2013 Potentate Cruise: July 30, 2013 ~ Echo Bay to McIntosh Bay

Wow – what a day today!! A combination of relaxation and fog delayed our departure from Echo Bay until almost noon, but we then had an outstanding cruising day in awesome weather. Erin had done some research on various places, and our first destination to check out was Viner Sound. This wasn’t far from Echo Bay – just a few miles. It was a narrow inlet, with a small bay off to port near the very end. The cruising guide described it glowingly as having an abundance of Spanish moss draping from the trees down to the waterline. As we headed that way a small fishing boat from Echo Bay zoomed past us, and headed down the same channel. As we got closer we could see that there were several crab trap floats in the water, and the people on the boat were checking the traps. They were just beyond the small anchorage. It was a nice anchorage, just big enough for two boats, and there were two mooring buoys available to use. We didn’t see much Spanish moss at all – maybe some on one tree. But, it was a great little harbor, very scenic with rocky shores. It was way too soon to stop, though, and we had other sights to see.

Next we wanted to take a look at Bond Sound. It was described in one of Billy Proctor’s books as one of the few remaining pristine unlogged areas, not often visited by cruising boats. At the head of the bay is the Ahta Valley, where the Ahta River drains into the sea. When the salmon are running on the Ahta, grizzly bears are often seen taking their fill. We weren’t up on the salmon migration schedule, but it sounded like a worthy place to see regardless.

Our route took us up Tribune Channel, and there were some other attractions along the way that we had to check out as well. First was Lacy Falls, a beautiful waterfall down a sloping rock face. But, the weather has been so magnificent lately that there was hardly any runoff for the falls to display – barely a trickle. A short distance from Lacy Falls was Watson Cove. This is one of the few anchorages along the channel, and it’s surrounded by steep rock cliffs on all sides. There is a rock to avoid at the entrance, so the route in is along the north side hugging the cliff there. We were probably no more than 15 or 20 feet from the cliff with about 80 feet of water beneath us as we entered the cove to look around. It’s a deep water anchorage, at least 70 feet in most areas, so would require running out at least 200 feet of chain if we were to anchor there. We continued on towards Bond Sound. Off to our left was Kwatsi Bay, a popular destination with a marina. We continued on past the entrance, with plans to take a look at it for a possible stop after first seeing Bond Sound.

We continued on at our leisurely pace of about 7 knots, eventually making the turn into Bond Sound and heading towards the back where there was a meadow in the Ahta Valley, and of course the river outlet. Bond Sound was deep, just like the rest of Tribune Channel, but there was a thin margin along a couple of shorelines where there was some anchoring depth before getting to the shoreline. It basically went from 400 or 500 feet deep to 50 to 30 feet in that narrow strip. We didn’t really plan on staying there, although we saw that we could. It wasn’t at all like Anan Bay in Alaska, where the bottom came up from 110 feet to 10 feet in less than a boat length. At the river’s outlet there were several dead trees in the water, some with the roots showing and a couple that were standing up as if they were pilings. We scanned the valley and shoreline for any signs of grizzly bears, or any other wildlife for that matter, but saw none. Other than the valley, the rest of Bond Sound was surrounded by high mountain peaks, some with snow fields. There were many faces of vertical granite, some bare, and some with a tree or two that against all odds found a crack or crevice in which to take root.

About the time we had our fill of scenery and photo taking and turned to leave, we saw another cruiser coming in. The approached the eastern shore short of the river outlet and appeared to be checking the depth there by slowly approaching the shore. As we slowly cruised away, we saw that they indeed were setting their anchor. We were following the western shore of the sound, and I noticed a faint splash in the distance. Several more appeared and we soon realized we were passing a large pod of dolphins. I made a 180 degree turn and we cruised back along the shore towards them. There were actually two or three separate groups, and much more than we could count. I saw one group jumping pretty much simultaneously in a circle and we surmised they were herding some sort of fish for dinner. Another group saw that we were approaching and came over to the boat, swam alongside and played in our wake off the stern. Occasionally one would leap completely out of the water and dive back in. Others would swim in close groups of three or four, breaking the water in unison. They put on quite a show for us as we cruised back towards the head of the sound. Another 180 degree turn brought us back on our original course out of Bond Sound, and also provided the dolphins with another opportunity to frolic and show off for us, which they definitely did. It was spectacular. I hope some of our video turns out.

Once we left Bond Sound we made the turn into Kwatsi Bay to check that out. It’s also a very deep anchorage, but there is the marina there as well. We had just spent a couple nights at Echo Bay, so we were more interested in finding a nice anchorage than going to another marina. And, from our viewpoint out in the bay the marina didn’t look all that large and we couldn’t tell if there was enough room for us even if we did decide to stop. Instead, we thought we’d check out that Watson Cove again. That gave us another chance to cruise along a rock wall at the entrance, but it was still pretty deep, and besides that the wind was blowing right into it.

We had another option that I had plotted a course for before we left this morning, and that was to go the rest of the way down Tribune Channel and enter Simoom Sound. Following that to the head would lead us to either McIntosh or O’Brien Bay, both good anchorages. It was about 5:30pm when we exited Watson Cove and this was close to two hours away at our still leisurely pace, but it was a warm afternoon and we would have daylight until 9:30 so we pressed on. We’re sure glad we did. As we turned the corner in Simoom Sound for the final leg towards our anchorage, we could see in the distance another large group of dolphins were playing and cavorting just ahead. The course to our first anchorage option, and the one I thought looked like it would be the most scenic, took us directly towards the dolphins, and this group was at least as large as the one in Bond Sound. We watched a couple playing over by the shoreline to our left, while the main body of them was just ahead. They splashed, leaped, swam under the boat and had a good time in general as we passed by. One of them did a tail stand, flexing his tail in such a way that he was upright out of the water for several seconds.

Just beyond all this activity was McIntosh Bay, a lovely anchorage behind some small islets and rocks. We have a view back out into the sound, and as the sun was setting a couple hours later we could see that they were still splashing and playing out there.

In all, we were putting around in areas that we’d never seen before for over seven hours, and traveled about 46 nautical miles doing it. As it turns out, a direct route from Echo Bay to here would be about 7 miles, but we think our route was so much better.