Smuggler Cove

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Mon 15 Jun 2015 03:31
Position: 49 30.79 N 124 57.72 W
At anchor Smuggler Cove
Wind: calm
Weather: sunny, mild
Day's run: 18 nm

It has been another short sail today. I got away from Scottie Bay a little after eight in order to catch the last couple of hours of the ebb tide through Sabine Channel, having chosen Smuggler Cove as our destination for the day. The name is of course very suggestive, and “Charlie's Charts” as well as the Hydrographer's charts made it look very interesting.

A nice gentle breeze carried out us out of Sabine Channel, but once around Upwood Point at the southern end of the channel the wind died. I think the wind that we enjoyed in the channel was as strong as it was because of a funnelling effect, and once behind the headland we were also in a bit of a wind shadow. Nonetheless, with only a short distance to cover, I was content to drift for a while. My patience was rewarded at a little after midday by a light breeze filling our sails to propel us the remaining six miles to the Cove's approaches. We managed to scrape by the north-western point of North Thormanby Island without having to tack, clearing an offlying shoal patch by less than a hundred meters (a flooding tide helped), then a short while later we were once more becalmed. The entrance to Smugglers Cove was only a mile away at this stage, and as the current was pushing us to the north away from the entrance, and, additionally, a tug with a huge raft of logs in tow was bearing down upon us, I decided to flash up the engine. We motored around the tug and its tow, handed sail and continued into the cove under power.

We entered the cove's narrow portal at half past three. The cove consists of a number of chambers,but only two large enough to anchor in. The outer one was already occupied by two other yachts so I decided to opt for the inner chamber. Here we dropped anchor at half past three in six meters of water. With limited swinging room and the possibility of other yachts wanting to anchor in the cove I have only put out twelve meters of cable. The forecast is for calm conditions so I think a rock on the end of a piece of string would hold us in place. I will let out a bit more chain when it becomes clear that we have this section of the cove to ourselves for the night, which seems to be the case.

Our next stop is the big smoke of BC - Vancouver.

All is well.

PS. I failed to remark in yesterday's post that we have now dropped below fifty degrees of latitude. It is all getting very tropical all of a sudden.