July 19, 2013 ~ Refuge Cove to Octopus Islands

It’s time to move on.  We had a hose bib next to the boat, and with no signs anywhere prohibiting boat washing, I gave the boat a quick bath, and also filled the water tank.  The watermaker isn’t functional yet, so we still have that chore.

About a half hour or so before we left, we spotted Steve and Janet in the Flexible Flyer, sailing out of the harbor.  We have a few more photos to send them via email.  We finally got away from the dock around 11:20 or so.  Our ultimate destination was to the Octopus Islands, although we thought we’d first go to the Surge Narrows landing to see if the store had reopened, or what condition it was in.  The main entryway into the Octopus Islands is through a narrows called Hole in the Wall, where the current can run up to 9 knots or more.  It’s always a good idea to time your arrival there at slack tide.  We planned instead on taking Whiterock Passage, which can be navigated at any tide.  It is very shallow and lined with rocks on either side of a dredged channel, which has a minimum depth of 5 feet at zero tide.  There are two sets of range markers, so a turn is required in the middle to stay in the “straight and narrow”.  We went through on a rising tide, with a slight current against us – maybe a knot or two. 

Once through the passage we turned to port and headed towards Surge Narrows.  There is Surge Narrows, the passageway between Quadra and Maurelle Islands, and there is Surge Narrows, the small settlement not far away from there.  They have a government dock, a few homes, an old school house, and they used to have a store.  We knew the store had closed a few years ago, but we thought we’d check to see if it had reopened, or at least what shape the facility was in.  It was in pretty sad shape.  The dock was in disrepair, falling apart in places, and the building at the top of the pier, which was in pretty bad shape even when the store was open, now looked as though it could fall into the bay at any moment.  We took a few photos, and not wanting to risk even tying to that dock, turned around and resumed our course for the Octopus Islands.  Rather than go through Surge Narrows, we headed back to our route that came through Whiterock Passage and picked it up as it passed north of the Settlers Group of islands.  The currents aren’t as strong here, and although the cruising guide recommends against using it without local knowledge as it also has some rocks, we have been through there quite a few times without incident, and we added one to that count.

From there it was just 25 minutes or so to get to the Octopus Islands, a provincial marine park.  There are several bays and anchorages within the archipelago, and we headed for our favorite one.  We were pleased to find only 3 or 4 boats there, with all but one stern tied to shore.  We took our usual spot out in the middle, just beyond the large rock that dries at low tide.  From here we can see through openings into the other bays, and also across the entryway to a shallow passage that is navigable by dinghy at high tide, and by foot at low tide.  We explored it a bit this evening at high tide by dinghy, and will definitely return at low tide tomorrow.