Bobbing around on Blue Moon in The Broughtons

[joreyn]

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The Broughton Archipelago in British Columbia is one of the most magnificent cruising grounds imaginable. We spent about a week getting there after the PNW Rendezvous in Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. A little over two weeks exploring the coves and channels around the many islands and about five days getting back to the San Juan Islands. Two weeks was not enough. We'll be back.

Basically this group of islands lies between the Northern end of Vancouver Island to the West, and the BC mainland, roughly 150 miles north of the city of Vancouver. It is truly wilderness. There are no towns or villages other than those on Vancouver Island (Port McNeil and Port Hardy). There are a number of marinas ranging from high end resorts to cute little family run operations. Wildlife is abundant, both in the water and on land. The scenery is awe inspiring.

The challenges are: 1. Getting there (see my post under the "Two Albins in Blind Bay" topic); 2. Taking on fresh water - clear drinking water can be found, but most of the water supplies come from nearby lakes and is brown from the vegetation in and near the lakes; 3. Provisioning is limited. There are only two places to buy groceries and just one that sells beer, wine or spirits. You need to go to Port McNeil to do any major provisioning.

There are lots of anchorages, large and small. In addition there are about 12 seasonal marinas, with quite a variety of offerings. Almost all of them are 100% floating with minimal or no shore-side amenities. Most of them provide a space to walk your dogs, which was important to us, but all of the structural facilities are on floats. The floats themselves are really big logs.

So they are rustic, but that doesn't mean they aren't fun. On the contrary, many of them have signature "events" almost nightly. The socializing is excellent as a result and we met and enjoyed many cruisers. That was one of the highlights. Here is the rundown on four of the places we stayed.

Sullivan Bay Marina. This is a floating community with about a dozen or more floating houses. The homes are very nice, and the owners tend to spend there entire summer up there, and then take off for more amenable winter climates. The marina is really well run. They have a nice restaurant which has one or two items on the menu each night, and also makes sandwiches etc for lunch. Food was excellent. One feature is that the marina manager will take you out salmon fishing. We caught 12 salmon in three hours and Blue Moon's new freezer box is now full of filets and steaks. They also have a pretty well stocked grocery store and liquor agency. The only beer, wine and spirits in the islands, so people tend to stop by for re-provisioning.

Pierre's Echo Bay Marina. Very well run place feature's Pierre, a French Canadian who moved out West and married Tove, who is the glue that keeps the place together. Pierre and his Dockmaster, "Mad Dog" Mike orchestrate a pig roast every Saturday during the season and a Prime Rib feast every Thursday. Needless to say, this keeps the docks nearly full. Lots of big yachts in here. Groceries and other supplies. The main buildings are perched on top of a salvaged section of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge which sank a number of years ago. This concrete float was towed 100s of miles to its current location.

Nimmo Bay Wilderness Lodge. This is about as far as you can get from civilization and yet it is a very "civilized" place to stay on your boat. The vast majority of their clientele comes in "boatlless." They are transported in by boat or helicopter, and they get to experience some pretty incredible adventure. They take copters up to nearby glaciers, where they might fish, look for bears, do photography. It's the total lodge experience, including gourmet meals, and learning new skills like kayaking and fly fishing. They only have space for 2 or 3 boats right now, but they are working on ramping that up.

Lagoon Cove Marina. This is a very convenient and popular place to either begin or conclude your stay in the Broughtons. The part we most enjoyed was their potluck happy hour. That is a popular concept up in the Broughtons, and Lagoon Cove has perfected the practice. The food was amazing, and there wa no need for dinner following happy hour.

In addition to the places to visit, I thought I would comment a little on the wildlife. We saw whales (Humpback and Orcas), seals and sea lions, tons of bald eagles, porpoise and dolphins, but no bears. The bears are there but not when we were there, much to my wife's disappointment.

Finally, an experience that my wife really enjoyed along with some newly-made friends. Carol spent most of a day with Nikki van Schimmel of Echo Bay Eco Ventures wwwdotEchobayecoventuresdotcom . A number of years ago, Nikki and a friend went to an uninhabited island and basically lived off the land. She is an amazing woman who is a renowned primitive survival expert, but also a great teacher about the wilderness. Needless to say, my wife is still talking about Nikki.

Here are some photos that relate to all of the above. I will try to post a short video clip of Nikki starting the fire that lunch was cooked on the old-fashioned way. We'll see if it works.

[joreyn]

Looks like the aforementioned video file is too large to upload. It's worth viewing, so I'll try something else.

[amber jj]

WOW what a experience.You are to be envied.Great story,great pics.Thanks for sharing.

[Nancy]

Thank you for a great post! Wow, what a trip.

[Chuck Waygood]

Amazing photography! What is the camera? Many thanks.

[joreyn]

Some were my cell phone. Many taken by a friend using a GoProIII. One is a capture from a web site.

When we got up there the battery in my good camera died.

[RobS]

Great stuff, thanks for posting. Those veggies are getting me hungry!

Looks like the aforementioned video file is too large to upload. It's worth viewing, so I'll try something else.

Upload to Dropbox or Youtube and post the link.

[jcollins]

Thanks so much for the great write-up and sharing.

[joreyn]

Here is a link to the video of Nikki Van Schimel, of Echo Bay EcoVentures, making a fire using primitive methods. Pretty amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OIDZYw ... e=youtu.be

[joreyn]

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Couple more photos.

On our way throught the Broughtons we came upon a school of Pacific White-sided Dolphins. Close to 100 of them, hunting salmon on the surface. Only had my smart phone to shoot the picture. Terrible focus due to using telephoto setting. But you cab get the feel for how dramatic this was.

Also, a photo of Lacey Falls, a landmark up there. Only, with the beautiful summer - lack of rain - almost no water flowing! Still pretty cool. Sights like this are pretty common up there.

[whwells]

Beautiful. Wonderful cruise. Next season I have to go all the way up as well. Lacey Falls is a very special photo. Thanks for sharing.
whwells "Howard"

[DougSea]

I've always thought I'd like to do a cruise of the PNW. Your pictures and write up have sealed the deal! May be a few years yet before I can pull it off, but it's on the list for sure!

Thanks for taking the time to do such a great post!!

[joreyn]

Here is a link to a video of the Pacific White-sided Dolphins in the Broughtons. It was posted by Nikki Van Schyndel of Echo Bay EcoVentures. Nikki has a sound recording device for recording the dolphions "conversations."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bzaTdylUTM

[whwells]

John & Carol: Well almost joined you in the 36 Albin Et. On the drive to Ventura to view the boat a call came in that it had sold. Now Albin less and missing one. The search continues.
Loved your posting.
whwells "Howard"

[joreyn]

I was putting together a presentation for my yacht club on our cruise last summer, and I came across a great YouTube video about the "rapids" that we went through on the way to the Broughtons. Google <Dent Rapids video> and there are several. The one I really liked was by Fleming Yachts. Is is titled "Venture Visits Dent Rapids." That is some fast moving salt water!