Hello and welcome back to our circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in our 37' sailboat!
The following blog post covers travel indicated in red. Also, here's some travel stats for the nerds out there!
Distance Traveled in this post: 83.5 nautical miles
Distance Traveled From Trip Start: 343.9 nautical miles
Time duration this blog post covers: 4 days
Amount of time motoring/sailing during this post: 13.25 hours
Total Amount of Fuel Used From Start of Trip: 36 gallons
In the last post we were anchored on Middlenatch Island, amidst thousands of birds who call the island home. We had deliberately chosen Middlenatch for its proximity to Campbell River, which is pegged as the "salmon capital of the world". Campbell River lives on a major salmon migration route- when the salmon runs come from the Pacific, they typically travel down through the Inside Passage, taking Johnstone Strait through Seymour Narrows and they swim right past Campbell River towards their spawning grounds in the mountains of the Canada and Washington.
It's not every day you are in the SALMON CAPITAL OF THE WORLD, so we seized the opportunity to troll for salmon on our way to Campbell River. I would love nothing more than to post a picture of us triumphantly holding a great big salmon, but unfortunately we didn't catch anything :-( There were about 30 other boats out trolling where we were, so I assume the fish were there, so it must have been operator error. Oh well! Maybe next time.
Once we arrived in Campbell River, we decided to get a marina dock spot which allowed us to better explore the town. Our timing couldn't have been better as we had arrived on Canada Day, which is Canada's equivalent to the 4th of July. There was a big festival just steps from the marina and it seemed like the whole town had shown up (all wearing red and white- way to be patriotic, Canada!). We explored the festival and then got to enjoy an amazing fireworks show from the marina- that was so great and totally unexpected! Love stuff like that. We really enjoyed our time in Campbell River and would recommend stopping in if you are in the area.
Celebrating Canada Day in Campbell River
Disco was also wearing her finest Canadian Outfit for the celebration
Since this was our first proper marina stop on our trip, we took advantage of it- filling up our water tanks and emptying our trash…. Also taking a real hot shower, which was also a first on this trip.
So after one night in Campbell River we motored away from the dock, bound for our next major obstacle: Seymour Narrows, which was once the most “treacherous stretch of water in North America”.
Seymour Narrows is channel that experiences intense tidal swings, causing currents as high as 15 knots (17mph). For scale, our boat travels at 5 knots, sometimes maybe 6. There’s no way our boat could overpower the current. And with all that water and current, huge boils and whirlpools are form which can be dangerous for boats big and small.
For many years, Seymour Narrows was the most dangerous waterway in North America, sinking a number of ships and claiming the lives of 114 people. Thankfully, in the 1950’s a major project took place, where they set to remove a large rock in the middle of the channel, which was cause of many accidents.
Panorama of Seymour Narrows
Jenny with Seymour Narrows in the background
Now this sounds crazy, but for three years they dug underground tunnels out to the rock in the middle of the channel, packed it with explosives, then set it off, causing the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. MADNESS! We found this fascinating, old school video of the project.
Fascinating video showing how they blew up Ripple Rock
The explosion took care of the top 50 feet of the rock, allowing large ships (even cruise ships) to pass by, however, most all boats only go through the narrows at slack tide, when the direct of flow reverses, and there is a small window where there is no current.
Upon leaving the dock in Campbell River, several miles south of Seymour Narrows, we experienced those currents, having to fight them for several miles, before giving up and tucking into a side bay until the current went to slack. And once at slack tide, we motored several miles north, anchoring in a small bay near the entrance of Seymour Narrows. Thankfully this bay was only ½ mile from the narrows, which allowed us to precisely time our passage through Seymour with the slack tide. We were also thankful anchoring close as the slack tide was set for 5:30AM!
An added bonus of this anchorage was the fact that we could hike up to cliff overlooking the narrows. Just as we made it to the top of the cliff, the current was at its max so we got to see all the whirlpools and boils caused by all the moving water. What a sight! We saw crazy huge whirlpools and boils… yikes!
The following morning we got underway at 5AM and hit the narrows right at high tide slack. While you can go through the narrows at low or high tide slack, we chose high tide, because that allowed us to safely traverse the narrows and ride the ebb tide in the direction we were traveling. And it worked out just like! We absolutely crushed miles by using the ebb tide- we cruised almost all day at 8 knots, which is about 3 knots of tidal push. It was amazing to get all that extra speed from the tide- we covered 60 miles that day which is a record for us.
Great thing about boats is you can take naps in a bed while traveling! First Class all the way!
Unfortunately we will need to stop here…. Just as we are getting to the REALLY good stuff! Be sure to check back soon or subscribe for email updates so you don’t miss a post (you’ll get each blog post emailed to you as they are published).
In the next post we will flex our fishing muscles in an area called the Broughtons, which is a huge area of islands and channels. Thanks again for stopping by and see you soon! Cheers!
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