Love Your RV & Boat! Newsletter - 07/25

Welcome to the July Newsletter. Made it back to the Broughtons!

Jul 30, 2025

What's New With Us

Lots of travel log videos for you this month as we were making tracks up for a return visit to the Broughton Archipelago and surrounding area. We enjoyed ourselves so much last summer, we just had to head back.

Broughton Archipelago Marine Provincial Park

It took a while to get up here, as constant bouts of breezy northwest winds kept us waiting in several anchorages for days at a time. The route demands some time spent in less sheltered waters and strong currents of the Discovery Passage and Johnstone Strait.

So, ideally, we need a relatively calm day and favorable currents. Bigger and faster boats can head up these passages more easily, but in a smaller, slower boat, a bit of planning is involved. That is, unless you like choppy waters and waves over the bow. :)

We ended up spending more time than we wanted to in Forward Harbour and Boughey Bay, so once we did get a calm day for Johnstone Strait, we made a beeline to Port McNeill. At Port McNeill, we anchored for a night, then got on the dock at North Island Marina and restocked provisions, water, fuel, and did some laundry.

After a quick 24 hours on the dock, we untied Vestri and crossed Blackfish Sound and into the Broughtons! We headed first to a favorite spot from last summer near Berry Island, and two days ago, we made our way northward to a new-to-us anchorage in Cullen Harbour, Broughton Island. The end of July has seen some decent weather up here with mostly sunny, dry days and calm winds.

View from Cullen Harbour out to Queen Charlotte Strait

Yesterday, we had a bit of a scare when we got alerts via warning apps and the coast guard on our VHF marine radio. A massive 8.8 earthquake on the coast of Russia caused a tsunami advisory for several areas of the BC coast. Looking at the advisory regions, we found we were just inside the southern end of Zone B, and the tsunami was to reach us around midnight.

The choices were to hold tight, well anchored in a protected cove on the very edge of the advisory zone, or pull anchor and head to a more south east location into the inlets away from the Zone B, or head out to the open ocean in deep water and float around.

As more information came in, forecasts were for a reasonably small, less than 30cm (1 foot) tsunami wave, so we decided to stay put. Going up the inlets late in the day didn’t appeal to us, and floating in the dark on a foggy night in the exposed strait didn’t either.

Thankfully, things turned out fine, and we didn’t feel anything out of the norm. Overall, it was a calm night with just a few of the usual swells from the strait making their way into our anchorage. Morning arrived, and everything was misty and glassy calm.

Calm foggy morning at Cullen Harbour, Broughton Island, BC

My anchor alarm tracker showed some unusual activity in the middle of the night, possibly due to extra current from the tsunami, since there was no wind last night to blow us around much. Something briefly pulled the boat out to within approximately 80% of the alarm radius.

Well, there you go, that is the update for July. We are looking forward to spending most of August up here exploring some new parts of this remarkable BC coastal landscape. Maybe longer if the weather holds, stay tuned…

Fascinating New Post on Anne’s Photography Blog

Be sure to check out Anne’s most recent upload to her blog: Broughton Archipelago Anchorages | A Season from Above.

The post contains a video of her drone flights over the various anchorages we explored in summer 2024. It shows how visually stunning the area is in a whole different way.

Also included are links to her posts about each place we visited last year. Each is chock-full of her amazing photography of wildlife, landscapes, and even views below the waves using an underwater action cam.