Very damp and chilly this morning. So foggy that for all you could tell, the land could be prairie or Everest - ceiling about 25 feet.
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| Leaving Cypress Harbour |
We hugged the shore until Greenway Sound, where the prospect of a crossing in zero visibility stopped us in our tracks. We picked our way down along the shore, past the fish farm, until we could see Cecil Island, where we landed to take a compass bearing and put our theory to the test. We figured that even if we were wrong, we had about 90 degrees of error to play with - a good test ground. We took a bearing for Maud Island and launched again.
As we set out into the white, it wasn't more than a minute or two before we could see Maud Island straight ahead of us, both confirming our theory of how this worked and providing us a visual target to shoot for. The fog was lifting, and placid conditions prevailed all the way up to Sullivan Bay.
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| View into Patrick Passage (L) and Dunsany Passage (R) |
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| Toward Sullivan Bay |
We were halfway into our trip, and
Sullivan Bay Marina provided a nice taste of civilization at that point. It was a bit awkward tying our kayaks up to the dock which was built for larger vessels, and in our ragtag paddling gear we looked more than a bit out of place. I wouldn't trade kayaking for a more convenient method of travel, but sometimes the "yotters" in their dry civvies inspire a little pang of jealousy. As advertised, though, they're friendly to kayakers. We ran some of our more foetid gear through the laundry and took showers, bought potato chips, tinned soup, apples, and some wine (just in case). As we waited for the laundry cycle to finish, the local chef came by and gave us a couple take-out containers of fried rice. Brilliant!
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| Sullivan Bay Marina |
We'd lingered a bit, and after a choppy crossing of Dunsany Passage we calculated it was too late to attempt a clockwise circuit of Watson Island to get to our destination of Blair Islet - we'd be trapped by the currents on the ebb - so we decided to head through Hopetown Passage instead. We sailed through like billy-o, carried by a nice strong current to the mouth of Mackenzie Sound.
Lat: N 50°55'11.2"
Lon: W 126°47'30.7"
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| Hopetown Passage, looking east |
Magnificent views! High, craggy mountains. The campsite at Blair Islet was a bit hidden - it's a bit west of the southernmost point of the islet. A very appealing spot, athough there'd be no beach at all at the highest tides.
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| Blair Islet, with the mainland beyond |
We had a nice tramp around Blair Islet - no bears, which meant we could keep our food in the boats. Some big cedars here, spared during the logging of last century probably because they weren't perfect trees. Lots of big old stumps with notches cut out of them for loggers to stand on, some with burned-out hearts. We had fun riffing on the idea of running an eco-tourism/parkour outfit here, playing athletic follow-the-leader through the 100-year-old logging debris.
After supper we paddled out into Mackenzie Sound for a bit more look-see at the scenery. It's a stunning spot, well worth a visit.
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| Mackenzie Sound, looking east |
We checked out Hopetown Passage again, expecting the current to be running west at this point, and were surprised to find it was still running eastward, only one channel open now around low tide. So we clawed through against the current into placid fields of kelp then -just for kicks - shot the rapids one more time back to camp.
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| Hopetown Passage at sundown, looking west |
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