Offgrid Enthusiasts

Sometimes the places that give you the best memories also give you the strongest reminder of how quickly things can change on the water. Walsh Cove was definitely one of those places.

As we continued deeper into British Columbia’s Desolation Sound region, we made our way north through Waddington Channel to Walsh Cove, tucked into the eastern side of West Redonda Island.

Walsh Cove feels noticeably more remote than many of the better-known anchorages farther south. It sits near the northern end of Waddington Channel, with steep forested shoreline surrounding a narrow, protected anchorage. BC Parks describes it as a safe and scenic anchorage with opportunities for kayaking, swimming, fishing and diving. There are no facilities here—it’s simply wilderness. 🌲

We chose a spot around the middle section of the cove, dropped the anchor and ran a stern line to shore. Walsh Cove has a number of established stern-tie locations, which makes it possible for boats to tuck fairly close to the shoreline while leaving room for others in the anchorage.

For the first part of our stay, it was exactly what we had hoped for.

Friends, Fresh Chinook and Life at Anchor 🐟

Our friends Dennis and Tracey joined us in their aluminum fishing boat, and they arrived with something pretty hard to beat—a freshly caught Chinook salmon.

That evening we prepared it on the barbecue with a Parmesan crust. Fresh salmon, cooked outside while anchored in the middle of Desolation Sound, surrounded by mountains and forest…it doesn’t get much better than that.

The dogs were living their best lives too. 🐾 There was swimming, beef bones and plenty of time hanging around the boat.

We launched the SUPs and paddled around the cove, while Jared pulled out the foil and got some time on the water. 🏄

One of the things we love most about cruising like this is that there doesn’t always have to be somewhere to go. Some afternoons are simply about slowing down. Paddle around. Swim. Read a book. Watch the boats. Look up at the mountains.

We even spent some downtime reading Grant Lawrence, which somehow feels especially appropriate when you’re sitting aboard a boat surrounded by the wild BC coast. 📚

But Walsh Cove also happens to be positioned beside the entrance to one of the most spectacular places we visited on the entire trip.

Taking the Aluminum Boat Into Toba Inlet 🏔️

The next adventure started with all of us climbing into Dennis and Tracey’s aluminum boat and heading toward Toba Inlet.

Toba is a completely different scale.

It’s a long, deep fjord cutting into the Coast Mountains, surrounded by enormous peaks, rock faces and waterfalls pouring down toward the ocean. Cruising information for the area describes the trip through Toba as roughly a 45-kilometre voyage, while mountains around the inlet rise as high as about 2,500 metres.

From Walsh Cove, we spent about an hour running in, explored the inlet, and then had roughly another hour back.

The farther we travelled, the wilder it felt.

Waterfalls seemed to be everywhere. 💦

Some were thin ribbons dropping hundreds of feet down sheer rock faces. Others exploded out of the forest and crashed toward the salt water below.

Dennis couldn’t resist one of them.

He maneuvered the aluminum boat right in toward a waterfall until we were basically underneath it.

It was one of those ridiculous moments where everyone is laughing, everything is getting wet and you’re thinking, How is this actually our day right now? 😂

And then came the wildlife.

We saw bears, and we also spotted mountain goats/sheep high in the mountains. Against the enormous scale of Toba Inlet, even seeing wildlife through binoculars felt incredible. 🐻

Toba is spectacular, but it’s also the kind of place that makes you realize just how far from civilization you’ve travelled.

There are no towns around the corner.

No busy marina.

Just huge mountains, deep water and wilderness.

After an unforgettable day, we eventually made our way back to Walsh Cove.

That evening we said goodbye to Dennis and Tracey.

We thought the excitement was over.

We were very wrong.

An Unexpected Meeting the Next Morning

The next morning we met another group arriving to camp on the island.

A man had brought his wife and her brother over in an aluminum fishing boat along with all of their camping gear. They didn’t have a tender, which made getting everything from the boat onto shore considerably more difficult.

Jared being Jared, it didn’t take long before he was over helping.

He helped ferry their gear ashore and eventually the boat owner came aboard our boat for a visit.

For a while it was simply another one of those random encounters you have while travelling by boat—meeting someone you’ve never seen before in a remote anchorage and swapping stories.

But eventually the atmosphere started to change.

There was some tension within their group, and we could tell things weren’t going particularly smoothly. We try pretty hard to keep our boat a drama-free zone, so Jared eventually encouraged him to head back and help his family get settled.

Not long afterward, he pulled anchor and left Walsh Cove.

He didn’t come back.

At first, we didn’t think much of it.

Then his friends arrived.

They didn’t know where he was either.

His wife began asking whether we could reach him over the radio.

We tried.

There was no response.

As the hours went by, the mood in the anchorage became very different.

When the Coast Guard Arrived

At around 10 p.m., a large Coast Guard vessel appeared in Walsh Cove.

Seeing a Coast Guard vessel coming into a small remote anchorage late at night gets your attention immediately.

They were looking for the man’s wife and her brother.

We learned there had been a serious accident.

We didn’t know all of the circumstances surrounding what had happened, and we still don’t want to speculate about them.

What we did know was that two people were now stranded on the island with their camping gear while someone they loved had been badly injured.

Jared helped get them off the island and over to the Coast Guard vessel.

Then the Coast Guard disappeared back into the darkness with them.

The anchorage went quiet again.

But the night wasn’t finished with us yet.

Then the Wind Arrived

Later that night, the wind began to build.

And build.

Walsh Cove had felt incredibly protected when we arrived, but wind has a way of finding its way into even supposedly sheltered anchorages.

Boats began moving around.

Stern lines tightened.

Everyone was listening for changes in the wind and watching how the boats around them were swinging.

Then our anchor started to move.

We were dragging.

There are few sounds on a cruising boat that wake you up faster than something being wrong with the ground tackle in the middle of the night.

Suddenly, this beautiful little anchorage didn’t feel peaceful at all.

Several boats around us were dealing with the same uncomfortable conditions, and there wasn’t much sleep happening on our side of Walsh Cove.

You’re watching distances.

Watching shore.

Watching the boat beside you.

Watching your anchor position.

Listening to the wind.

And hoping nothing lets go.

After everything that had already happened that day, it felt like the entire energy of the anchorage had changed.

We couldn’t wait for daylight.

Time to Leave Walsh Cove ⚓

The next morning, we were done.

We retrieved the stern line, pulled the anchor and headed out of Walsh Cove.

There are places you leave wishing you could stay another week.

And then there are places where, despite how beautiful they are, something inside you says:

It’s time to go.

Walsh Cove somehow became both for us.

We had fresh Chinook on the barbecue. 🍽️ We paddleboarded through a beautiful anchorage. 🏄 Jared foiled. The dogs swam. 🐾 We explored one of the wildest fjords in British Columbia. We stood beneath waterfalls. 💦 We saw bears and wildlife in the mountains. 🐻 We spent time with great friends.

And then, within hours, we watched a Coast Guard vessel arrive in the darkness after a serious accident, followed by one of the most unsettling nights we’d experienced at anchor.

That’s cruising.

You can plan your route. You can study the weather. You can choose your anchorage. But you can never completely plan the story.

Walsh Cove gave us one we will never forget. 🌅

— Jared & Ang

Off Grid Enthusiasts