M/Y Iron Lady

We have been anchored in Claydon Bay for the last few days along with our new friends aboard M/V Dearleap. I will be doing a post on their beautiful wooden 1929 Hoffer Beeching 85 footer shortly but here is a quick picture with Iron Lady in the background.

We have been prawning and trying for salmon – the latter without much success – hopefully it is because the season hasn’t really started and not because of our technique. At any rate, a nice batch of prawns for dinner tonight.

There have been several eagles fishing around the cove in the evening so I dragged out my Nikon D7100 with my 18-200 lenses and set the camera to 7 frames per second and headed out in Beer Can (our skiff)for a photo op.

After racking up several hundred photos and narrowing the lot down, the following are the best of what I got.

Before heading up here, I had an order in for a Tamron 150 – 600 lens. For reasons unknown the release date was originally scheduled for January for Nikon bodies. At last check, it is still not available.

I cropped several of the photos to blow the picture of the eagle up but that reduces resolution – really could have used that Tamron lens.

Oh well.

Kwatsi Bay is beautiful. A granite amphitheater surrounded by towering peaks and numerous cascades.

This first picture is along the Tribune Channel – Kwatsi lies off the north side.

This is the entrance channel.

Which opens to these breathtaking views.

We failed to make reservations and dock space is limited so we were relegated to the anchorage.

We went ashore to arrange for WiFi and talked to Max, the owner. Like many of the small marinas here, Max has built Kwatsi with his own two hands. His wife was not on the premises at the time – she holds down a full time job in Campbell River to help make ends meet. This is not an easy life – it takes real dedication to keep a place like this running.

While beautiful, the bottom in the anchorage was pure rock and it was difficult to even get our big Rocna anchor to hold which is extremely rare. I was awakened at around 10:30 PM with a lot of graunching from the anchor chain. Turns out we were dragging and the currents in the bay are significant (Steve caught the fact that we were dragging and got the engine going).

Steve tried to get the anchor to take a set again and it was plain that is was a losing cause so we put the anchor in deep water and Steve took a stern line to shore.

It was a sleepless night as Steve and I took turns watching things to make sure we didn’t drag and end up on the rocks.

Kwatsi is a great place to see but those headed there need to have a space at the dock.

After our sleepless night at Kwatsi, we decided to do a bit of touring and put in at Shawl Bay Marina and get a good nights sleep. Enroute to Shawl were several places we wanted to see that had been written up in the cruising guides – Watson Cove and Lacy Falls.

The entrance to Watson is extremely narrow with rocks to starboard and the room inside isn’t much better but it was worth getting in to see the scenery.

Lacy Falls is exposed so there is no anchorage but it is worth a look. Water streams over the granite rock face giving the appearance of lace. Snow melt earlier in the season from the high snow fields makes this quite spectacular. It is more difficult to see this in the photo but it was still pretty.

Next stop was Shawl Bay Marina with its floating houses and cedar log docks – a common sight up here.

This is the five o’clock pot luck tent.

A broader view of the marina.

This is called old man’s beard here and by other names other places but it is a lichen that grows not he trees.

And finally, a couple of nice sunsets.

Just realised I didn’t do the post on Kwatsi Bay yet. Oh well – will do that next.

Jumping ahead a bit here but we just left a wonderful resort and now we are anchored up in Turnbull Cove near Watson Island not far from Nimmo. I will cover both in this post.

There are few really high end resorts up this way and Nimmo Bay is one of the best of the few.

The guest book features the names of past Presidents and corporate CEO’s. Activities range from Heli Flyfishing and touring to hiking and on the water activities. The kitchen is pure gourmet with virtually everything down to the pastries made on site.
Having said that, Nimmo comes with prices to match so we had one breakfast and dinner there and enjoyed some of the lessor activities (including a massage for Deb). I will start with a few pictures so you can get a feel for it.

The lodge can accommodate up to 20 people in small intimate cabins.

One of the features is a gorgeous waterfall in the woods right in the heart of things.

In addition to providing hydroelectric power, it is a place for a quick dip if you do not mind water that comes directly from the snow pac high above. Of course, you can take a quick dip and retreat to the hot tub (which I did each night for the two nights we were there).

There is also a heated outdoor shower for bathing before heading back to your cabin.

The dinner table was set outside ready for us after drinks and appetizers on the deck.

Appetizers were smoked salmon on crackers – both prepared on site. Dinner was fresh halibut in a wonderful cream sauce with fresh veges. Desert was cake with home made ice cream. The whole affair was worthy of any of the best restaurants we have been to.

After dinner, we adjourned to the deck for after dinner drinks next to a wonderful cedar fire.

Blankets are provided as well.

