Travels of "Emma B" (JD powered Helmsman)

Anchor up at 5:30 to beat the Johnston Strait wind and work with the tides.
Made Lagoon Cove in the Broughtons by 9:45am.
Feels great to be back here.

View from inside ?

Headed up to Qwatsi Bay
Nice pot luck there with good company. Smaller crowd than Lagoon Cove.
Next I was off to Joe Cove but stopped to see Billy along the way.
Several foggy mornings running

Poked around a few anchorages before heading across Black Fish Sound to Port McNeil. They have waste oil containers so it was a great place to change the oil/filter, change the raver, clean the water strainer and walk to the store to provision. The grocery store allows you to take the carts back to the dock... a real bonus.
Naturally, once tied to the dock the fog lifted and it was a great afternoon!

Got the maintenance, food, booze and water taken care of at Port McNeil and headed back to the Broughtons.
Was first treated by a Minke whale just before Blackfish Sound, then multiple Humpback whales crossing the Sound.....as well as the usual porpoises! An amazing crossing!!
Putted up to Waddington Bay for the night. A beautiful, totally calm evening.

Been back to a great "pot luck" at Lagoon Cove, ran down to Port Harvey, left at 4am to beat the Strait up to Whirlpool, onward to Shoal bay where I was surprised by about 25 boats from "cruising club of America" were on tour and moored there. Great to see!! Lots of history there..... Between the old mine, fisheries, and logging...the population exceeded Vancouver way back!!
A town site, float Homes, stores and brothels... it was a busy stop!
Now it's just a remote anchorage or dockage. Mark (from CA) has lived there several years now and does his best to make it worth going ashore!! A small bar, foot paths and gardens all make it worth while!!
The scenery up Philips Arm is ever changing.....and beautiful even if overcast!!
At a Heriot Bay now...
Nice easy run down...

This morning in the rain....
Always beautiful!!

Durant F said:

This morning in the rain....
Always beautiful!!

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Wifey B: At the moment, not a big fan of rain.

I guess with Irma just passing through your area I can understand....

Hope you made out ok.

Durant F said:

I guess with Irma just passing through your area I can understand....

Hope you made out ok.

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Wifey B: Didn't care much for her step-brother either. So far her baby brother seems like he's going to behave.

Durant F said:

This morning in the rain....
Always beautiful!!

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Beautiful shot...

Thanks
I have fun taking pictures out here.
System is to take 50, delete 48 or 49 ?
If you take enough....some always seem to turn out ok.
Not $$ like the old developing days!!

I'm in "awe" with the scenery often up here.
Beazley Pass looks pretty benign in this picture.
Not so when running over 9 knots!

The Octopus Islands are a great place to anchor if there is a blow coming. A couple of spits you can tuck right in...

Saw 2 humpbacks again this morning. Has been an awesome year for sightings

Company is flying in so I worked my way over to Cambell River again via Heriot Bay on Quadra.
Heriot Bay Inn is a funky stop. I've come to feel very "st home" there over the years. Just a short walk up the hill behind the Inn is a really nice grocery store with liquor as well. They are very friendly folks and the marina has fuel as well.
Cambell River is a new stop to me this year and I've found it very boat friendly with full services all close by. My company flys in here and it's an easy connection from Vancouver.

Nice cruising grounds.
Your yellow hull and red boot stripe look great.

Shame we didn't run into you on our way down from AK. Looks like you have had a great trip.
Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

Thanks..

Heading back up towards the Broughtons and Queen Charlotte Sound on Sunday.
Love it up there. Really love it late season as there is next to no other cruisers. Feels like you have it all to yourself. It's cooler, but the wildlife is abundant and the mountains even more beautiful as they become snow capped...

After company arrived in Cambell River, it was a quick trip over to Heriot Bay for the evening and dinner out. Enjoyed dinner out as it will be the last one for a while with the remote trip planned.
From Heriot Bay we headed to VonDonop Inlet on Cortes Isl. and anchored for the evening

From VonDonop we had all 5 rapids timed heading north.
The "Yuk's", Gillard, Dent, Greenpoint and Whirlpool.
Were treated to a nice mystical fog as well as sea lions at Gillard and porpoises near Shoal Bay on the way up.
The porpoises or Dolphins had a back fin I'm not familiar with. Anyone knowing what they were...chime in
The day ended anchoring in Forward Harbour just after Whirlpool

Next morning was Johnstone Strait... Always a bit intimidating but were treated to flat calm at first then built to just a light chop.
Saw a male Orca, then a humpback breaching, then more and more Orcas..
We had an amazing show for a full hour! At one point there were so many and so close I altered course and speed to avoid them. Count was 11 Killers and one Humpback. (No...they did not hunt the Humpback)

Lagoon Cove was the destination and we were the only boat there.
Felt odd after the first busy visit a month back.
Had several Harbour porpoises visit, deer in their yard as well as an owl hang out on out bow rail after dark. Kinda neat!

The trip up Yribune Channel had stops at Thompson and Bond inlets before spending the night at Kwatsi Bay.
Simply breathtaking scenery!'

Crossed Black Fish Sound to go to Port McNeil for supplies. The humpbacks are plentiful this year!! A great, boat friendly place!!
Returned to the Broughtons and anchored in Waddington Bay. A very protected and pretty spot. Good crabbing too.
Picture is early morning departure from Waddington

Durant-How is the Deere working out for you? I'm very interested in the Helmsman but not so interested in the Seasall engine.

Depends what you want...
I'm a converted sailor so 6.5 knots in a straight line at low rpm and economical is great!!
The JD is a low rpm engine which I wanted. If you want sustained planing speeds the JD 125 isn't the engine for you...
The 4045 comes in higher horsepower as well but for my use...not needed.
If you are a sailor convert as well.....Beta makes a 85 that is low pressure turbo BUT meets requirements without the complexity of being electronic or having common rail injection. A simple and efficient engine that would cruise all day at 6.5-7 as well .
Figure out your intended use and that will determine the engine.

Thanks for taking us along ,cool boat, beautiful scenery and great trip .
I got to check out a JD 4045 the other on another members trawler ( O C Diver ) the other day, very nice engine .
Keep having fun , I'm very jealous here .

Durant F said:

Depends what you want...
I'm a converted sailor so 6.5 knots in a straight line at low rpm and economical is great!!
The JD is a low rpm engine which I wanted. If you want sustained planing speeds the JD 125 isn't the engine for you...
The 4045 comes in higher horsepower as well but for my use...not needed.
If you are a sailor convert as well.....Beta makes a 85 that is low pressure turbo BUT meets requirements without the complexity of being electronic or having common rail injection. A simple and efficient engine that would cruise all day at 6.5-7 as well .
Figure out your intended use and that will determine the engine.

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Thank you. I never looked at Beta until now, but I have spent some time around Kubota engines so that may be an option to look at. Although 85hp seems a little small for a 31.

I have been running twin JDs for five years now in the same PNW waters. 6 weeks each summer great cruising grounds. I have had only one recurrent problem with my JD units. The starting keys have gone bad on both motors locking out the electronic start up. If the key starts to feel funky when you turn it beware. My 6068s have a key and a separate start button.

Durant- it sounds like your Helmsman may have been the first with a JD. Curious if Waterline assisted with the application/engineering for the mounts, shaft angle, etc, and how that all worked.