Port Mac

I like Port McNeill well enough, but was hoping not to be here on this trip, for a variety of reasons at different points. Initially, we'd talked of bypassing the Island altogether and going north further along the mainland side of Queen Charlotte Strait. Then, when it became clear we didn't really have time or a purpose in doing that, we had discussed exploring the Broughtons and jumping straight over to Port Hardy, closer to the north tip of the Island, instead of back-tracking.

But too much about Port Hardy is unknown to us, and we've lost the luxury of exploring independently for now... we need a good store, fuel, moorage, and Internet, all at reasonable, or at least known, prices, and we are sure of finding all that in "Port Mac" as it's known up here.

We lost our powered windlass a couple days ago when pulling up the anchor in a place called Cypress Harbour. We're not entirely sure what happened. The motor still runs and sounds fine, and the windlass itself cranks and works properly in manual mode, but the motor is not turning the capstan when it is engaged. When it let go, it just dropped everything right to the bottom again, spinning freely, and that's what it does now. It seems that the motor is not attached to the capstan drive shaft any longer, or that the gears in the gearbox are broken, but the schematic we have doesn't go into a lot of detail on how that particular part of the system is put together.

The anchor system is too heavy to raise entirely by hand (I tried!) so we still need the windlass and I'm hesitant to take too much of it apart while that's the case. I've pulled apart the bits that are well-diagramed (basically, lifting off the capstan to check the shaft and gypsy and associated clutch parts) and it all looks to be in good condition on that end... although, of course, that isn't where the problem seems to be. Perhaps if I can find more information online while we are here I'll find enough confidence to pull the gearbox and have a look. It's likely a fairly simple worm-gear configuration so other than outright mechanical breakage I don't know either what the problem might be, or what I might be able to do to fix it.

At this point, I'm proceeding on the assumption we'll simply be doing without it until we get back home in August. It's an inconvenience but probably not a safety issue.

We're also low on just about every sort of supply (well, plenty of food left, but none of it fresh) and there are convenient and relatively cheap places to provision in Port Mac.

Then, too, we haven't been as excited about the Broughtons as we (or I, at least) had hoped to be. We were expecting something a little more remote, a little less busy, than Desolation Sound or the Gulf Islands, but it hasn't been any of that. If anything, there are more logging and fishing operations and more float homes clustered around the bays up here. Apart from the clear cuts and other industrial detritus, it's just as scenic as Desolation; however, there are fewer good anchorages, and they are generally smaller, and with as many or more cruising boats around (and float homes taking up much of the room permanently), they actually have been more crowded than what we found further south. And we hear from long-time cruisers up here that this is actually a slow year.

A lot of them seem to come up here for a more congenial, community-oriented cruising which is based largely around a handful of colorful, hospitable small marinas tucked away in nooks and hollows. We stopped off at Pierre's in Echo Bay, which was everything it was advertised to be: fun, friendly, entertaining. We went to Texas BBQ night and had some great ribs and even better beans, and great conversation with other boaters in for the night. Many of them have been coming up here for decades and are well-acquainted with the families that tend to run the marinas or live in the bays, and with other cruisers they see from year to year. The social scene around the marinas seems to be the big draw.

I can see the appeal of that but it's not really what we were looking for, and not something we're likely to be drawn into for a variety of reasons. So, I don't think either of us are feeling too bad about cutting the visit there short and skipping across to Port McNeill.