Pages

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Burdwood Group, Tribune Channel

Skies are heavy this morning as we depart Simoom. We are heading to the Burdwood Group which is a cluster of islets very popular with kayakers. We are curious about some anchorages there.The anchorages are single boat sized spots.

Arrival found one option already taken by a Lord Nelson Tugboat. I suppose if it had to be occupied the tug was worthy of the spot. They have a cat onboard! We shared Mound anchorage with this same tug several days before.

We motored around to the other side of the islets and located the second option. A close fit anchorage which required a stern tie. Basically we had to almost back into the slipper sized space and set anchor. Tonight was a 14 foot + tidal swing. We did manual depth soundings all the way around Talos IV. After we were satisfied she was secure we went ashore to do some exploring. There are many midden beaches all around these islets. There are also some culturally modified cedar trees on one of the islets which we have loose directions on where to gain access. We will search for this tomorrow.

Awoke this morning to a 1.5 knot ebb. YIKES! We still have 4+ foot of water around us and under the keel, but there are patches of kelp and new beaches everywhere but in our little slipper cove.  Rocks seemed to appear everywhere.  TalosIV  is still happy at anchor and our stern line is keeping us from swinging on the hook. I thank Tradewinds sailing instructor Steve Damm for teaching us how to properly set an anchor and how to test it! It is raining, but we want to see if we can locate this tree across the channel. A culturally modified tree (CMT) is one that the first nation people have cut planks out of the trunk, but the tree remains alive. The planks were used for the long houses according to our source. We dinghy to the designated islet and find the midden beach facing west. We dinghy across the channel from this beach and arrive at an islet that is heavily wooded and requires some  athletic skill to scale the mollusk encrusted rocks and climb thru the heavy brush to the treed area. We wander for a while and look but finally decide that our search is either off the mark or we have not hiked far enough. It is getting late and we decide to return to Talos IV. No CMT this trip.

By the time we get back to Talos IV the tide is back up a bit and we can safely pull anchor for the next adventure. Today we are heading to the wilderness marina at Kwatsi Bay.  

Happy at anchor in our one boat anchorage

Midden beach. These shells can sometimes go down 30 feet or more!

More middens

Beautiful islet with wind twisted tree

Another islet

Lots of islets in the Burdwood Group. Kayakers paradise.
Midden beach on one of the islands in the Burdwood Group.

No comments:

Post a Comment