Seven Days in Blunden Harbour

By Nicole

One of our guidebooks erroneously refers to Blunden Harbour as “Blunder” Harbour.  Sure it’s an obvious typo, but for us, our week here was anything but a mistake.

Lagoon

Blunden Harbour is a maze of twisting passages where around every corner waits another small island.  We found ourselves getting turned around as we wound through the labyrinth in our dinghy.

Our destination was a saltwater lagoon that’s only accessible for a short window of time at high-water slack (the moment when the tide is at its highest point and it pauses ever so briefly to reverse directions).  At any other time, it’s a turbulent tidal rapids with whirlpools and strong currents.

We made it into the lagoon just fine, riding the last of the flood current, but getting out was another story. Apparently high-water slack here occurs two hours after high tide in the main harbor.  Which meant we had a fun ride into the lagoon… and had to wait more than an hour until we could get back out.  With our piddley  2-hp outboard, we can travel about 4 mph, but the current was far stronger than that.  Even at max throttle, we were getting pushed backwards by the force of the current. 

Whirlpools and strong current piping into the lagoon proved too much for our outboard

So we pulled up to some large rocks along the shore and waited an hour or so until the current subsided (until it really was high-water slack).  We watched leather stars go about their starfish business and hermit crabs fight each other for rights to an underwater domain.

 

Shell Midden

The shell midden beach on the north side of the anchorage marks the site of a former Kwakiutl village.  Many native villages in British Columbia were settled near rich shellfish beds, especially clam beds. Villagers harvested and ate the clams, then dumped the shells in refuse piles called middens.  Over hundreds or thousands of years of occupation, these clamshell landfills grew into massive mounds that eventually eroded into striking white shell beaches.  That’s a lot of clams!

Remnants of an abandoned longhouse, consumed by nature and time, above the white shell midden beach.

Giant longhouse timbers, nearly 3-feet in diameter, jut from the woods.

Queen Charlotte Strait

Taking advantage of a high tide and calm seas, we snuck through a shallow passage leading into Queen Charlotte Strait (only bumping the bottom of the dinghy a few times).  With its stunning rock formations, crystal-clear water, piles of weather-beaten logs and expansive views, this stretch of shoreline was by far our favorite.  We spent a few hours here just taking it all in.

Aaron s-l-o-w-l-y turned for a picture, trying not to lose his balance!

Down Time

Exploring shell middens and navigating tidal rapids is hard work.  So for a little down time, Aaron and I grabbed a blanket and our Kindles and perched ourselves on a rock in the late afternoon sunshine to do a little reading.  As you can see, though, one of us got a little more reading done and the other a little more snoozing.  But I won’t name any names… 

Moving On

Well, I guess it’s time to move on.  A guy rowed over this morning to make sure that Bella Star wasn’t abandoned, since we’ve been here for so long!  Point taken.  Onward to Port Hardy.