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Inside Passage South: Fiordland
We are always looking for new areas to explore. Several boating friends have highly recommend a cruise to Fiordland. Our Waggoner cruising guide states: “ The Fiordland Conservancy was established in 1987, and is some of the most striking country on the coast. The mountains are sheer and beautiful and the wildlife is abundant, but anchorages are just about nonexistent.” Located in the northern reaches of Mathieson Channel, it is a remote area only acessable by boat. Being a detour off the normal Inside Passage route, it doesn’t get a lot of cruising traffic. This sounds like our type of cruising! Leaving our Khutze Inlet anchorage, we travel up Sheep’s Passage and anchor for the night in Windy Bay the best anchorage near Fiordland. The next morning we are transiting the Mathison Narrows, a 275 yard wide channel which connects Sheeps Passage to Mathison Chanel, when we spot something floating in the water. Getting closer, we realize it is a brown bear swimming across the narrows.
He is as surprised as we are, especially when Jeff uses the bow thruster. Here is a video of him swimming.
We begin to get glimpses of the granite cliffs as we near Kynoch Inlet.
Turning of Mathison Channel, we enter Kynoch Inlet where we will spend the next few days. We have a spectacular cruise up this narrow deep water fiord.
Black granite cliffs rise straight up from the water.
Numerous waterfalls tumble down from the steep mountains.
At the head of the inlet is our anchorage just off the mud flats.
This is another deep water anchorage that shoals very quickly. We cautiously ease Idyll Time’s bow into shallow water to get a feel for the anchoring area. Charts are useless in these remote places. We anchor in 100 feet just off the drying mud flats with 250 feet of anchor chain out.
It is a stunning anchorage with tall granite cliffs surrounding us on three sides.
It is hard to capture the beauty in photos. Below is a video of our anchorage.
Kayaking around the bay, we spot several brown bears grazing in the sedge grass.
The many seals are again very inquisitive and I am able to get some photos as they try to figure out what I am doing here.
Wanting to explore the back bay, we take the dinghy into Culpepper Lagoon. There are rapids at the entrance so we enter one hour before slack which gives us time to explore and get out before the rapids pick up again. The scenery here is amazing also!
Fiordland is also part of the Kitasoo Xai’xais Guardian Program to preserve this pristine area and protect the wildlife. We spot this mom brown bear and her two cubs as they come down to the shoreline at low tide each day to eat mussels.
Fiordland may be our new favorite destination in Northern British Columbia. Many thanks to our Krogen friends for recommending that we come here. We will definitely be back. Thanks for following along!
