We left the dock at Port Neville and headed east in Johnstone Strait, then peeled off at Sunderland Channel. Today’s destination is Frederick Arm, the inlet just east of Phillips Arm at the top of Nodales Channel.
We transited Whirlpool Rapids midway through the flood with a few small whirlpools and eddies, but nothing too dramatic. Greene Point Rapids was much the same. Four knots of extra speed was nice, though!
We passed Cordero Lodge, which has been closed for a few years now. The facilities don’t look like they’re weathering well:
This weekend is the Shoal Bay Music Festival. Shoal Bay is one of our favorite stops in this area, but it was already looking too crowded for us:
We’d never anchored (or been to) the head of Frederick Arm, but it looked good on the chart so we thought we’d give it a shot. A large 80-100 foot deep area seemed like it would be a reasonably good anchorage, and Estero Basin looked promising for dinghy exploration.
We all anchored without any trouble and then we set out to see about Estero Basin. Unfortunately, even with an 8-10 foot tide, it was too shallow for us to enter.
We pulled the dinghies up onto the rocky shore and took a look around on foot.
Further up the entrance, a few fallen logs looked like they might prohibit entry even at higher tides.
Some drone shots of Frederick Arm:
The big downside to this anchorage is logging. Signs along the western shore warned of “active blasting,” the hillsides are scarred, and there’s a logging camp. But we didn’t hear any explosions, the camp seemed mostly dormant, and we enjoyed being away from the more common and crowded anchorages.
Tomorrow: Desolation Sound, which we don’t imagine will be all that desolate this time of year!
