De La Beche Cove and back to Anna Inlet

After a great intertidal experience we left Burnaby Narrows and planned to go to De La Beche Cove - a bit of a detour north instead of heading south right away. Just to spend more time in the park and also get some water before heading south. 

It was a lovely day. Sunny and calm. We were going north In Juan Perez Sound. 

We stopped into Haswell Bay for a look around and see if it was a promising anchorage. We didn't think it was very pretty and turned around. There are quite a few anchorages around and it's nice to have the time to check them out. And we are seeing so few pleasure boat. 

We planned to go to De La Beche Cove but there was another anchorage - Sac Bay - that we decided to check out first - thinking it was described so beautifully in the Douglass book - reminiscent of Patagonia with "high black granite walls with stunted trees that struggle to survive" It was just a little north of De La Beche Cove. As we were heading towards the bay there was a couple in a small dingy buzzing past us - we figured they were probably in Sac Bay

When we went into Sac Bay there were TWO sailboats in there. We went in and motored around a bit and decided we'd head over to De La Beche - just a few miles away - we heard it was a lovely spot. 

It was a lovely spot - and it was empty except for us. 

We are expecting now that we are getting closer to July that we will see more and more pleasure boats. But these are the first pleasure boats that's we've seen since leaving the central coast. 

After a night in De La Beche Cove we had to set out a little later the next morning because of the very low tide. The entrance to the Cove is very shallow and narrow and at low tide it was even more so.  

We decide we would go back to Anna Inlet for a night and then get some water at the Shelter Island water station before making our way south to Rose Harbour. 

We are enjoying the park and really liked Anna Inlet and have plenty of time to be in the park. 

It looks like I didn't take any photos in De La Beche Cove. So instead -- More Anna Inlet photos. 

It was calm seas and a sunny day. We've not had rain for a few days now! 

We dropped anchor nice and close to shore in Anna Inlet and hoped we might see some bears. No bears. 

A group from the Morseby Explorers came in around 5 for a look around shore and then left. 

A sailboat tour came in around 7:30 Ocean Light II and dropped anchor quite a ways behind us. 

Anna Inlet is one of the prettiest anchorages we've been and one of our favourite. 

Intertidal photos

The lowest tide of the year - it was -0.64 feet at 9:40 am.



The Burnaby Narrows Passage is dry








Photos of the Intertidal sea life in Burnaby Narrows.



Red Rock Crab



Moon snail egg case



Sunflower Starfish. They have been hit with a wasting disease. This one is very small. Hopefully they will start to recover. They helped keep down the sea urchin population.




Operculum in the Red Turban snail - used in Haida art - often for teeth in killer whales



The Red Turban snail




Leather Star fish.



Bat Stars.




Plumose anemones and rock scallops




Bat Star and a sea cucumber.




Moon snail




Horse Clam




Big Leather Star with a Bat Star












Thousands of Bar Stars on the shore.




Kelp crab




Snails with eggs on a rock



Plumose anemones



More Plumose anemones




Pink Sea Star ( Pisaster brevispinus )




Kelp beds




Eelgrass beds



Phoenix Hunter on the Mooring ball.


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Burnaby Narrows also known as Dolomite Narrows.

June 24 and 25th we were lucky to experience the lowest tides of the summer. Pretty much the lowest tides of the year.

On June 24th it was a - 0.55 ft tide and on June 25th a -0.64 ft tide. And both tides were at a reasonable hour of the day!

We did a little look around the low tide in Murchison area around 8 am or so.

Harlequin Ducks




Lots of sea urchins






Jim is fishing for sea urchin - the roe is a delicacy - apparently but I'm never need to know!







Cutting up the sea urchin. There are millions of them and they are getting out of control and eating up the kelp beds so we don't feel badly catching a couple.




The sea urchin's mouth parts are called - Aristotle's Lantern. So says the biologist on board.



The sea urchin roe.




I did not try any and apparently it was not as good as he hoped so rest of the captured sea urchins were set free to munch down more kelp beds.

Jim - the biologist decided the best place to be for the lowest tide of the year was Burnaby Narrows - also known as Dolomite Narrows. So after the tour about in the skiff in the intertidal area of Murchison we let go of the mooring bouy and headed south to Burnaby Island.




The map has the pink dots of where Murchison anchorage is located and the Burnaby/Dolomite Narrows.

When we arrived at Burnaby Narrows we discovered there was a mooring bouy right where we wanted to be. Just waiting for us!

There was quite the current and it was full of kelp but easy to get when we approached upstream of it.




Look at that kelp!


We went for a little skiff ride through the Narrows at high tide.

The Narrows are full of rocks and reefs that dry at low tide and we had no intention of going through them with Phoenix Hunter. But we went with the skiff. There are private range markers in the channel.











We saw the largest jelly fish Jim has ever seen in his life!! It was huge!







Phoenix Hunter at the Burnaby Narrows mooring bouy.





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