Leg 11 of our 2022 cruise up north
(to read Leg 10, “Beardrop to Gibson Cove,” click here)
Knowing we didn’t have far to go, we were slackers this morning. Kristin and I noticed some crows were pretty upset about something ashore… then we realized they were crowing at a bald eagle! Well that’s cool, especially for an anchorage we hadn’t really planned on stopping in! The eagle landed on a tree kinda far from the boat, looked around, then flew off.
At first I was disappointed, but suddenly a juvenile bald eagle swooped in, and landed pretty close to us! Way cool!
With very light wind and only 5 miles to our destination, we figured we’d motor the whole way. As we cleared Gibson Cove, a light west wind picked up. Realizing that by the time we got the mainsail cover off and main raised, we’d be there, so we unfurled the jib and slowly sailed a broad reach with only the jib over to Matheson Island.
Matheson’s anchorage, though well protected and quite pretty, was too crowded for our taste. Instead we motored the extra half mile over to Hog Island and anchored there all alone.
This entire evening no one has anchored here, so it looks like Hog Island is “ours” for the night. We did some exploring ashore… it’s a gravelly beach, which is somewhat unusual for this area. I didn’t find it particularly pretty, but it was nice to walk around a bunch after being on the boat for so long. Neither of us were properly dressed for hiking through the brush, so we stayed on the beach. Apparently there’s a ruins of a Hudson Bay Company trading post on the island.
Neither of us have been to Hog or Matheson Islands before. One of the reasons to come here is to dinghy up to Fort LaCloche, then hike a mile or so up to Lake LaCloche in LaCloche Provincial Park. In the past we’ve been too worried about the range of our dinghy, but this year we have a bigger battery for the electric motor. Our plan for tomorrow is to try and find the LaCloche River and hike. It looks like the weather should be great.