Brooks Peninsula, Checleset Bay & Kyuquot Sound

1. Columbia Cove

2. Bunsby Islands

3. Walters Cove

4. Rugged Beach

5. Blue Lips Cove

Columbia Cove via Brooks Peninsula; August 6^th to 10^th  

The best time to do major crossings and rounding’s is early morning.  This is what weather forecasts consistently stated and what locals had shared with us:  Wind typically calm at night and build during the day. Brooks Peninsula, like Nahwitti Bar and Cape Scott, comes with a reputation for a difficult rounding.  With its high mountain range and jutted-out position from Vancouver Island, it creates its own current and weather system.  It can be calm and blue skies all around, yet blowing hard and raining on the 30 miles of The Brooks.  

Listening to the weather forecast Sunday evening, it sounded like the next two days – Monday and Tuesday – would be ideal for passage:  a 15 – 20 knot wind in the morning and low to moderate swell.  The Pacific swells can be 3 – 6 feet alone, so it’s easy to have 10-foot seas with a 15-knot wind.  

We set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. the next day, rising to sunshine and clear skies.  Happily, we bid Winter Harbour farewell, planning to spend Monday evening at Forevergreen Cove or Klaskino Anchorage.  We’d then make our passage on Tuesday morning. 

The Pacific swells were pushing the boat along as we set out.  We put out 50% of our mainsail and staysail to add stability, anticipating we’d be able sail sometime during the crossing.  We turned on the radio and listened to the forecast.  There were lots of fishing boats, most of which were from Winter Harbour, trolling the area, few of which appeared on our radar.  The skies were clear and we had little to no wind.  The sea had turned to glass:  Not the 15 – 20 forecasted that morning.  A good forecast in hand, we decided to keep going. 

Of course, shortly after making that decision, true to its micro-climate reputation, the skies clouded up and we could see a fog bank in the distance.   We knew we could still duck in if we needed to, but as we approached, the wind became lighter and became completely calm.  We passed Cape Cook and the east side of Solander Island.  The say on calm days one can actually go between the mainland coast and Solander Island, but we weren’t going to press our luck.  We turned east following the southern coast of Brooks Peninsula into our next anchorage, Columbia Cove under blue skies and sunshine. 

Brooks Peninsula in the distance

Solander Island at the tip of Brooks Peninsula

Solander Island is a weather station referred to in the daily forecasts. You can see the unmanned weather station on its summit

Columbia Cove, in Checleset Bay, is a well-protected inlet in the NE corner of the Brooks Peninsula.  Very shallow and small, we wondered how three to four boats could share the inlet as suggested in the Waggoner’s Guide.  Tired, we relaxed and enjoyed having the entire anchorage to our self:  A first on the west side, typically a fishing boat would show up in the middle of the night but be gone by early morning. 

Columbia Cove, a very sheltered anchorage

Until this trip we were unaware that Vancouver Island had Caribbean-type beaches. We’d experienced one at Hornby Island on Tribune Bay earlier and there are many of them and on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  The difference, however, is that you’ll very likely be the only people on walking on them when you visit. No one else for miles.

Ah the beaches 

We were very fortunate to have the experience of being the only two people on the beach. 

Someone with a sense of humor turned this rock into a smoker?

Typical of many of the beaches we visited. Hard to get to so very quiet.

The Cruising Guide spoke of such a beach just on the outside of Columbia Cove.  Taking the dinghy, we set off to find the trailhead leading to the beach.  Marked by a white buoy, we trekked a short half-mile through a forest 0n a primitive path to the beach. It was spectacular!  A long, fine-grain white sand beach with crystal blue skies was our reward!  We walked down to a rocky outlook toward what looked like a crouching scout hunting in the distance.  We had the entire beach to ourselves:   No other person around.  Well…That didn’t include bears!   Having spent at least an hour looking around, we decided to return to the boat.

Maybe not so alone as we thought. This is a bear print below the tide line so it had visited earlier in the morning.
















The return walk through the forest was faster than the one we’d made to the beach, and both of us were happy not to have had an encounter of a bear-kind.

