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A week living on my 19' Sea Ranger in Desolation Sound -

Started by Salmon Hobo, September 01, 2015, 06:45:29 PM

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Salmon Hobo

Wow summer is flying by!  I have been meaning to write this boat trip story but have not had any time. Now with the weather crapping out a bit I have had a bit more indoor time..so thought I'd take some time to write up my experience in taking my 19' SR Hardtop up to Desolation Sound for a week. 

I did this trip at the end of July, early August. A buddy of mine from New Zealand was visiting and we decided to take the opportunity to check out Desolation Sound, which neither of us had visited before.  We loaded up tons of groceries and assorted beer and a bottle of some nice 12 year Scotch that was calling our name.

I filled up the 14 gallon water tank in the front of the Arima. I find the boat rides nice with this weight up front.  Also other times that my girlfriend and I have gone camping on the boat we found the water that pumps out of the hose at the back of the boat is great for washing dishes or hands etc while cooking.  I also brought a 5 gallon soft water bag thing with a spout for drinking water.  My Sea Ranger also has the kitchenette which is a handy little option. I mainly salmon fish on my boat and the kitchenette cabinet is great for storing cases of flashers, plugs, maps, books..nice and dry in the cabinet and then the butane stove is so handy for camping on the boat, or even coffee while out fishing.  It was great for making rice, pasta or whatever.   Last year I also mounted a Dickenson BBQ with an adaptor to fit in the starboard sponsoon stock rod holder on the rear of the boat. The BBQ along with the Arima kitchentte small gas burner allows a meal to come together easily.  We brought a dozen fresh corn cobs and this was great for the BBQ, just dunked them in the ocean and straight on the bbq.

I also put my 9 foot soft bottom (but wood floor) Zodiac on the top of the boat. Or previous trips I have towed the boat but for the distances I would be covering just getting to Desolation Sound I did not want to worry about looking back all the time to check the painter and it is hard on a dingy towing faster than sailboat speeds.  The Zodiac fit nicely. I will try to post some pictures below on this thread as I find some.

I launched my boat near Halfmoon Bay, BC. There are closer boat launches to Desolation but I really wanted to see a lot of the coastline on the way up..all of Texada and Powell River area by boat.  The closest launch / town to Desolation is Lund, but you have to take a ferry from where I live to get there...which is time and money waiting for ferry and the ferry company really dings in the wallet if you tow a trailer.  We launched mid-day and I had a nieghbour drive my truck and trailer home for safe keeping so it was not left at the boat launch for a week.

Wind was light and we cruised nicely at 27-28 mph.   I could feel a bit of the extra weight with food and water etc. but with only 2 of us on board it was far from being really heavy.  We stopped along the way in the Malaspina Straight as we saw some Harbour Porpoise chasing some pink salmon around on the surface. Within an hour I think we had ate half of our junk food! Good thing we brought lots. 

It was about 2 hour run ...passing Powell River and then we stopped at Lund for fuel.  We filled up there about 40 gallons approx.  There is not a lot of options in Desolation for fuel. so with 40+ gallons we would have quite a big range and perhaps top up in a few days.

We decided to start trolling on the downriggers as we entered into Desolation Sound  as dinner time would be soon...and within 20 minutes one of the rods  bent hard then the downrigger clip popped.   A nice size chinook had snapped up the  glow hootchie at 120 feet.  We landed a nice 12lb red chinook. It was getting to be evening so we headed down the Malaspina Inlet and slowly entered Grace Harbour. This is a popular first stop for boaters entering Desolation. It was beautiful and well protected. Some quite large boats, but with our smaller boat it was great as we could really anchor anywhere we wanted...some large boats we found were limited to where they can anchor, or when they can or cannot leave a bay (due to low tides). Our boat size and shallow draft allowed for great exploring in small bays etc. I have a Lowrence HDS-5 with the Canadian Coastal gold chip and this showed helpful and quite accurate details of where we were and bottom contours.  I also have 2 books from the thrift store (from the 1980's! and a number of large  Canadian Hydrographic Service paper charts that were great to look at while travelling or planning where to go next during the day or evening.

