Port McNeill and Booker Lagoon

Welcome back! In the last blog post we had just finished our first few stops in the Broughtons and in this one we stop at the area's biggest town and weather the first Fall storm before exploring more of the area. The following blog post covers our travels in the maps below. 

This blog post covers the purple path in the map above from Freshwater bay to Port McNeill and then to Booker Lagoon. During that time we covered 45.1 Nautical miles, which equates to approx 9 hours of travel in Maya.

Video highlights from Port McNeill and Booker Lagoon

Port McNeill is the only "big" town in the Broughtons (pop approx 2500), which makes it a prime place to resupply. We were in need of a huge grocery run so we were bound to a dockside stay to wait out the storm and resupply.

Arriving in Port McNeill we requested for the easiest dock spot to pull into- we didn't want any dramatic docking episodes. Port McNeill fulfilled our request and gave us a spot at the end of a dock... behind a 60' catamaran and next to a 164' megayacht equipped with a helicopter! Our boat felt like a bath toy next to the megayacht! We quickly befriended the helicopter instructor, who travels with the boat. It was fascinating talking with him about the owners and how the boat is operated. There were 10 people on the boat full time- captain, cook, engineer, stewards, deckhands... and one helicopter instructor... Unbelievable. One deckhand even followed the owners around town with a chair in case they wanted to sit down... weird. I guarantee you that we have way more fun than they do! Even on our tiny boat!

Our neighbor for a few days...

I mean, c'mon.... that's just ridiculous

These people will never appreciate the free hot showers at Port McNeill like we did!

Anywho, we spent 4 nights in Port McNeill taking care of a bunch of errands. Jobs included sourcing prawn trap line and some other fishing gear, restocking on groceries, and getting as many runs in as we could. Jenny also had to take some continuing pharmacy education tests too. The weather was cold, wet, and WINDY... perfect weather to be at dock for.

Not much else to say about Port McNeill- the vibe reminded me of a small town in Northern Wisconsin.

Reprovisioning in Port McNeill

Disco managing to survive the cold, wet days in Port McNeill. 

I think that's the upper limit of the fireplace there, bud.

After 4 nights at dock we were ready to jettison back into the wilderness! We booked it to Booker Lagoon, which was recommended to us by fellow boaters. We made a sporty sail (gusts up to 30 knots) to Booker Lagoon and made it through the tight entrance to find a boat-free lagoon! Wooo!

Passing through the entrance to Booker Lagoon

Safely through the entrance

We dropped the hook, threw the traps out, and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the deserted lagoon. We enjoyed the day at Booker Lagoon so much that we decided to stay another night. The decision was easy as the weather was clear and sunny.... we didn't want to waste any of the nice weather traveling when we could be thoroughly enjoying it at anchor.

Booker Lagoon was our first shot at shrimping.... we were eager to put that new gear to use! Shrimp are typically found in water around 300' deep so we dropped our pot in the only deep void of the lagoon and let it soak. Sadly, when we pulled up all 350' of line (which is a lot of work!) there were only 12 shrimp... That's ok- at least we weren't skunked! We savored each of the shrimp over a tasty lunch.

Our first shrimp haul

Tasty lunch

Jenny with a nice sol fish! Note that it was not a halibut!

Tasty fresh fried fish!

Jenny has been baking bread like crazy using sour dough starter we got in Alaska.

Disco with Maya in the background

A stunning sunset to cap a sunny layover day in Booker Lagoon.

Maya at anchor in Booker Lagoon

Another angle of Maya at anchor in Booker Lagoon

Stormy low clouds

Mist in the trees. Distinctly PNW.

We had an amazing time in Booker Lagoon, but were eager to move on and continue exploring more of the Broughtons. Join us next time where we visit with a local legend and run into some issues with our electrical system!

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading. Check back soon for more posts (trying for weekly updates).
Cheers!