Cruising Maya: 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!