Davis Bay to Muirhead Islands

What a beautiful morning; blue skies and sunny, relatively warm weather, meaning about 67 degrees F. The low tide in Davis Bay revealed lots of previously unseen rocks and ledges. Luckily, we knew they were there from the charts!

Karen enjoying the morning sun

Bob had to join in the sun bathing

Karen cleans the anchor rode as she brings it onboard

Our destination for today is a group of islands known as the Muirheads. Its draw is its reputation as a great place to Kayak. As we headed down Drury Inlet, it was absolutely smooth as a mill pond. I spent some time photographing the pattern the boat wake left in the flat surface of the water. This is something we seldom see, as there is almost always a ripple on the water’s surface due to the prevailing winds.

Drury Inlet...smooth as glass

The approach to the Muirheads involves a bit of weaving between rocks and small islands, but the charts are well marked and our arrival at low tide means that many obstructions are in plain sight.

Due to the small size of our chosen anchorage, a stern tie was in order. The first stern tie of a trip is always an event we do not look forward to. It takes a couple of these to get back into the swing of things and this one was no exception.

The stern tie is an art, which involves precise judgment of distance. You want to be as close to shore as possible to keep the amount of line you need to pay out to a minimum, but, at the same time, not so close that you find yourself on the rocks come low tide.

It took me three times to get the distance just right. The hard part is judging how far out to drop your anchor in anticipation of how much forward the anchor rode will pull you away from shore. We had the added challenge of a cross current. We have faced these before. What typically happens is you get the boat just where you want it, but by the time you try to tie the stern line, the current has swung the boat out of position. We have used the dinghy as a tugboat in the past to reposition the stern of the boat long enough to set the stern line.

This time I decided on a different approach. As I backed the boat to shore, I maneuvered such that we were well up into the current. Then, I dashed down to the stern and threw over a stern anchor. As the current began to swing us back to the position I wanted as a final location, I set the anchor. It worked! The Stern anchor held the boat in postition until we could set the stern line ashore via the dinghy. Once the stern line was secure, I retrieved the stern anchor, it’s mission a complete success.

Later in the day, we took a dinghy ride around to check out the locale. The trusty portable GPS was with us to ensure we missed all the rocks. We took the dingy up to Sutherland Bay, checking out the logging operation, the supply boat “Sir James Douglass” and the Interfor floating barge camp and cookhouse, the Cypress Mist.

Dinghy Captain Bob

Sure was a pretty day

We continued on and saw the marked entrance to Actaeton Sound, but decided against it. We checked out some interesting anchorages on the north side before we headed back to Arctic Star to relax. There were tons of seals nearby as night began to fall, barking and grunting so loudly it seemed as if they were fighting well into the evening.

Arctic Star stern tied in the Muirheads