Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wednesday July 31: Croker Island


It was just an ok day for travel yesterday - not really great, cool and windy so we ended up just cruising for 12 of the 21 miles to Croker Island. Even with the flybridge canvas down to take advantage of the sun, jeans, long sleeve shirt and jacket were still in order. I sure do miss the flybridge enclosure of the trawler :-)

The Benjamins are easy to spot as the high granite cliffs really stand out as we approached this unique group of islands.. Most of the islands in the North Channel are lower in elevation and mostly tree covered.

We ended up at Croker Island – in the same area in which we anchored three years ago when we were traveling the loop. The depth below the boat is about 3 feet with a mud bottom :-) Not too many boats are interested in this shallow of a spot so we were mostly alone.

There are two people (circled in red) on the cliffs behind us to give some perspective on the height of these granite rock islands.






A quick kayak ride was in order but it was really pretty windy and the waves didn't make for a very nice ride. Afterwards, Steve went hiking up to the top of the cliffs. What a view!! Plus he came back again with blueberries – they are all over these islands and right now must be prime season. 




A day at anchor without some kind of issue just isn't a day. It was 6 pm or so when it seemed we were closer to shore than we were before. Seems like a familiar story but on the positive side at least it was still light out :-) That plus it's only 3 feet deep with a mud bottom – how much trouble could we get into???

By the time Steve had hauled a second anchor to shore (the back was tied to a tree already), it was going on 7 pm. Late dinner tonight …


This is the chart shot of the Benjamin Islands. We are at the red dot at Croker. But we really wanted to go to South Benjamin but didn't really want to move the boat. No problem. Someone (not mentioning any names here) used the charts to determine it was only a mile across. So I'm thinking – I can do that – right? I mean Lion's Head was a farther kayak than that.

Ok – so I take maybe 20% of the blame. Real distance? Two miles. And two miles back. Doesn't seem like much until you stoke that kayak paddle for the 10,250th time. I almost had to make use of that tow line on the front of my kayak :-) Note to self: check that the scale of miles on one side of the chart is the same as the scale of miles on the side of the chart in which we are interested :-)

Truthfully? It was a really nice ride. Especially on the way over. The water was smooth  so we could go along the shore of the nearest island and see the bottom with no problem.



Once we got there, I parked my kayak in the reeds and took a snooze while Steve hiked around. The views over the harbor are amazing. Lots of boats but lots of room.





A truly crazy beautiful place. We REALLY need to come here and stay a while!


We kayaked the two miles back to Guppy, reset the anchors again for the storm due in tonight and took a nap :-) Again admiring the rock formations on the way back. The movement of the glaciers is so clear through this area. Maybe I will be a geologist when I grow up …..








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