Haida Gwaii

Keenly aware of the perils of Hecate Strait,  deemed to be Canada's most dangerous water with shallow depths, shoaling, rapidly changing conditions and a nasty temper  we staged for our ten-hour crossing at and waited for a weather window.  

After days of gale force conditions, a window opened and we left at dawn.  

Eight hours into the crossing the weather got spiteful but we safely limped into Thurston Harbour where we were pinned down by gale force winds for five days with little company but a family of mergansers and 

How many babies are there?

 an army of racoons who came at each low tide to feast.   

We found no crab, no prawns and no fish but did find there  was an unusual dwelling.

The carefully constructed rock foundation apparently did not include tie downs.  Although unverified, we believe that the upset was caused by one of Haida Gwaii's many earthquakes.  On August 22, 1949, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck Haida Gwaii and is the worst quake in Canadian recorded history.  

After being pinned down for four days, we got a weather window for the seven hour trip to Sandspit which is in Skidegate Inlet where we planned to transit Skidegate Channel which links the Pacific Ocean to Hecate Strait.  

This is not a challenge to be taken lightly with the winding narrow fairways shallow depths and strong currents.   Our first venture in the fishing boat aborted at the East Narrows with depths less than two feet.

Crabbing seemed a better plan so we set four traps.

Four traps was a bit yielding about 100 crab. With a possession limit of 24 that is TOO much crab.  

We took the biggest and released the rest.

And then back to our task at hand - getting through Skidegate Channel.  It is very difficult to time slack water to transit two sets of rapids.  Being resourceful and depending on local knowledge, we tagged along with the guided fishing trips and made it through safely.

We explored possible anchorages for the big boat, set prawn traps and fished.  That day the seas were rough, the fish were nowhere and we got three prawns in eight traps.  Not a good day except for the Harlequin ducks sighting.

On our next trip through the channel, we did catch two reasonable salmon - 19lbs and 13 lbs.  

The cranky Captain and the whiny First Mate made a command decision  to wait for a weather window and exit Haida Gwaii.  It is beautiful but overwhelming.  I have nothing but respect for the Haida people who are exemplary mariners.  At the first weather window we headed back to the Great Bear Rain Forest.

 

Kudos to our first guests, Pete and Linda who rerouted their trip to Prince Rupert and caught a small ferry to Hartley Bay where we picked them up and rebooted our trip.