Breakfast consisted of fresh fruit with granola and yogurt all made on the premises followed by either bacon and eggs or salmon and eggs with parsley potatoes and hollandaise sauce.

We also had a chance to spend some time with Craig and his wife Deborah who own the resort and run it along with their son and daughter in law. The whole experience was unforgettable. We will be going back with our guests later in July and August.

The scenery in the whole area is amazing so here are some shots taken around Turnbull Cove, Kenneth Passage, and McKenzie Sound.

This is also the home of Roaring Hole Rapids – and they are as ferocious as the name sounds as the tide ebbs and floods thru the narrow passage.

This is dinghy only territory and then only at slack tide.

A couple of fun shots around Nimmo.

Tonight we are anchored up in Turnbull along with a bunch of other boats. It’s Canada Day and one of the boaters informed us that the “beer was going to flow”. Sounds like it will be an interesting night.

Cheers

The standard joke aboard has been that there are more elephants in Canada than bears. We are currently in Nimmo Bay (yes I am way behind on posts as usual). At any rate, Nimmo Bay Resort is something very special so I will be doing a full post on it.

This morning we were out bear hunting at the end of Mackenzie Inlet and came across this gal who was foraging for fish in the stream at the end of the bay.

Good sign as this suggests there must be some salmon starting to show as well. Anyway, we watched her for about 40 minutes. She would come down into the stream and fish, take a good look at us and then take her catch back in to the woods. Then she would reappear and fish some more. You can clearly see she knew we were there and she was wary.

It was wonderful to sit and watch her. Unfortunately, my 150-600 mm lens did not arrive in time to bring it with me so I had to crop an image taken with my 18-200 mm lens.

When we stopped at Lagoon Cove, we were introduced to the Potluck. A common occurrence up this way as most of the marinas do not have restaurants. The Potluck involves meeting at a specified location with all of the other marina guests at a specific time for a social hour (or more).

First some shots of Lagoon Cove.

This is Pat – one of the Dockmasters in front of their very impressive workshop, who along with Bob take great care of the guests. From all the hugs, it wa apparent that folks come back here year after year and are more old friends then guests.

This is the Jean’s house (the Owner).

More shots of the workshop.

Jean was kind enough to take Deb to learn how to harvest sea asparagus which, when cooked and served with a vinegar and oil dressing is marvellous. This is a picture of Jean while Deb tries out same. It became a staple that we had almost every day.

Back to the Potluck – the first night it rained so we were all inside the workshop. Everyone brought a dish along with their favourite beverage. It was great fun.

Night two brought more favourable weather and we were all outside on the deck.

It was also our anniversary and Jean baked us a cake a had some Lagoon Cove items wrapped up as a gift for us.

One of the guests was a professional singer so we all sang a bunch of camp fire songs (I sang solo – so low no one could here me).

It was all great fun and we will try to get back when our friends and family come to visit.

Like most things in life, learning to prawn has been a learning experience. Our first endeavour was a dismal failure – no prawns. The same with the second – no prawns. Hauling prawn traps up from 300 feet of water is no fun – especially when there is no joy.

We hit it big on the third try – 1 prawn. At that point, we figured we needed a bit of guidance. THe first guidance was that the prawn fishing in the area of Desolation Sound was non-existent. Pretty much had been wiped out by the commercial guys. NOW they tell us.

As we went further north, things started to improve. Out of Lagoon Cove, our first haul was 12 prawns. Things were looking up, but we noted that as we brought the trap aboard, the prawns were falling out of the trap – not a good thing.

After some more advice on the dock, we learned that the trap I had bought (in addition to being a fold up trap that acted more like a bear trap when you tried to fold or unfold it) was legal in Washington, Alaska and BC.

When I looked at the traps in the store at Lagoon Cove, it was painfully obvious that they were not only easier to use, but the mesh size was far smaller. AKA – less prawns get away – much easier to haul up – much easier to store. No more bear traps – not sure what I am going to do with the bear trap. It will probably reside in the forepeak buried along with another 1000 pounds of useless gear I have bought at exorbitant prices.

TIme to shell out another $110 for a new trap.

Eureka! We hit it big! The next AM we had at least 24 good sized prawns. The following day, we filled half of a 2 gallon bucket with nice sized ones. Tip number 2 was to not stop hauling up the trap as the prawns tend to swim out when you do. Good thing I have a strong, young guy aboard – hauling up a trap from 300 feet is not fun. Most old timers have a winch for same but that is another $500. Probably end up getting one of those too.

Here is the proof –

I’ll include a few pictures of the new gear in a later post. Have to get out and launch another pot in Kwatsi Bay now – guy told me he got 5 dozen yesterday.

Best