Kwatsi Bay, Broughtons

I opened my curtains today to see a Blue Heron sitting outside my window on the dock rail. Bill and Mike pulled their anchors around 6am, and I was ready to go when they came past the Port Neville dock at 7am. We had a bit of tidal current behind us, adding about 1 mph to our speed. Johnstone Strait was relatively calm, with a breeze of about 9mph. Another cloudy day with some sunshine. Our route today took us off the Johnstone Strait onto the Havanna Channel and then Chatham Channel. Quite a few nice homes along Chatham Channel. Passed what appeared to be a post office for the area, on Minstrel Island. We detoured into Lagoon Cove marina around 11am. We all took on fuel and water, and then looked around the marina a little bit. Fuel at Lagoon Cove, when all the conversions from liters to gallons and the exchange rate were factored in, came out to about $7.42/gal. Most expensive gas for us so far. But fuel in this area has to be barged in, adding to the cost. Potable water is also a bit scarce and while most the marinas here in the island have water available, many suggest boiling it. Thankfully, Lagoon has filtered water that they use some kind of UV system to also make it potable. A Waggoner Flotilla of 10 boats, staying at the marina the next two nights, came in at noon as we were pulling out. Back out on Chatham Channel, through the Clapp Passage onto the Tribune Channel. Currents fluctuate depending upon where we are. Unfortunately, the area we are in does not have a lot of tide tables that give us tidal current information. We had a 1-2mph hour push for a bit, then current ahead of us. Guess it all depends on how the ocean water finds its way in among the numerous channels. I thought we were planning to stay in Kwatsi Bay, but Bill said we’d stop in Watson Cove. I pulled into Kwatsi Bay along the way to check it out. There use to be a marina there. I found it, in disrepair and abandoned. There was also an old dock near the marina that I believe was part of a fish farm at one time. There was a fishing boat in the bay setting his prawn traps. Bill and Mike were checking out another bay or cove near by, so I continued on to Watson Cove. Found it wasn’t ideal for anchoring, as it was rather deep, and not much room for swinging with the amount of anchor rode that we’d have to put out. Bill and Mike were in Kwatsi at this time, so I called them on the radio about Watson, and that Kwatsi would be a better anchorage. I returned to Kwatsi. However, while it was a much larger bay, it also was rather deep. We’d be anchoring in 80-100 ft, rather than are usual 20-30. We ended up tying off to the old dock since we didn’t see any stay off or no trespassing signs. Just have to be very careful walking on it as some (many) of the boards are rotten.Read more