We shared the beautiful 12lb spring with some other sailboaters anchored near us. They were so happy!  One group of men and women on a 50 foot sailboat came and got us on their zodiac and it was a fun night having a few drinks and hearing tales of sailing in the south pacific etc. They had some good advice from their previous trips. They were scuba diving for old items in several bays finding old bottle, china and lots of other cool stuff. Mostly the dived in bays where there was old logging or salmon canneries years ago.  They asked me to bring my chart of the area #3594. They thought it was amazing that my map was from 1949 and my travel books were from 1980's and all from the local thrift store.  But I reminded them that not much of the coastline has changed on the chart since 1949! 

I think I spotted another Arima on the water..anyone recognize this boat

OK I think that is all I have time to type for now but will add more of the trip and some more photos over the next few days...

croaker stroker


What a beautiful place to be. Fun adventure and new friends.  :clap: :bowdown:
1987 - 17' Sea Pacer - 2004 Evinrude 90 E-tec
1985 - 15' Sea Sprinter - **SOLD**

"Ex Tridente Pax". 🇺🇸

Sea Bear

You are living the dream.  Sounds like a great trip.  I just decided the other day to work toward getting a bigger Arima and taking a similar trip.  Now I'm really getting pumped!   :clap:
1981 Arima Sea Chaser 17'
Evinrude 70hp 2 stroke & Evinrude 9.5 Sportwin

www.americanbroomshop.com

milos dad

Rick
87 Sea Hunter with 94 Honda 45
2009 6 hp Merc kicker

FWilliams

2007 21 ft. Sea Ranger HT 115 Yamaha 4 stroke  9.9 Yamaha 4 stroke. sold

Chasin Baitman

2011 19' Sea Ranger, 2011 Suzuki DF115, 2011 Honda 8 kicker

"When you get into one of these groups, there's only a couple ways you can get out. One, is death. The other...mental institutions"

Wyrguy

A GREAT read! It's something I've always planned on doing, except launching from the Campbell River side and scooting across (for the same reason as you, staying off the BC Ferries!)  :berry:

I'll have to do this trip with my son (and maybe a Sr/Jr Bagwhan wanting to 'buddy boat'?)  :beerchug:

I'm POSITIVE the Princess won't go that far and that long on the boat... A 4 star is the minimum for her (to her, a 4 star means it has a tube TV and no room service... )  :doh:

Wyrguy Rick
'Arima Therapy' - Life begins where the land ends!
2012 Sea Legend HT, blue hull, S/S 6 rod rocket launcher/radar arch
F250XCA O/S T9.9 Yamahas Yamaha Command Link Plus  iTroll throttle control
Aluminum I-beam EZ Loader trailer
Raymarine E120W, Digital HD Colour radar, Two Scotty HP 2106 DRs

Markshoreline

I did that trip when your 80's maps were current- such a beautiful place! Great story, thanks.
2002 Sea Ranger HT 21, Yamaha 150, Yamaha 9.9

beancounter

Thanks for sharing your trip with us looking forward to more.

BruceL2_Fish

2012 Sea Ranger 19 (M. LaDeane)
Suzuki 115 Four Stroke
Honda 9.9 Kicker

Tunacious

That is a great story.  I enjoyed reading it.  Really cool that the sail boaters invited you over.

I was wondering if when you pulled into the bay and seen all the nice boats if there was some strategic planning on your part as to who you were going to share the salmon with  :stirthepot:

It sounds like you made a good choice.  :wink:


Browneye

Very nice! More pics please.  :smile1:
What a great place to vacation. I'm guessing the rest of the country has no idea that place even exists.

The water is warm up there as well. Spent many a summer vacation up there when I was a kid. One of our favorites along the way was Princess Louisa Inlet. And we would go to a place that I don't know what it was called, but the beach was covered with oyster shells (cut my foot) and we would walk a short way inland to a beautiful lake for swimming. Absolutely beautiful.

I sold my Grady to a couple on Vancouver Is, they're near Campbell River. They would run over for shrimping in DS from the island. And yes, they drove their truck down to so-Cal to pickup the boat. Very nice couple, he was a commercial salmon fisherman on the west coast of the island.

My grandmother lived in Victoria for many years, Nanaimo before that. I was born in Vancouver, Dad was Canadian and mom was American. We moved to the states when I was about 2 years old.

Seems like another lifetime ago.
Chris Brown
Orange County, CA
'15 SeaChaser 17 - NEW!

