McMicking Inlet

We had  quite the eventful morning on our journey to McMicking Inlet. It seemed a bunch of little issues popped up all along the trip. 

First we decided that the weather was pretty benign and we not use the stabilizing poles. We had left them down all night while at anchor. But we needed to put one up to put up the skiff. So Jim put up both the poles and we put up the skiff. The anchor came up without any problem, but it was really hard to get the mud off -'it took quite a bit of work to get the mud off. 

Then as we were leaving the anchorage I was watching on the bow and Jim was following the chart -'as it turned out the chart is a bit out of date and didn't have a reef marked. I was watching and all of a sudden we were very close to the reef and in very shallow.  I yelled - he quickly backed up as he saw the depth sounder go very shallow. All was well - part of the reason I was watching from the bow we knew this inlet had not been charted for a long time and the chart was not too accurate. 

The weather was rainy and misty a bit of a mizzle. The seas were pretty calm for the first hour and a bit and then we got a low rolling swell that hit us on the beam and then poor Lilly barfed.  Our new term for rolling seas - CVR - Cat Vomit Rollie. Poor thing. 

And then as we were going along I saw something that looked like a small orca swimming right around the boat. Jim quickly slowed the boat and the engine stalled.  Jim was able to restart the engine and we idled for a bit. Jim thought they were Dolls Porpoises or maybe False Killer Whales. They had the markings of an Orca but they were smaller. They were swimming right around and under the boat quite quickly so it was hard to get a good look at them. 

The weather was heavy overcast and at times visibility was quite poor but it wasn't foggy.  The entry into McMicking is reported to be quite tricky. The Douglass book says " McMicking Inlet, a special place for boaters up to a navigational challenge". Hmm. I wasn't sure if we were!  But the chart for the inlet was accurate and in the end it was not as difficult as we anticipated. 

McMicking Inlet on Campania Island is a special place. Beautiful old growth cedars and spruce and hemlock, a number of white sandy beaches, Mount Pender as a backdrop. 

    

We anchored up at the far end just out of reach of a large drying rock. It was an okay spot to anchor.  There was a small cove on the east side that was a little more protected but there was 2 other boats in there already so we anchored at the end instead.  And it was fine - but not a place to be in a strong south wind. 

We spent two nights there. The weather was overcast with sunny breaks. No rain.  We decide to set up the hose system to the rain gutters on the boat to collect rain water so that's why there was no rain! 

We walked on the beaches. There are four or five small separate sandy beaches around the entrance to the inlet. We saw what looked like wolf prints on one of the beaches. 

Jenny was so happy to be back on a sandy beach again running around like a puppy!  The sand was very soft and we sunk quite deep into it as we walked. 

Jim put down the crab pots to try to get some King Crabs but came up empty. He did catch some rock fish. 

We saw a deer and her fawn swim from one shore to the other right in front of the boat. 

The second night we enjoyed a Happy Hour on Lolani - a  54 ft Nordharvn Motor Sailer with Ian and Barb and there friend Jan who was on a Nordhavrn 40'.  

The weather forecast was for Gale force winds for the next (Thursday) afternoon. We were planning to leave in the morning. It is very difficult to hear the weather forecast in some of these enclosed inlets and bays so we have been getting the kids to send us the reports on the Delorme. 

Jim has decided that is his favourite tree he's ever seen. 

We definitely enjoyed McMicking and want to return one day.