Comocean Sets Sail: Looking Back on the Broughtons

Looking at Denman Mtn from Desolation Sound

There's no doubt about it, The Broughtons area is loaded with beautiful scenery. This view of Denman Mtn is typical of what we saw every day while cruising the fiords of The Broughtons.

Our primary cruising guide was A Dreamspeaker Cruising Guide Vol 5 The Broughtons published in 2006. Some significant changes have taken place since then but it was essential.

We had read a lot about Lagoon Cove , famous for afternoon gatherings with prawns for everyone, in the cruising guide as well as other sources. I had to visit this place and see what all the fuss was about (and because I was in prawn withdrawal). It turned out to be a real treat. Lagoon Cove Marina is an "oldy" but goody with lots of charm.

Lagoon Cove Marina Photo from http://www.lagooncovemarina.com

Bill Photo from http://www.lagooncovemarina.com

We anchored behind the marina and dinghied in to get the scoop (the real question - could I get prawns without paying to stay at the marina -okay I'm cheap). After we told Bill we were anchored out and he said "What are ya doin' out there!? We have more fun than anybody here." We said okay sign us up. It wasn't too painful. It was the least expensive moorage we paid during the entire trip.

This little marina has a nice selection of fishing needs including traps and licenses.

Bill told us about the marina amenities and told us to be sure to check out the exercise course that he has created along with the trails. The exercise course is quite humorous and I don't want to spoil it for you, in case you ever stay here.

There is a very nice club house, once again demonstrating Bill's sense of humor, in the historic work shop. There is an old boat hanging off the deck captained by Gertie (who rushed out so fast to save the boat that she forgot her clothes).

The very nice trading library. Something that Greg and I always are on the look out for. We found lots of new books to read here.

The marina is owned by Bill and his wife of 56 years (can you believe it! She must have married at 10!) Bill leaves at dawn every day and returns around 8:30 am with his haul of prawns. Jean takes over at that point. She tears their little heads off and boils their little tasty bodies for their guests. She made an awesome cocktail sauce to go with them (you can get the recipe if you buy her cook book). She is generous with her knowledge and gladly tells us her cooking secrets.

The cooking is done in the boat house, which is available to guests. The stove and pots are provided so you don't have to stink up your boat AND they will even loan you the traps if you don't have any. These folks are gold.

Prawns were great, we got our fill, and there were more than enough for everyone. This place turned out to be well worth the visit and we highly recommend it.

Greg has really gotten into fishing now. He spent several happy days floating around in the dinghy matching his wits against those of the fish. He caught a ling cod, kelp greenling and another rock fish. Thank goodness we got a handout from Bill that had pictures of common ground fish because we were clueless as to what these were.

Kelp greenling - we think.

We had good luck with crabbing. I was worried about crab bait; I didn't want to use all of our meat as bate so I dug a bucketful of big horse clams. They worked great as long as you aren't squeamish about smashing them. Someone told us they couldn't figure out people trying to crab using chicken. He said there aren't any chickens down with the crabs and they don't know what they are. Better to use clams.

One of our crabs next to an 8.5" deck plate.

We didn't do so well with prawning - hence the prawn withdrawal issue. We caught TWO prawns, one at a time. Not much reward for pulling up 300 ft of line with a trap and 15 lb weight on the end.

Cinnamon appears to be sleeping almost all of the time. But if you look closely you will see that he is playing opossum. He is always on the lookout for fresh fish and crab - his favorites. Well that's not entirely true, we discovered that he goes crazy for SPAM. I've come close to losing my fingers when I didn't hand over the Spam quick enough.

I thought Simoom Sound looked like an interesting place to anchor. Interesting yes - anchoring no. We passed a fish farm in the process of being built (with the materials we saw while anchored in Alert Bay).

As we rounded the corner we saw that a helicopter logging operation was underway. We watched for a while; it was quite fascinating. After a few minutes we decided that anchoring under a working helicopter probably wouldn't be the best spot for us.

BC is a major logging region and you see clear-cut areas where ever you go. There are also natural clearcuts. The steep slopes frequently experience land slides. In fact, salvaging timber from landslides is a regulated activity. Bill Proctor, the old-timer who has a museum near Echo Bay on the BC mainland, harvests slide timber every winter.

You wouldn't want to be anchored any where near an area where this is likely to happen!

As we were leaving Simoom Sound I spotted a float trailing a long floating line. We didn't respond quickly enough and we went over it. It caught on the rudder rather than the wing keel or prop - fortunately! Greg fought with it for a while. I was about to suggest cutting it and tying the ends back together when he finally freed it. We were both quite angry that the fish farmers had left this TRAP! We aren't likely to ever return to this spot.

Walsh Cove Provincial Park, located on the east side of West Redonda Island, turned out to be one of our favorite spots, of all those we visited on our Broughton trip. There is no road access. This lovely spot has lots to enjoy and we look forward to returning sometime.

This photo makes it look very private but there were at least another dozen boats while we were there. We decided to stern tie to one of the adjacent islets. Greg easily scrambled up the slope and tied off to a well-anchored tree.

It turned out that easy climb made it a favorite jumping spot for those looking to add more fun to their swimming.
The parents of these two pointed out that they shouldn't use our stern tie to pull themselves along (thanks).

We investigated the hieroglyphs that can be found just above the high water line.

The fish were obvious but the other symbols were a mystery.

We really enjoyed our trip to the Broughton Archipelago. We had some beautiful days of sunshine. Enjoyed some kayaking, fishing and sightseeing.

Be prepared though for fog, rain and nasty biting horse flies and mosquitoes. The bugs got so bad I purposely anchored in windy areas to keep them away!

We finally decided to head south at the end of August when the fog wasn't lifting till late afternoon and it rained heavily for two days.