Salmon King

As others have said...Great story!

I hope to someday take a trip very similar to that...
PLEASE...Fly your flag Proudly, and remember to thank a Vet!
2011 14' Sterling
9' Pontoon (Bismarck)
8' Pontoon (Hood)

Fishjager

I was up there for nine days one time in a 37 foot sailboat.  What a beautiful place.  If you want fishing fun hike into some of those little lakes on those little islands.
The trout devour just about anything (they are not fished much) light tackle and wow you have a fight.  Great place.
Boatless right now

TheDoctor

Sounds like a GREAT trip.  Also, thanks for sharing!

TDR
2008 SR19 : '08 Honda BF135/BF8

bigblu82

Great read!! my brother and I went up a few years ago and are taking our wives next year for 10 days.... I have an SR19 skip tower and am planning on buying a inflatable like you have to mount to the roof as well at least for the run up around Sarah point.... from there on we just cruse at about 6 mph and enjoy the eagles and whales and otters and the beautiful scenery...it is incredible for sure!!we too avoided the ferries and launched at sunset bay marina and went up the sunshine coast... up Armageddon sound then up to chatterbox falls before heading out to DS...this is a great trip for anyone who enjoys seeing the most amazing scenery and wildlife. take a shrimp pot and a crab pot and fishing gear and your eating fresh seafood every night!!! my brother and I only took breakfast food and lunch food and caught our dinner every night!
how far did you go??
Great read and will check back for more of your trip!!
tight lines!! 
1989 Sea Ranger 19
2015 140 hp Suzuki
2015 9.9 hp Suzuki

Salmon Hobo

Part 2 -  To answer your question Tunacious, when we idled into Grace Harbour for our first night we really didn't know where to go anchor..so what we did that night and others was to a so cruise around and then decide.  The first anchorage  you spot might not be the best so do a tour of the little bay. You might see a better spot, be offered a beer or see a bikini!  Same anchorages were busier than others and sometimes we anchored in a bay with no boats around. Most of the cruising books (including the Desolation Sound boating books from the 80's highlight a few areas...so people go there out of habit, or that is where their friends are..but there are many other areas it seems are safe to anchor, especially in calm summer weather.   So for Grace Harbour, we knew we had found our spot when we saw a rope swing tied to an old tree..perfect spot. Our plan was to anchor there and then stern tie to the rope swing tree.  We thought the rope swing would be fun to try out too. We anchored in about 20 feet of water. 

For anchoring I would position the boat in the spot and direction I wanted...then drive ahead slow about 20-30 feet or and drop the anchor until it hit then reversed slowly as my buddy let out the chain (25 feet) and some line.  The tide are quite a large range in Desolation..not a lot of current but large tides..so 14-15 foot tides are the norm...so you have to plan a little bit for that with your anchor rope scope... and your stern line. Most times we stern tied unless we were just anchoring to explore the coast..but over night we stern tied to keep swinging if near other boats...and often we could arrange the back of the boat and BBQing dinner so we had the evening sun.  For stern tie to shore I brought 200 feet of extra rope from an old prawn trap line.  With the warm water we often just dove in and swam it to shore and the looped around a tree ideally. Then we would swim that loop back to the stern of the boat. This method works good, so when you take off in the morning or whenever you just untie one loop and pull or drive away and the rope tag end will un-loop around the tree and you can pull your stern line aboard..you dont have to go untie something from a rock or tree etc.  This is basic stuff for guys sailing for us fishermen on Arimas, overnight anchoring and stern tie is a little bit of a science. I learned and got more comfortable doing is on this trip on a daily basis.   I also put my main Danforth anchor in a rubbermaid strapped to the bow rail of the boat up front..that way it was easy to access the main larger anchor often. I keep a small day anchor in the anchor locker but as you know our anchor lockers are not big enough a large anchor. I usually keep my bigger anchor on board inside the cuddy but for this trip it made sense to rig up something for easy access.

So we stern tied in Grace Harbour and went to try the rope swing. Here is a photo of my friend James swimming the stern line in.. He tried the rope swing out...and that didn't go as planned! We both had a good laugh as it turns out the rope swim only works at low tide ..so when he swung out he just smacked water right away!

