2026 Flotilla to Alaska Days 6-7 - Boughey Bay to Blunden Harbour
by Slowboat 23 May 16:16 PDT
Blunden flotilla © Alicia Brattin
This morning we cruised across Queen Charlotte to Blunden Harbour, one of our favorite staging points for rounding Cape Caution. The weather looked decent, but winds were forecast to build as the day progressed, so we got an early start.
Overnighting in Boughey Bay had given us a nice route out to Queen Charlotte without having to revisit the peril of Johnstone Strait again.
We were about half an hour away from Chatham Narrows, which was slack around 6AM, so we decided to pass through a bit after slack when the current would be with us.
For most of the day, the seas were nice but with an abundance of floating logs. We swerved and dodged our way along the northern shore of Queen Charlotte. As we got into the afternoon, though, the ebb current against the incoming wind waves turned the seas into some uncomfortable three-foot chop.
We were planning to either stay two nights at Blunden, or leave after one night if the conditions allowed and move farther up the shore to Allison Harbour. Ultimately, we decided to hang at Blunden.
Winds in Blunden were gusting into the mid-20s, so the anchorage was a little bumpy as well. Nonetheless, we all got out and did some dinghy exploring.
One of the highlights of Blunden is sneaking through the rapids in dinghies into Bradley Lagoon. A couple of us went to check out the entrance around high tide. It was definitely NOT time to transit.
A couple hours later, though, it was a different story.
A group of us headed out in dinghies to go explore. There is a long estuary that shows on the chart as land, but you can actually go a couple miles back into the wilderness.
We finished up with taco night aboard Airship, with a pre-briefing for Cape Caution from Laura, who joined us by Zoom.
Thanks to Alicia for the great drone shots of us all anchored in Blunden Harbour!