Shoal Harbour, A Great Hidey-Hole for Bad Weather

Shoal Harbour is Located Close to Pierre’s Echo Bay
at the North side of Gilford Island –

After lunch, we stayed a couple of hours relaxing in the Burwood Group, it was that spectacular. Our plan was to anchor for the night in Shoal Harbour. En route there, we explored while cruising in and out of Scott Cove and eventually Pierre’s Echo Bay, taking a quick spin around the famous floating marina (we had reservations secured for the next day).

After our exploration cruise, we arrived on the north arm of Shoal Harbour as planned – late afternoon. The harbour is a well-protected, shallow-watered, anchorage. Navigating Shoal Harbour can be a little nerve-wracking, as one needs to negotiate a narrow channel before entering the harbour. It’s called Shoal Harbour for a reason, I would guess, many parts of the bay are “shoaled.” With that said, we found a spot in five feet of water at low tide.

Shoal Harbour has a logging operation located in the south arm and a fair amount of floating homes – it’s an excellent hidey-hole during bad weather. There were several boats at anchor in the slightly deeper south part of the bay, but with our shallow draft, we had the entire north arm to ourselves. Shoal Harbour was the perfect spot for us to anchor at the end of the day, for a short, early morning move to Pierre’s.

As we kicked back for the night and the sun slowly set over the harbour, we watched a fishing rig as it worked the harbour, and we listened to the floating house owners finishing chores. We thought out loud between ourselves, how much work it looks like to live on the water. Basically, the floating home folks come and go by boat only, except for those that have float planes. An interesting lifestyle we admire, but don’t feel we have the determination to live as remotely as these folks do. Being on our boat, and relaxing in the beauty of British Columbia’s Broughton Islands for a short time is good enough for us.