Circumnavigating Vancouver Island Flotilla | Day 13 | Nuchatlitz

Today we stayed put at Nuchatlitz! This morning’s change in wind direction brought smoke from the nearby wildfires our way, and our anchorage smelled a bit like last night’s campfire. It did make for a few moody sunrise photos, however.

Ralph and Jeanette, Vince, and Kevin and Laura took Airship out for a little salmon fishing, while others explored the anchorage and nearby islands by dinghy. A few too-small chinooks were caught and returned, and one VERY large king was hooked but not landed, which was so sad because just look at the size of this fish (that net is 30 inches wide, for scale)! Luckily Vince snapped a photo, or we’d have been returning home with one of just another “you should have seen the size of this fish” fish story.

The coast surrounding Nuchatlitz is beautiful and rugged. While the others were out fishing, Sam took the dinghy over to Rolling Roadstead, on Catala Island. A large, gravel spit juts out of the island and dozens of sea caves line the shoreline.

Rolling Roadstead looked like a popular spot with kayakers, but none were visiting when we were there. Someone had built primitive toilets and a small shelter. Several areas had been cleared for camping. There were lots of (human) footprints, too.

Many people have complained about the potential for drones to be used in “creepy” ways. We’ve generally objected to this, since they’re noisy and have a very wide field of view. But here, at Rolling Roadstead, we finally found an open-roofed outhouse to peek inside (only because we were the only ones on the island). Definitely creepy!

On Rosa Island, closer to Nuchatlitz, we stumbled upon this perfect sandy beach. 

This area, too, seemed popular with kayakers and maybe campers. There were lots of footprints and marks from kayaks dragging over the sand, but no people. Some good-sized animal tracks, though:

We met for happy hour on Epoch, hosted by Scott, Abby, and Bob. Abby served two fabulous plates of nachos, and Bob made another batch of his well-loved artichoke dip.

No stats or map for today, since we didn’t go anywhere but here!