Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Day 18 Rescue Bay to Khutz Inlet




                                    My attempt at capturing the playful dolphins


June 5th   Departed 7:50  47degrees  raining

RESCUE BAY TO KHUTZ INLET

An American Grand Banks “armada” anchored out with us last night at Rescue Bay. They, like us, had come from Shearwater that day. We were unable to access any weather information last night to make a decision as to whether or not to leave this morning and travel through Jackson Passage or find another route. 

At around 7:00 am the “armada” began hauling up their anchors and rounding up to carry on. We did the same and noticed that they were heading away from Jackson Passage and heading north on Mathieson Channel. David figured out their planned route thinking they, too, were headed to Khutze Inlet.

                                                                 Hitching a ride
                                              

It was a longer travel distance but we would avoid the narrow and shallow Jackson Passage which was just fine with us. We don’t mind being boat stalkers!  The "armada" was made up of  Grand Banks which are far more powerful vessels so they quickly disappeared from our sight as we fought through the approaching tide.

 It took 3 hours of cruising against its force to finally reach 6kts! We both had trouble sleeping last night so we were pleased to have flat calm waters the entire 9 hours of our journey. Along the Mathieson Channel we were awed by many beautiful waterfalls and had another visit from playful dolphins at our bow. I wish my timing was better in my attempts to photograph them…captured mainly the splash.

We cruised down Sheep Passage, across Finlayson Channel and then into Hiekish Narrows. At the end of those narrows, there are two major rock obstructions to navigate around. Dave did it perfectly. We did not encounter any pleasure boats on our route, only some shrimp boats.

Khutze Inlet is not an easy anchorage. It is quite deep so we had to cruise around a bit to find a depth that would work. A friend told us to anchor in front of the waterfall, and we just about did that. The falls are spectacular!



When we have had such a long day of travel, it takes me no time at all to get into a relaxing mode.  I had my wine glass full and book in hand within 20 minutes of dropping anchor!


                                                      The perfect view of the falls        
                                            

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