We’re up at 0530 hrs so that we can be underway at first light. There isn’t any fog, the wind is only blowing about 5 to 10 knots out of the north, the current will be going with us, the forecast is for light and variable winds, and Helmcken is only 16 miles south of here. What could go wrong?

We had about 10 knots of wind by the time we got to the entrance to Chapple.  However, when we started crossing Surf Inlet, the seas started getting a little lumpy as we crossed Surf Inlet. Then, the wind started gradually building. Pretty soon, we were seeing a steady 30 knots of wind, with gusts to 55 knots! So much for weather reports.  By the time we got to Helmcken, the seas were huge. Helmcken is not the greatest place to weather a storm, because it’s very deep, and the bottom is rocky; but we had no choice. We decided to check out Smithers Island Cove, at the entrance to Helmcken, since we’d never anchored there.

Smithers was very pretty, with a lovely creek at the head — a good lunch stop.

We set our anchor and Al fixed a delicious lunch of crab soup and beer bread.
The anchorage at Smithers is pretty tight — not a good place to ride out a storm. So, we decided to move inside the narrows of Helmcken Inlet to anchor for the night.  I spotted this pair of pretty waterfalls near the entrance.

Soon after anchoring, the seas outside the anchorage flattened out, and the wind was down to about 10 knots. It was still early, about 1530 hrs. It’s only about 20 miles from Helmcken to the safety of Meyers Passage. The calm seas were calling to us. “Come on, you can easily make it to Meyers Passage.” Should we, or shouldn’t we? Well, we decided to go out and take a look. If it gets too nasty, we can always turn around and head back to Helmcken.  Right.

When we got outside, the seas were almost flat. The current, however, was against us, cutting our speed down to less than 6 knots at times. But, the seas were almost flat. So, we continued on. About 4 miles before we got to Laredo Sound, the winds started picking up. And, since we weren’t making our usual 8 knots of speed, we weren’t going to get across Laredo Sound before the tide changed. Al had already decided that if Laredo Sound was ugly, we’d head up the sound to the protected waters of Thistle Passage, rather than going straight across the sound to Meyers Passage. We’d made that mistake before and it was not fun.

About a mile from Laredo Sound I could see huge breaking seas up ahead. By now we were starting to take the seas on our beam. Not good. And, the closer we got to the sound, the bigger the seas. We should have turned around and headed back to Helmcken, but we didn’t. Big mistake.

Laredo Sound is filled with numerous rocks and islets. Al was doing his best to miss those rocks and islets, but the beam seas were making steering impossible at times.  It was high tide, so not all of the rocks were visible. Al assured me that with the high tide, we’d clear them easily. I was not so sure. So, while Al was fighting the wheel, I had my eyes glued to the little boat icon on the electronic chart which shows our position in relation to all those rocks and islets, including the ones that were hiding beneath the surface. The seas were taking us right between two of those submerged rocks that were fairly close together. I was hoping Al could get us between those rocks, just in case there wasn’t enough water over them. I don’t know how he did it, but Al managed to make it between those rocks, barely, and on up Laredo and into the protected waters of Thistle Passage without broaching. Hallelujah!

The calm waters of Meyers Passage never looked so good. We decided Meyers Narrows Cove woud be the perfect place to spend this stormy night.