May 19, 2025
Campbell River is a working class marine town. The marina was a testament to the noticeable difference between Comox and Campbell River. In the marina we were tightly tucked in between two basically derelict boats with full time live aboards. There is no way either of the boats could actually make it out of the harbor. There are many boats like this in the marina.
A young man in his early twenties with his large dog live full time on this boat. Nice kid. Didn’t get the story.
We left Campbell River at 9:30 am to time the slack tide crossing of Seymour Narrows at 10:30 sharp and continue North up Johnstone Strait. As many of you know Johnstone Strait can be a tricky piece of water. Predict Wind was forecasting 5 to 10 knot winds with up to 22 knot gusts. The BuoyWeather forecast smooth seas with 2 to 6 knot winds and intermittent gusts of up to 15 knots. With a bit of trepidation we decided to proceed with our plan to go about half way up the Strait and stop at Port Neville. To be honest it was Marlene who pushed for moving ahead. I tend to be the “wimp” when it comes to questionable weather. Must be her superior hearty Nordic genes.
We traveled through smooth seas as we proceeded to Seymour Narrows and to our total amazement there were absolutely NO BOATS in the narrows traveling in either direction as we were crossing through. Unbelievable, almost spooky but we will take it.
As we entered Johnstone Strait we were anticipating wind and chop; we encountered neither. The BuoyWeather forecast was again correct. Our journey through Johnstone Strait all the way to Port Neville was smooth 2 to 4 knot winds. We never encountered any significant gusts and the really great news is that we had the wind and current going for us. We typically cruise at 8 to 8.5 knots. With 4 knots going for us most of the way we were cruising at 11 knots. Yea, yea, again I say, yea.
We arrived at Port Neville around 2:30 p.m. We have never been here but friends rave about it. There is a small government dock for no more than 4 or 5 boats. We were hoping to get on the dock, if not we would anchor out. Me being the paranoid person I am I was tracking all boats in our vicinity to see if they also might be heading to Port Neville. One boat I was seeing on Marine Traffic was One Ocean, the motor sailer we ran into in Victoria Harbor. The other boat was a Krogen named “Brass Monkey” that was fast on our heels all the way from Campbell River. Would we get on the dock? Would there be space? Would we have to anchor out? I was obsessed with this unknown answer the last hour of our journey.
I am pleased report (Whooo Hooo) we got on the dock. As we arrived there was only a small fishing boat on the inside of the dock that would have been too shallow for our boat. (We later found out that he was part of the original Hanson family whose grand father homesteaded this beautiful place, ferrying grand kids back and forth).
Port Neville was homesteaded by Olaf “Oly” Hansen in the early 1930’s. He moved his family onto the property and built a store and post office which still stands today.
The property is beautifully maintained. One of the family members I met told me the grand kids had been up mowing the 3 acres of grass on the property. It looks fantastic.
We are off to Port McNeil in the morning. The forecast if for similar weather to what we experienced today. We are keeping our fingers crossed.