Later that afternoon, a 42’ powerboat, Rampage, entered our hideaway Cove.  Three generations were aboard:  Grandfather, two sons, and what we assumed was his grandson.  The grandfather thanked us for our help telling him where the shallow areas were and asked us if we’d like some salmon.  We said, “Yes,” and a few minutes later, the grandson, life jacket in place, rowed it over to us in their dinghy! 

Salmon delivery by 7 year old Charlie












Since we have five grandchildren, we were pretty pleased to see this little guy out in that dinghy by himself.  Clearly, he’d spent lots of time on the water and was pretty proud of having “his own boat.”  Pat thanked him for the fish, found out his name was Charlie, that he was seven years old, had been fishing for four days with his family, had caught at least one fish and was from Vancouver.  We later saw him jump in the water and swim like a fish.  That moment reminded us of our own family that was gathering that weekend on the beaches of California.  We wished we could be there, but watching Charlie make us smile.

Reluctant to leave Columbia Cove behind, we pulled anchor.  Rampage had left earlier that morning to continue fishing, and we were going to move down the coast toward Scow Bay in the Bunsby Islands.
Our next stop was only seven miles away and go exploring.  Checleset Bay is a popular spot for kayaking with lots of protected coves and inlets to explore. Not long after we set our anchor, we had the kayaks in the water and set out. 

Again, we thought we had the entirety of Scow Bay and the Bunsby’s to ourselves.  No sooner had I said that, that I heard voices of two kayakers from the opposite end of the bay. They were paddling toward us and we stopped for a conversation.  The couple had taken a water taxi from Walters Cove (aka Kyoquot Cove) and been dropped off on a nearby beach.  They were going to kayak for a week and then be picked up by the same water taxi later at a pre-determined location. This is a very popular method to get to great kayaking locations on the west coast.

It really is a spectacular place to kayak or do anything else for that matter. In the 1970’s, sea otters were reintroduced to the Bunsby’s.  We read that over 800,000 otters had been hunted in the north-Pacific-coastal waters during the late 1800’s, all but eliminating them.  Today there are a little over 3,000 sea otters in the area, 2,300 of which live in or near these Islands.

Kayaking in Scow Bay 

We used the dinghy to get in and out of the kayaks. Climbing into the kayak from the dinghy was a lot easier than from the sail boat

Clear night and sunset in the Bunsbys

Early morning fog. There are many rocks and reefs passing through Checleset Bay so we had a later start to allow the fog to thin a little.
The local fishermen will tell you not all is charted.

We left the Bunsby’s the next morning, continuing to Walters Cove and the town of Kyoquot shared by two tribal communities.  It had been raining during the night, and that morning we had heavy fog.  We decided to wait a couple of hours for it to clear since the surrounding waters have lots of rocky shoals.  

We departed the Bunsby’s around noon.  The morning fog had thinned somewhat but we both stood watch and were kept on our toes.  We went slow and had only about nine miles to go. The Cruising Guide warned that the entry into Walters Cove could be confusing, a reverse “S” due to reefs. It was really important to follow the red right returning rule.

En rout to Walters Cove with the reefs and rocks close by

Entering Walters Cove. Red and green markers are little confusing first time through because of the reverse S entrance around a couple of reefs










Pat went up to the bow of the boat to watch for the reefs, I kept my eyes on the chart plotter. Its a little like playing a video game with the boat. When we finally entered the harbor, we saw what we thought was the public wharf, only to have a lady come out to the end of the dock and tell us we were headed toward a shallow reef which WASN’T on our chart.  Doing a hard reverse, she pointed us to the wharf on the opposite side of her location, we were relieved to tie up without damage.

The Community of Kyuquot is like stepping back in time.  This community is visited weekly by the MV Uchuck III, which the locals nicknamed the “Upchuck” because of the end result of the regular rough passages. A converted World War II mine sweeper, it keeps many of the west coast communities supplied with day to day necessities. The boat also carries tourists to destinations along its route. A high point of the week is when the boat arrives late Thursday afternoon and people from the surrounding communities line up in their boats or walk down to the pier to pick up their orders.

