Greywolf’s Chronicles: Kadushdish Harbor and Ocean Falls.

We discovered Kadushdish Harbour on July 22nd while looking for a place to hide from forecasted disgusting weather. We find some of our favorites spots doing this. In Kadushdish, we got rain, but minimal wind and wave action: both items to be avoided for those of us who like to sleep while at anchor.

The little cabin in on a small First Nations Reserve
that occupies part of the harbour.

Kadushdish earned high marks on our Anchorage Rating System:

safe anchorage,

places for Allie walkies even at high tide,

within dinghy distance of Shearwater for laundry,

and Bella Bella for groceries.

Bella Bella was five miles away straight through the opening to the harbour. We could see the lights of the village at night.

Waiting for forecast storm.

Greywolf is the small dot on the right.

Kadushdish Harbour protected us from the strong winds, but was unable to do much about the rain.

What we do when it rains.

Doug and Allie are reading All the Light You Cannot See.

Highly recommend.

Loons were numerous, but shy. ‘Weren’t too interested
in being photographed.

After the rain, the play.

Loverly sunsets were another benefit of our safe anchorage.

Interesting rocks, eh?

Before we left BI, we bought two crab pots. We bought Jean a new fishing rod and reel. In Sidney, we bought Jean a BC fishing license. Leaving Kadushdish, headed for Ocean Falls, we stopped to fish for bottom fish for the crab pots. Doug found the perfect spot for me to catch crab bait.

The “falls" at Ocean Falls, were replaced by this dam in 1912. The pulp and paper mill it supported are gone, but the dam now supplies electricity to Bella Bella and Denny Island.

Our cruising guide describes Ocean Falls as a lively ghost town. All of the buildings in this photo except the pink and white one on the left are abandoned. "Pink and white" houses the post office (open five days a week) and a few apartments.

Why do we keep going back? Probably for the same reason as the other ten to fifteen other pleasure boaters at the dock: good water, good docks, interesting people, roads for people and dog walkies, and good crabbing.

You might have visited with us last year, but don’t go away. Something has actually changed, other than the annual rot and decay.

Last January, a massive landslide closed the road between Ocean Falls and the small community of Martin Vally. Heavy equipment was brought in (from where???) to clear the rubble.

The rocks, mud, and trees missed the telephone poles. Fortunately no cars were parked alongside the road at the time of the slide.

Fifty years ago, almost to the day, a landslide destroyed an apartment house in the same area, killing seven people. I think that fewer than seven people live in all of Ocean Falls now, excluding the workers at the hydro plant. (In the ’50’s, 3,500 people lived in Ocean Falls.) About 25 people live in the area year round, most of them in Martin Valley, a mile down the inlet.

We were told that when the BC government decided to sell the houses in Martin Valley (in the ’80’s, maybe?), they were asking $5000 for houses with no moss (on the inside) and $2000 for houses with moss (on the inside). I’m sure they all had moss on the outside.

Curious about current prices we looked on-line:
Three bedrooms. Close to boat launch ramp. $100,000.

Everything is Martin Valley is close to the boat launch ramp.
We did not make an offer.

We’d been in Ocean falls a few days when, can you believe it? A storm arrived. Doug helped this Nordhavn motor-sailer tie up in about 20 knots of wind. The wind and rain stayed fairly steady (20-25 knots) all morning. Late afternoon brought 35 knots and RAIN. Ocean Falls' yearly rainfall is measured in double-digit feet.

OLD PEOPLE CRUISING: When we were younger, we were inspired by some of the Senior Citizens we met cruising. If they can do it, why couldn't we???

Because we can’t remember things. Sticky notes help, but only if you remember that you need to remember: slack water time for rapids, time of high and low water, chart numbers, (sometimes the chart plotter goes wiggy-wiggy). And we also have check-sheets for getting underway, docking, anchoring, getting out of bed….

Sticky notes can’t do it all. I looked for Mr. Panasonic Camera before I took Allie out for her evening walk on the day of The Rain. No Mr. Panasonic. Not to worry, The Little People often hide things. On the walk, I replayed the day’s events. When did I last have the camera? In Dinghy setting the crab pots.

I found a naked (no case!) Mr. Panasonic shivering in the rain on Dinghy's seat next to my grab-the-crab gloves. We had planned to check the crab pots in the evening, but rescheduled for morning because of the rain and winds.

Poor Mr. Panasonic. I took out his battery and chip and put him on a towel to drain and dry. The next morning, he was ready to go. He is, however, refusing to go crabbing Ever Ever again.

‘Had to bail out Dinghy before we went to bed.

We were afraid the battery might be underwater if we

waited ’til morning.

Mr. Panasonic got a work-out the morning after The Rain.

Dirt and small rocks had clogged the culvert. The road was flooded, but not impassable. We did seriously question the usefulness of the black plastic tacked to sticks on the side of the road.

After two days of rain, mist greeted us, and then more beautiful days for crabbing. We paid for the BC fishing license with the crabs, but, for some reason never took the time to fish on the trip.

Jack, the 120 pound eighteen month old white lab, wanted to play. Allie declined. He belongs to the couple who own the Darke Waters Inn. They bought the Inn a few years ago just before logging in the area came to an end. The income from the loggers, the major income source, disappeared. The roof of the 23 room inn is disappearing under blue plastic tarps.