Green grass rings the high-tide line, the air is still and misty and it smells fresh of salt-marsh. The bay echoes with bird calls, mainly gulls in a frenzy over critters being revealed as the tide recedes. You’re the only boat anchored in this crater-like basin, the most protected anchorage in this far reaching fjord. “How are we the only ones here” you ask?

A remarkable stream cascades a thousand feet down from peaks that still hold snow in Summer, emptying into the salt chuck. A jagged volcanic ridge plays hide and seek with the clouds. Spindly old growth trees cling tenaciously to vertical cracks along steep granite cliffs. You’re in awe of the 2,000ft monolith on the northeast side of the bay that reminds you of Yosemite’s Half Dome.

You sip your first morning coffee from the cockpit and gaze across the water to where fresh meets salt, you notice a brown-black figure near the water’s edge. You focus your gaze and realize it’s a small grizzly! You watch in awe & delight as the bear overturns rocks & digs in the mud, a shellfish feast unfolds. “Guess we’re not alone afterall!”

You hop in your dinghy to row ashore towards old pillings and a steaming stream on the northeast side of the bay. You sink into the mud as you walk towards the hot pool, drop your pack and dip your foot in the natural spring, “Ah, it’s the perfect temperature!”. As you wade into the warm water you glance across at the bear, relieved to see he’s still on the other side of the bay, completely uninterested in you and minding his own business.

“How grand is this?!” you think to yourself. You’re grizzly gazing from hot springs in a dreamland.

Eucott Bay is a breathtaking anchorage with a beautiful natural hot spring located off Dean Channel – one of the most ‘worthwhile’ stops on the journey North along the Discovery Coast.

Entrance: 52°26.51’N, 127°19.23’W        Anchor:  52°27.21’N, 127°19.07’W

~We recognize & are grateful to the Central Coast’s original inhabitants, the Haiłzaqv (Heiltsuk) People, as cultural & environmental stewards of the lands and waterways where this anchorage resides, in the traditional unceded territory of the Heiltsuk First Nations~

– Written by Allison McIsaac

Allison and her partner James are exploring far reaching fjords & remote anchorages of the Inside Passage, charting a course North to Alaska and beyond (slowly) aboard their 30ft sailboat, Uintah. They share stories like this weekly in video form on their YouTube channel, @AllisonandJamesSailing
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