Once inside the bay it is very protected

The town has no roads and this wood walk way runs around the bay

Looking back into Walters Bay

The local grocery store which is open from 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, is resupplied by the Uchuck III, so the best day to buy groceries is Friday afternoon.  Luckily, a local had warned us that we’d be sharing the dock with the Vessel so we’d moved our board forward accordingly.  We did, however, feel tied up in front of her, but happy to experience her arrival. 

The Uchuck arriving in the fog. Because it operates in any weather year round it got the nick name Upchuck because not all passengers can operate in any weather. 

Tuamotu sharing the dock with the Uchuck. 
This boat is a really big deal to these communities. In many cases it is the only way to get supplies. 

The white tents are for the local market which is set up every time the Uchuck visits which is once a week.

We put our kayaks in the water after all the boat traffic died down Thursday evening, exploring the Indian-reservation side of the shoreline and nearby coves.  Living in these communities, one not only needed a boat, it was a lifeline for fishing, crabbing and going to visit friends.  The pace was relaxed and everyone we met, friendly.  Coffee at “Java the Hut” also supplied limited-satellite-based internet and some excellent blackberry-apple pie.  We finally got our first taste of vanilla ice cream since Nanaimo, making that pie all the more a real treat!

 Ian kayaking in the bay

Pat kayaking

The next morning the Uchuck cast off at 8:00 a.m. sharp, carrying passengers from Kyoquot to their next destination.  After checking out the small grocery store Friday afternoon, we too cast off from the wharf, again leaving in light fog hoping it was clearer outside the inlet.  Rather than take the more scenic and rocky coastline, we agreed to go further out in the Pacific.  As we traveled, the fog lifted.  Turning south again, we headed toward our destination Rugged Point Marine Park and Blue Lips or Dixie Cove (We hadn’t decided which), our next anchorage.

After about an hour-and-a-half motoring – again not enough wind to sail – we pulled into a beautiful cove with two white-sand beaches.  We anchored in about 28’ of water and took the dinghy to go ashore.   We were the only boat again:  No other people.  We found the trailhead to Rugged Point and walked a short distance to the other side.  There was lots of driftwood and Pat found a couple of sand dollars to add to the collection she had harvested in Tribune Bay.

Tuamotu in the distance

Rugged park is a very popular stop but is not recommended for overnight anchorage in all but the most benign conditions

Part of Rugged Park

As we were walking back toward the opposite end of the beach, we saw some tracks that looked pretty fresh and big which we thought were cougar.  After we’d hiked back to where we’d left the dinghy we saw signage of sightings of cougars in this area and read of a 2014 unprovoked attack on a visitor.  .

Healthy Cougar tracks

Even bigger tracks













Rugged Point Marine Park is an exposed anchorage meaning there’s little protection from the wind.  The conditions have to be very calm to comfortably spend the night. There was a Pacific swell getting into the bay and the possibility of North outflow wind in the evening. We decided to seek more protected anchorage in Blue Lips Cove, aka Petroglyph Cove (again, no pictures or etchings found) which was about four miles away.

Pulling anchor around 7:00 p.m, about 45 minutes later we were searching for the entryway which looking at the terrain was difficult to spot.  This cove has a 60’-wide entrance and has a very small bay with steep sides:  Very protected, very pretty, very calm.  Dropping anchor about 8:00 p.m., we relaxed.  If there was any wind out there, we wouldn’t feel it.   

The entrance was narrow and not easy to see but well worth the effort once inside

Anchored securely for the night

Blue Lips Cove was also our jump off point for our trip around to Esperanza Inlet and into Queen Cove, the next leg on our journey south.  As we looked at the calendar, we were surprised and feeling remorseful that we were already six-weeks into our circumnavigation.  The days were passing quickly!  There was still so much to see and it felt like we were rushing, cutting out places we wanted to see so we could return to Seattle by the first part of September.  We made a decision then, we needed to extend our return date.