Broughton Lagoon

I had the shore fire burning to perfection on the tiny rocky island when Kent made the decision to ‘get outta Dodge’. We’d anchored in a lovely area behind two islands close to the Broughton Lagoon for the afternoon and it was never the intention to stay the night, but Paulette and I really wanted to go ashore, sit in the sun for the afternoon and build a fire where we could cook the steaks for dinner. It was all good until the Northwest wind started to blow and our stern line was doing ALL the work, holding our two boats. Our anchor line wasn’t taking any load and Kent and Rick felt we were not secure for the night.

I quickly put out the fire, loaded our chairs, coolers, fire grate and Hugo into the dinghy while Rick removed one shore line. Kent and Rick fired up the engines, untied and we pulled anchor. I simplified that whole event as there was much discussion, direction, rushing and anxiety as the wind and current came into play. Kent had to go back to the bay in the dinghy to remove the remaining shore line and we waited out in the middle of the channel for him. Now we’re off to find a safe anchorage for the night, sans steak dinner - and I’m getting hungry! I guess we’ll barbecue in the dark… on deck. We just heard it’s blowing 40 out on the west coast, so I’m glad we’re on inside calm waters.

We had an absolute fantastic day - the best so far. Well, they’ve all been good, but today we took the dinghy’s through the rapids into the Broughton Lagoon. I took tons of video and hope to upload it soon. We had to wait for nearly slack tide to navigate the rapids, so we took a picnic lunch and ate it in the dinghy’s while we were tied together and tied to a nasty, mussel laden log. The water was disgusting with a dirty foamy substance all around, but the sea anenomes, urchins, starfish, shiners and other sealife didn’t seem to mind at all. We enjoyed a royal feast of ceasar salad with chicken and prawns and hot foccacia bread together with beer and wine. It was a quite a meal to eat in the dinghy’s! The sun was shining and all was good. Watch the video as Kent tries to navigate us through the strong current into the lagoon.

We decided to eat lunch while waiting for low slack and Kent found a little bay full of kelp, starfish, anemones, barnacles and mussels. I tied the dinghy to a mussel covered log and handed out plates and chicken/prawn salad and foccacia bread. It tasted delicious even though our surroundings were a bit gross with brown foam on the water and the smell of decaying mussels and barnacles in the air.

Once the current slacked up, Kent went through the rapids while Hugo and I waited on an island. He made it with no problem and came back out, so Rick and Paulette went through.Kent went through once more just for the fun of it, then Rick came back for me. We toured around the huge lagoon for 20 minutes then headed back out at slack. There was a huge difference from the raging river rapids to the absolute stillness of slack water. It’s deceiving and we were careful. This is a place I’d come back to again and again. It’s more beautiful than Squirrel Cove, with a longer channel to the lagoon, but the water temperature is a lot colder too. The water was 54 degrees and Squirrel cove gets into the 70’s, but this is definitely a delight for body surfers, kayakers and day trips with the dinghy. It’s best to go through at high slack, but we made it easily in the dinghy’s just before low slack. Rick’s sounder showed 10 feet of water. If you get caught unprepared in the lagoon, it will be a long 7 hours waiting for the next slack! Take water, warm clothes food and any other safety equipment you may require - oh, and wear your life jacket in case you get dumped in the cold water and are washed back out into the ocean by the strong current.

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