M/Y Iron Lady

Princess Louisa lies at the head of Jervis Inlet. From Thunder Bay it is approximately 45 nautical miles and the entrance to Princess Louisa is governed by passage thru Malibu Rapids – a twisty passage with tidal currents of up to 9 knots.

Canadian tide tables show that Malibu is a secondary port referenced to Port Atkinson tides. Offset from Port Atkinson shows to be between 25 to 35 minutes after low and high tides at Port Atkinson. Slack current occurs another 20 to 30 minutes after high or low tide. For June 7, we are on a neap tide (as opposed to spring tides). Springs are the higher tides that occur around the full and new moon. Tide differentials tend to be lower on neap tides and hence current flow is less. One of the daily diurnal tides tends to have higher highs and lower lows then the other. For our passage, the favoured tide occurred around 1530 in the afternoon. On that basis, we timed our departure from Thunder Bay to coincide with arrival at Malibu rapids about one hour earlier. 45 miles from Thunder to Malibu at 9 knots average meant a departure around 0930 with an hour to spare.

Lots of pictures this time as the scenery is spectacular. As or more beautiful then Fiordland in New Zealand.

Jervis inlet is really more of a fiord and the surrounding mountains become higher and steeper as one progresses up the inlet.

Our arrival at Malibu was right on schedule and the rapids were non existent so we, along with 4 other boats proceeded thru earlier then predicted slack tide.

There is a resort located right on the rapids so I am certain the guests get quite a show when the rapids are running. This fellow is the station wagon of the north – a De Havallin Beaver getting ready for take off just after the rapids.

Once thru Mailbu rapids, it is about 4 nautical miles to the head of the inlet. Princess Louisa if a steep sided fiord carved by a massive ancient glacier. The inlet is barely .5 miles wide and steep granite cliffs rise 2000 to 3000 feet to mountain tops and snow fields above. Water depths approach 1500 feet and the rock faces fall abruptly to these depths immediately off shore.

Melting snows from the snow fields high above fuel 100’s of water falls which stream down the sides of the fiord.

At the head of the fiord, the surrounding mountains form a gigantic ampitheater with cascades everywhere.

At the very head is Chatterbox Falls and the roar can be heard several miles away.

We anchored Iron Lady just off the falls – the mist actually drifted over the boat. The procedure consisted of approaching the falls and dropping the anchor in 20 feet of water and then allowing the current to hold the boat in position facing the falls. It was spectacular.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many places to walk. It is far too dangerous to go to the top of the falls but you can get close and the old growth forest is amazing.

A few more shots of the falls and Iron Lady.

Quite the place.

Next stop – back to Thunder Bay and then Campbell River.

The trip to Princess Louisa Inlet actually gets broken in to two parts. From the entrance to Jervis Inlet, it is approximately 45 miles to Princess Louisa and the timing of the trip is dependent on transiting the Malibu Rapids at the entrance to Princess Louisa at slack water as tidal flows in the rapids can reach a turbulent 9 knots.

There are no real protected anchorages once you begin the journey up Jervis Inlet so our strategy was to make the 45 mile run from Nanaimo to Thunder Bay near the entrance of Jervis and anchor for the night there before making our run to Princess Louisa.

It is a beautiful little bay with spectacular scenery.

While Deb was enjoying a sunny afternoon reading on the fly bridge, Steve and I broke out our crabbing gear for a shot at Dungeness crab.

Having not crabbed before, we were uncertain of the whole procedure but our strategy was to load up a bait container with chicken parts and strap that to the inside of our trap and deposit the trap (attached to two floats) in 60 feet of water.

While at Port Sidney, we asked some fellows across from us about the best way to carb and they advised that they were not the ones to ask – they had launched a crab pot in 100 feet of water with only 60 feet of line attached. The carb trap went to the bottom (dragging the floats down with it) never to be seen again. We made sure we had excess line.

Later in the evening, we pulled the pot and had captured two nice sized critters.

“Deadliest Catch” look out – you ain’t got nothing on us

Our next stop was Nanaimo, the second largest town on Vancouver Island. Not particularly a place we wanted to go but necessary for a few repair items and as a good stopping point on our way to Jervis Inlet and Princess Louisa Inlet.

So just a few quick pics of our anchorage and a blockhouse where they fire off a canon at noon each day.

Next morning it was off on a 45 mile run to Jervis Inlet and Thunder Bay. A look out the window gives a preview of things to come.

John Henrichs (FPB 64 Tiger) recommended that we head to Montague Harbour. There is a great French return there along with a good pub. Well unfortunately, the French restaurant was not open yet and the pub was only open for lunch and we had arrived after lunch.

Next thought was to do an island tour by scooter, but Deb was really so we cancelled that.

Next thought was to visit a local marine park for a walkabout which was very nice.

On our way back to the boat in the dinghy we went out into the straight where there are numerous pods of Orcas – one resident pod with a female that is 100 plus years old. No joy.

On the way back to the boat, we thought we we’re seeing double as there was another FPB64 anchored near us. Bill Henry on Sarah Sarah. He has seen us on AIS and stopped when he saw we had pulled into Montague Harbor. We had a great evening together as Bill joined us for stuff on the barber.

Bill was off early the next morning, but, like us, he is headed north and we hope to meet up again. Avatar is planning the same so hopefully there will be a photo op with three FPB 64s.

Nest morning we were off to Nanaimo thru the Dodd Narrows. Impressive as currents can get up to 9 knots. We saw 3.

Salt water tidal rapids are a major deal up here. Our next will be thru Malibu Rapids on the way to Princess Louisa Inlet.

Best

We finally had our first on board dinner and what a dinner it was. The dungeness crab was invited but never made the dinner pictures – he was devoured on crackers long before. The following are shots are of cedar grilled fresh salmon, risotto and blanched veges.

Now I know why I came here.

Neighbor boat told me that it is tough to catch king salmon because the the sockeye and cohos get their first. What a shame!

It is rumored that there is a huge patch out in the middle of the North Pacific where winds and currents accumulate massive amounts of trash. Some have suggested it is over 100 meters thick and so substantial that you can walk on it. I have no idea whether or not it is true, but we just motored thru the central region of the North Pacific high where one would expect to find such a thing if it exists.

While I can’t attest to having seen anything like that, what I can tell you is that we did encounter enormous amounts of garbage along our route. Some might have been from the Japanese tsunami but that was forecast to be east of our route.

Most appeared to be fishing related. Lots of floats and marker buoys. We would literally motor along for hours with buoys and balls on either side of us every 1/4 or mile or so. At night, since they were invisible, we would occasionally here the small bang as they hit the hull.

Many had obviously been in the water a long time with beards of sea growth on them.

What struck us was that we were over 1000 nautical from land and these errant objects were still our there – lots of them.

Not the great Pacific Garbage Patch but distressing none the less. It lives on long after it escaped its original purpose.