The next day we were not officially on vacation it felt like.   We left and headed out the Malaspina Inlet into and then got up on plane and headed part way up the Homfray Channel and then to the beginning of the Waddington Channel.  We did some fishing...the pinks were hitting everything but no Chinooks but we still had a slab in the cooler from last night so we didnt fish too long.   

I had read about Roscoe Bay and it seemed like a perfect place to check out. We put out a prawn trap in about 320 feet just out side the entrance of the bay.  We got there mid afternoon.  Roscoe Bay is interesting as the entrance to it dries at low tide....so most boats cannot go in or out except for mid to high tide.  It is kind of cool...once you get in the bay on the tide your in and it is kind of relaxing...near low tides there really wont by anyone coming or going.  The nice part about the bay is that it has a warm freshwater lake called Black Lake at the end of the bay.  We got out some $5.00 air mattresses and paddled down the bay to the end and then up the the lake.  Yes we heard too that it can be great trout fishing up there!  It is a short, easy walk to the lake.  I have included a photo of a tug type boat anchored beside us in the bay.   We talked to a couple from California I think that had this huge boat..I dont know I would guess like 100feet plus. I dont think they made it in the bay but anchored outside because of the size of the boat if I recall. Anyhow we pointed to my Arima when they asked which boat was ours.  (ours Arima was one of the smaller boats we saw people camping/ travelling on in Desolation). This guys tender boat  for his 100 foot boat was bigger than ours! He took a look at our boat and commented that he had a piano on his last boat that was bigger! Ha.  I told him well his piano never went 35+mph and catch monster salmon! we had a good chuckle. But I think the point kind of is you dont need a big boat to have fun or get out there and do stuff. We kind of already know that I think as that is why we are attracted to Arimas in the first place.   I did see a few C-Dory's tied together and talked to them and they had come up from Victoria and there was guys from Washington, Oregon and BC all hanging out.   Maybe one summer we could do a casual meet up with other fellow Arima-owners in these friendly waters? A guy gave us a pot of clams he had got earlier.  Normally I avoid clams , oysters in the summer but he said his family had been eating them for a week and no one was getting sick...so got some butter and wine on those fast! yum. 

Next day we got up early around 5:30 or 6 and got out of Roscoe on a good tide as we had had our fun there and did not want to get stuck in Roscoe all bay on the tides. 

We headed back down to Refuge Cove which is one of the only places with water/ gas etc.  We topped up the fuel tank just a bit and refilled our water. Also most places you cannot get cel reception / data bit Refuge Cove you can .  Also there is not really any places to get rid of garbage...except here. This crazy guy Garbage Dave lives on an old boat anchored to  a garbage barge..so you just cruise by slow and he comes out, eye balls or weighs your garbage . We just threw some garbage on his barge and then $5.  I guess when the barge is full he tows it to the dump or something. I guess he had been doing that service for years.

OK here are a few photos..I'll write up a bit more again when more spare time...cheers 

Salmon Hobo


Browneye

Nice pics!!   :applause: :applause:

BTW, stern-tie in an anchorage is the shiznit. Sometimes you can be close enough to just pull the boat over and step off.
Chris Brown
Orange County, CA
'15 SeaChaser 17 - NEW!

Peddler

Wishin' I was Fishin'

Salmon Hobo

Dinner time.  I knew when I got my boat there would be lots of blood on the decks fishing, I never thought wine spillage ..but I guess Arimas are good for both! 

Markshoreline

2002 Sea Ranger HT 21, Yamaha 150, Yamaha 9.9

familyrig

1999 Sea Explorer 75hp Yamaha 6HP Suzuki/ 1990 Sea Ranger 17' 90 hp Honda

Vancouvertechie

That is living the dream!  I would love to plan something like that next year!  Thanks for sharing and the wonderful photos.

VT
2003 15' SeaHunter 50HP Suzuki (FI4Strk)
1991 16' SeaChaser 50HP Johnson (Keith)
1995 19' SeaRanger 115 Yamaha (FI4Strk)
1992 Zodiac Hurricane Honda 135HP
1987 44' Tollycraft Motoryacht

Sea Bear

Awesome story.  Can't wait until the next chapter!   :clap:
1981 Arima Sea Chaser 17'
Evinrude 70hp 2 stroke & Evinrude 9.5 Sportwin

www.americanbroomshop.com