Handfield Bay and Cordero Islands

Woke up to a mostly sunny day, partly cloudy. Didn’t have to depart until 9am, timing Upper and Lower rapids. They really were not marked well on our chartplotters, and they didn’t look like the usual narrow rapids. But in fact, we were in Upper Rapids pretty much as soon as we turned out into the main channel and turned the corner. (Less than a mile from our anchorage). And they were running! Lol. The current was rather strong, even at only about 3 mph or so. Still would have been worse if we left any earlier. The whirlpools and eddies worked the autopilots pretty hard at our slower speeds. Our route took us on the Okisollo Channel, Discovery Passage, Nodales Channel, and into Thurson Bay Marine Park, where we stopped and anchored in Handfield Bay. The bay was very small, with room for only three or four boats. I had lunch, while Bill and Mike went for a short hike. I left before they did, to continue to our anchorage this evening in the Cordero Islands. After leaving Handfield, the route was back on the Nodales Channel to Cordero Channel. The winds were howling out of the west again today, and made for a bit of a bumpy ride on Discovery Passage. Sights provided some weird and old stuff, along with the great scenery of the mountains, water and forests. Just outside of Hanfield Bay was some kind of square dock system, perhaps part of a fish farm? Speaking of fish farms, we passed one that was on both sides of Okisollo Channel, and looked to be quite a large operation. We see a lot of them along the shores, but I’m not sure if many of them are actually in operation now. They consist of some buildings, a number of floats and I imagine some nets under the floats. While leaving Thurson Bay Marina Park, saw some kind of round piping with upright poles. (See photo). The Cordero Lodge is no longer in operation and the dock with the buildings is pretty much submerged. There does look to be a newer home on the shore there. Then where we are anchored now, there is an old floating dock in the middle of the bay, with a house on shore that has caved in. And on the other side, a large Styrofoam float. Bill got here about half an h our after I did, and Mike about an hour later as he went on to stop at the Blind Channel Resort for some fuel and groceries.Read more