Tanu and Anna Inlet

Tuesday morning it was raining but the wind was light. We decided to motor south west through Dana Passage and Dana Inlet and enter the Gwaii Haanas Park Reserve.

We decided we would go by Tanu which is a Haida Watchman site.

From the Gwaii Haanas Visitors guide.

T'aanuu Llnagaay - translates to Eelgrass Town. At one time there were between 25-40 longhouses in the village, along with 31 mortuary poles and 15 mortuary houses. Little is left standing but the spirit of the place is still strong. The house depressions and the fallen, moss covered house posts give a vivid sense of the layout of the village.

We went to check out what the site looked like and how we would be able to access the shore with the skiff. How we could we anchor Phoenix Hunter.

We had heard that shore access can be tricky and the temporary anchorages around the Haida Watchman sites are not great for holding. With the tide going up and down it's tricky with the skiff to make sure you aren't left stranded when the tide drops or banging on the shore when the tide rises. We were told that it was best to have an inflatable rubber dingy - which we do not have!

Luckily the seas were calm and Tanu is in the lee of Kunga Island.

As we got close we contacted the Haida Watchman on the VHF 06.

Tanu has a mooring ball right out front for boats to tie up to! The mooring ball was open and we could tie up at our own risk. No need to try to anchor at a spot with poor holding and rocks all around. Great! That worked great!

And there is also a "Clothes line" for the skiff. I never took a photo of the clothes line but it is basically as it sounds. A big long Clothes line that you attaches the skiff to and the push it out to deeper water and then when your ready to leave you just pull it in to shore, what ever the tide height it works.

After we tied up the the mooring ball and started to shore with the skiff we saw the Watchman on shore pointing the way to avoid the rocks. Although we don't have a rubber dingy we have a depth sounder on our little skiff - that helps with rock avoidance!

We made it safely to shore. The Watchman -- Ken - was there to help.

The Watchmen Cabin

Our first Watchman site! Ken was a great host. He walked us through the fallen long houses and told us a number of Haida oral history stories.

We walked around the site with Ken.

The remains of a long house.

The remains of a six beam long house.

A big long spruce root growing along a long house beam.

You can see how large both the beam and root are from this photo.

A two beam long house.

We then went into the Haida Watchman cabin and signed the guest book and met the other Watchman at the site.

A photo from the shore of Phoenix Hunter on the mooring bouy

After our visit Ken helped us get back into the skiff and directed us out of the rocky areas -- something to do with lining up a snag from a tree and going some sort of direction. Lucky we had the depth sounder! Basically we went out the same way we came in.

We throughly enjoyed our visit to Tanu. Both Ken and Vince were helpful and friendly and full of information. It was just jim and I on the walk about tour with Ken. Still a bit early in the season for most boaters.

We decided we were going to go anchor up for the night in Echo Harbour, which was just a few miles south west of Tanu.

As we were traveling south to Echo Harbour we saw S/V Yonder on the AIS going in there - hmmm. What should we do? Go in there - probably lots of room. But share an anchorage with another boat? The horror! When was the last time we shared an anchorage with another boat? Shearwater we think. And there are so many anchorages around... and in the end we decided to go a little further and anchor up in Anna Inlet instead.

It was a lovely little bottle neck anchorage.

We had very little wind all day long -- until we dropped the anchor. The wind came up blowing down the mountains - and we were dropping the anchor in over 20 knots and being blown around in circles. A Williwaw!! That is what Capi in "The Curve of Time" called the sudden blow up of wind coming down off the mountains.

I was a little concerned we'd be hanging off the anchor all night getting blown around. We were in about 60 feet so we put down 200 feet of chain. We never put down that much chain!

The Williwaw lasted only long enough for us to set the anchor! Of course. Then it settles to light wind and it rained hard -- REALLY hard - all night.

A Pigeon Guillemot out enjoying the rain in Anna Inlet.

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