The Good and the Bad- Making our way down Johnstone Strait

Hello and welcome back to another chapter of our northern adventure!
We last left you at Port Harvey- We had spent an extra night there waiting out the crap weather in hopes of a more favorable wind direction and maybe some sunshine.... at least a little less rain!

Video Highlights from our journey down Johnstone Strait

Travel stats for travel covered in this blogpost:
Distance: 49.3 Nautical Miles
Time spent traveling: Approx 11 hours
Duration: 3 days

Zoomed in map of our travels- Orange indicates our path covered in this blog post

Google Map Locations (click to view on google maps):
Port Harvey
Port Nevelle
Helmcken Island
Shoal Bay


We spent a soggy evening in Port Harvey watching the original star wars movie (A New Hope) and awoke the next morning with.... a new hope! No rain and favorable wind! The detour to Port Harvey was definitely the right call. We made quick work of the 14 miles to Port Nevelle, pulling into the FREE government dock located there- love those free dock spots!

An abandoned Port Harvey

A sunny morning! We love the sun!

Upon arriving at Port Nevelle, we met another young person sailor- a rare thing, as the only people we had met on the trip so far were 50+. The sailor was a singlehander who was coming back from the summer in AK. Singlehander means they are the only person running the boat. A huge task that requires lots of skills! Naturally we were kindred spirits- happy hour and boat tours ensued!

Sunset show from our dock spot at Port Nevelle

The next day's plan was to make a long sail to Shoal Bay, but after meeting the singlehander, we opted to tag along with her, and anchor in the middle of Johnstone Strait, on Helmckin Island. It seemed like sleeping in the belly of the beast, but she was a sensei and we were the little grasshoppa.

We pulled out of Port Nevelle and did some downwind sailing! We were elated.... for about 10 minutes, until the wind cranked up to 30 knots with short choppy waves. SAILS DOWN IMMEDIATELY. So much for that idea. The angry sea conditions were caused by the wind blowing one way and the tide moving the other way. Wow it was nasty. We motored through the remainder of the unhappy sea until the tide changes and completely flattened out the water.

Rolly sea conditions in Johnstone

We anchored in Deer Cove on Helmcken Island. A short while after dropping the hook, the singlehander rolled in, along with another boat- friends of hers. Three boats of young cruising people?! What?! When it rain it pours (and it really rains up here)! The other two boats rafted up together and hosted happy hour and dinner! So much fun hanging out with fellow cruisers, trading stories, and seeing other boats and how they are set up. Super fun evening and we hope to see our new friends Fernweh and Vesi soon!

Helmcken Island is smack dab in the middle of Johnstone

Deer Cove on Helmcken Island. Vesi and Fernweh to the left and Maya on the right

Dog mission via the SUP- we had Rita Red stowed on deck and didn't feel like taking the time to take her down. The SUP works great a backup dinghy!

The next day we all took off at the same time, riding the flooding tide. The wind was from our stern so we enjoyed our first downwind sail of the trip! Seriously, the first one! It was so awesome sailing among our little convoy down the epic Johnstone Strait. Not to mention the sun was shining too.

Fantastic sailing conditions

That's us! Literally the only pic we have of us sailing- thank you SV Vesi for the photo!

We've had lots of great memories on this trip, but this stretch stands in with the best of them. After an awesome sail down the final stretch of Johnstone, we turned up Mayne Passage, wishing our new friends safe travels over the VHF. We were bound for Shoal Bay. We made it to the dock at Shoal Bay, which provided a good night's rest and a connection to internet. Internet is very scarce up here so you literally have to hunt it down.

That about does it for this blog post- join us next time as we prepare to travel through 3 sets of rapids all in the same day! Surely, you will want to know what happens next!

As always, thank you so much for stopping by and reading! Make sure to put your email address in the box on the upper left of the website.... by doing that you'll get an email notification every time we make another post!

Thanks again and cheers!

Kwatsi Bay, Matilpi, and Port Harvey

Hello and welcome back! In the last blog post we left you with a cliffhanger.... we were just leaving the safety of the dock not knowing if our alternator would charge our faulty batteries. We are back to answer that burning question!

