack”. We have run white water rapids in our kayak but I don’t think it would be too enjoyable in Idyll Time. For some reason our tides and currents book shows slack time 20 minutes earlier than slack according to our computer program. Which is correct? We ease up to the rapids at the earlier time and everything looks pretty good. Forever Exploring takes the lead and we follow behind. There is almost no current and it is a very easy transit. Looks like our Tides and Currents book was correct on these rapids.
Once through the lower rapids, Okisollo Channel brings us back out into Johnstone Strait. We have a favorable current and the Strait is calm this morning. It is always hard to judge what the wether will be like on Johnstone Strait until you are actually there. The Canadian Weather service announces wind warnings on the Strait every day. We were told that several years ago the weather service missed the forecast of high winds and a boater had died. They were sued over this so now every forecast includes a high wind warning. We bypass our two bail out options and continue twenty miles north to Chancellor Channel. We see our first bears of the season. We first spot a black bear wandering along one of the Islands’ shore and shortly after, we see a grizzly bear on a second island.
Our second rapids of the day are just up Wellborn Channel. We circle for about half an hour waiting on slack at Whirlpool Rapids. These rapids only reach speeds of seven knots and have a fairly straightforward approach. We take take these rapids a little early and have only two knots of current. There are still some good whirlpools which grab our bow and alter our course.
Forward Harbor, our anchorage for the evening is just past the rapids. The narrow entrance opens up to a long two mile long harbor surrounded on three sides by the steep mountains thick with fir trees. We anchor in Douglas Bay just beyond the small beach in 60 feet of water.
Total Miles Today: 44
Total Miles This Year: 696
Thanks for the great post. We will be going through Surge Narrows and then Okisollo after a stay in Octopus Islands this coming week, you make it sound very inviting and we may stay an extra day because of that. I have looked everywhere and can only find current tables for Surge Narrows but nothing for Okisollo. Where did you find your information as to when slack is at Okisollo? If you could share or advise I would be very grateful. All I could find was “local knowledge” in the Wagoner Guide that it was 55 minutes before slack at Seymour Narrows but that did not jive with the fact you could make Surge and then Okisollo if you were to go straight through at 6kts. So…anything other than going to look and wait for Okisollo to help with trip planning…?