This was our first stop at Lagoon Cove in probably six or so years. We stopped in during the new owner’s first season, we said hi, and haven’t been back. Not because we didn’t have a great experience, there was a closed international border there for a couple years and when the border was open timing just didn’t allow us to stop. We have heard great things about the new owners over the years, and that they are keeping a consistently full marina throughout peak season. This had made us happy to hear, and it just turned out that time allowed us to stop this season and wait to connect with a buddy boat who was a couple days behind us.
The original and former owners Bill and Jean ran a fabulous respite, typically your first or last stop in the Broughton’s depending on if you are transiting North or South. When you had reached Lagoon Cove, you knew you had made it. The formidable Johnstone Strait was in the rearview mirror, you were now in the Broughton’s. When you hailed on vhf 66a, Bill would great you by your first name(s) and ask how you have been – even if you had only stayed there once previously (spoken from experience). He was a tetris genius, and could stack boats in the marina like cordwood. No dock space was wasted, typically less than a foot separated boats boat to stern. We had an exciting docking experience once, on the inside of the dock with “the rock” on our port side, but Bill was calmly adamant that we’d fit – and we did.
The new owners now use an online reservation system, reserving half the space available online and leaving some wiggle room for boats that want to stay an extra day or did not have the ability to make an online reservation. It makes the daily tetris game beginner’s level at best, as they know what boats to expect and not have to worry about how to fit everyone in.
Happy Hour at The Workshop is still complete with the tradition of spot prawns provided, you bring a shareable appetizer and your beverage of choice and swap stories with fellow boaters. There were passing showers all afternoon, and we made it down to The Office building at head of the dock before the deluge of rain fell from the skies. This was probably some of the most voluminous rain we had experienced here in the Broughton’s.
We didn’t try salmon fishing, but we were still able to pull in our average quota of six spot prawns per pull, and catch our first dungeness crabs of the season. Wonderful beginning to our time in the Broughton’s.
The next two nights we spent at Crease Islands, which is one of our favorite spots for salmon fishing and crabbing, and it’s a beautiful view to boot. Well we got one of the three this time, a beautiful view.
Crease Islands is typically one of our first and last stops, whether going North or South, in the Broughton’s. One last time to catch that big chinook, one last chance to catch dungeness crab. We saw one lodge boat catch one fish, out of five boats fishing Flower Island. And we only caught one keeper for dungy. The whales weren’t even present for a nature show.
Second day of salmon fishing we did have the pacific white sided dolphins play off the bow of our fishboat, going a speed of 1.4kts. We have had them play in our bow and wake of Docktails many times, but this was a first of them playing with our 16′ fishboat.