Our travels in this blog post are depicted in green. (sorry it's getting a bit cluttered!)

Video Highlights from Kwatsi Bay, Matilpi, and Port Harvey

Travel stats for travel covered in this blogpost:
Distance: 49.6 Nautical Miles
Time spent traveling: Approx 13 hours
Duration: 4 days

Google map location links:
Link to Kwatsi Bay's location on Google Maps
Link to Matilpi's Location on Google Maps
Link to Port Harvey's Location on Google Maps

We left Pierre's early in the AM and headed east through the Tribune Channel towards our next destination, Kwatsi Bay. On the north side of Tribune Channel, a waterfall runs down into the ocean- a must see attraction! We pulled the boat as close to the land as we dared and set to taking pictures, flying the drone, and taking in the view. The Lacey waterfall is famous in the boating realm so it felt like we earned our "Lacey Waterfall Scout Badge" :-)

Lacey Waterfall from afar

Click here to see the waterfall location on google maps

Lacey Waterfall from close up!

Maya and Lacey Waterfall

Enjoying the view

Lovely scenery despite the weather

We continued on to Kwatsi Bay, where a wilderness marina is located (a wilderness marina is one that doesn't provide power). We had planned on on anchoring to save a few dollars, but it turns out it is damn near impossible to anchor in Kwatsi Bay! The bay's walls are basically vertical and that continues under water, which left us with very deep water very close to shore. We dropped our new analog depthsounder (our fishing pole) and attempted to find a suitable spot, but we couldn't find one, so we opted to pull up to the marina. After checking in and meeting the one other boat there we checked out the big waterfall next to the marina. It's worth noting at this point that "Kwatsi" means "pisspot" in the local native language. No doubt due to all the waterfalls that surround the bay! After the waterfall excursion we enjoyed a small happy hour gathering which consisted of us, the one other boater, Kerry, and the marina's owner, Max. A very nice evening spent chatting and watching the rain under a patio awning.

Rita Red in Kwatsi Bay

Maya at the dock in Kwatsi Bay

We hiked up to the waterfall!

Jenny for scale

Here's the marina at Kwatsi Bay- in mid summer this place is jam packed- not so much this time of year

The next morning we set out early to catch the flood tide moving east. It was pouring rain, and we had a long day of travel ahead of us- 30 miles with the winds not helping our cause. That day proved to be our coldest day on the water yet. After several hours of motoring, the wind picked up and allowed us to sail a bit. Although the combination of the wet, wind, and cold really started to get to us towards the end of the day. After a long, cold day we pulled into our next anchorage, Matilpi, which was an old native burial ground. Matilpi was located close to Johnstone Straight so it was a good jumping off point. Once the hook was dropped we got a fire going and cooked pizza- Jenny's sourdough pizza dough was amazing! We spent that evening staying inside and drying out by the fire.

Cold passage to Matilpi

And windy- brrrrr

Local resident towing a log boom

Rita Red at Matilpi with Maya in the background

Whoa that was some crazy wind!...... just kidding- our wind indicator is starting to act goofy and we did not experience hurricane force winds on our trip

The next morning we left Matilpi, bound for Port Nevelle, which is 14 miles east through Johnstone Straight. The forecast had called for crap weather, more rain and an unfavorable wind direction (coming from the direction we were headed). We left Matilpi under heavy rain, and after about 2 miles we both decided to bag the plan and pull into Port Harvey. This was the first time we had been to somewhere familiar- Port Harvey is the abandoned marina that we stayed at about a month prior. We tied up the deserted dock and hung out all day with the fire going. We are so thankful for that decision because that day proved to be the rainiest and nastiest day of the trip. Thank goodness we weren't out in Johnstone Straight!

Super neat boat we saw as we entered Port Harvey

Jenny and D Dog fishing from the dock at Port Harvey

Pretty sure Disco likes fishing more than us

Spirits were high despite the weather

Disco weathering the cold and rainy day at Port Harvey

Thank you for stopping by! Come by next time to see if that forecast was right as we enter the formidable Johnstone Straight.