Sailing Vessel Karma

This is what I was picturing before setting off when people said, “Inside Passage”. Way the heck up north, passing between 1000 meter cliffs on either side in a mile wide channel in flat calm water.

We entered the channel under spinnaker which was fun as always for the 10 minutes the wind lasted then it was back to motoring. Still snacking on creative salmon snacks using the fish caught with Jeff, we were heading for Lowe Inlet, an anchorage that boasts a waterfall and huge surrounding mountains. If that doesn’t sound like a good place to stop I don’t know what is. We arrived mid evening and turn the corner to find but one other boat, well… yacht, in the anchorage. Low and behold its Sinbad, captained by Mark and Mary with guests Linne and Randy onboard.

Knowing we have about a 15lb fillet of salmon, we immediately radio and suggest we bring it on over and share a meal. They were already planning a lamb chop sit down dinner and thought the salmon and three salty sailors from Karma would be a nice addition so they said to come on over whenever. Excited by the evening plans on the 90 foot super-yacht with our new friends we all put our glams on and rowed on over.

Greeted by Mark on the swim platform, we went aboard and were introduced to Randy and Linne who had hopped onboard Sinbad just after we had met Mark and Mary at Shearwater. Linne had done extensive cruising on a sailboat through the Carribean and now her and Randy had a Bayliner of their own down in the Gulf Islands. Mark and Mary were cruising up to Alaska with different guests hopping onboard for different parts of their trip.

We sat down in the aft salon/sun room and got to chatting. All four of them have wonderful and fun stories. We also got a tour of M/V Sinbad which was a delight and wild to see engines and generators that wouldn’t even fit aboard Karma if we had nothing else aboard. Apparently, when running a lodge Mary and Mark operated in Alaska, they used to use the larger generators aboard Sinbad to run the power needs ashore.

As mentioned, they were already prepping a lamb chop dinner along with side salads. Added to our now baked salmon fillet and sourdough loafs we had had rising all day. Sitting down for dinner we had quite the spread. Lively conversation continued as a lovely dinner was shared. At some point during the night we discovered we had an overlapping friend in Ladysmith, someone we had met last year while at the dock there. We called him to see if he remembered us and to see if Zoe would be a suitable suiter as both a carpenter and a ladyfriend.

The night wound down and we headed back to Karma later than expected and fell asleep faster than anticipated. Thanks again Mark and Mary for sharing such a lovely meal and having us aboard!

The next morning we were excited to hit the current just right. Since leaving The Broughtons we hadn’t been worrying about currents so much as the landscape doesn’t foster the same river like torrents of the south. Even this channel wasn’t unmanagable, but also isn’t neglidgable. Waving to Sinbad’s crew as we motored past we left Lowe Inlet and turned to starboard to head north and immeditely found that we didn’t plan the current right at all. We were but a third of a way up the channel not half way, so the current was going directly against us. And due to the charts now being in Alaska Standard Time we were also an hour off anyway. An hour later we had made it just a mile further north when Sinbad blew past us and let us know they’d hail us on the VHF if anything changed with the current.

We spent the day moving at 1 knot taking pictures of powerboats passing us and then radioing them and asking if they wanted us to email them the photos. People always seem to enjoy photos of their yachts, but the two cruise ships that came past us were not having our fripperies and were only interested in making passing arrangements. We were laughing imaging Sinbad listening to all of this on the radio.

As the day wore on we came to the conclusion we weren’t going to make it to where we were quasi hoping to so we decided to turn into Klewnuggit Inlet which turned out to be a great change of plan. We motored up along side huge slopes and came to a protected bay with a mountainess skyline matched by few others. The clouds parted to reveal the dramatic landscape as we anchored and the sun came out just in time. Heather and Zoe set off to go romping around in the forest and collect berries. I paddleboarded around the bay, inspected the stream at the head of the bay coming from high up in the mountains and then sat on a rock and admired the view.

Zoe and Heather returned with what was probably a kilo of assorted berries so the dinner commenced. I BBQ’d the last huge fillet of salmon, yes we still had salmon at this point, while potatoes and a pie was being made down below. We feasted in the cockpit on what turned out to be quite the meal as the sun went down and the bugs came out.

Up in the morning we were to leave the bay and, this time with the current, finish the Granville Channel and see how close to Prince Rupert we could get with the plan to stop somewhere just south. A mostly motoring day, the weather was nice and we played rounds of backgammon in a ‘tourney’ against each other and for some reason also ourselves. The sun came out as the channel widened into the Chatham Sound, we were heading for the east side of Porcher Island at an anchorage with yet another SV Violet Hour review on the charts.

We rounded the corner into Kelp Passage Cove just at golden hour and decided to troll for fish to no avail. Once anchored in the large bay it was apparent we were close to a town again as there were more smaller sport style power boats around and general traffic on the radio. We spent our last day our of civilization enjoying the sunset and the silence which was probably going its own way for the next little bit after we left the following morning bound for an actual town.