s/v hello world: cracroft inlet

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cracroft inlet

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
posted by Jason

Today we motored through Chatham Channel and Blow Hole...no way that could go wrong. Chatham Channel was some interesting piloting - you have to line yourself up with range markers at the end of it - there are 2 on the shore, once you maneouver to a place where they are in a line, you're in the right spot. We made it without a problem, but heard about some people that hit serious wakes from oncoming traffic that nearly pushed them off-course. Blow Hole, which gets its name from the way the wind funnels through there, was a shortcut instead of going around Minstrel Island. It's a narrow, shallow kelpy pass with a reef smack in the middle of it, but we made our way safely around it and headed for Lagoon Cove.

We tried anchoring in Lagoon Cove to no avail. It was really deep - 65 feet - and rumoured to be littered with logging cable. We tried to anchor once and dragged. Rather than risk catching the anchor on something unfriendly, we decided to bag Lagoon Cove and go for Plan B. Turns out, Plan B - Cracroft Inlet - was an order of magnitude more interesting than Plan A. We anchored about a mile back in the inlet of 20 feet of water, with great mud holding on to the anchor. No one else was in the anchorage except an occasional visit from a fishing boat checking on his crab traps. It was very briefly mentioned in one of our cruising guides as good protection, but upon checking it out, we fell in love with it. We were the only boat around, no houses or other buildings, there were tons of birds and it was just so peaceful. We stayed 2 nights and just relaxed.