Von Donop Inlet, Teakerne Arm, & Refuge Cove

June 25, 2022

[ 26 NM 1 hour, 10 minutes]

With perfect water conditions and views that couldn’t be beat, we arrived in Von Donop Inlet last night at 8:30 pm with just enough time to see the surrounding beauty and watch the sunset above the tree line. Von Donop was a cruise up Sutil Channel to the north end of Cortes Island. Different than Princess Louisa Inlet, Von Donop was walls of trees with very little rock exposed. And it was beautiful. There was a trail we had intended to take to Squirrel Cove here, but there was no real place we felt good about leaving the dinghy and not being in for tide change issues. The shoreline at Von Donop is all rock, making getting the dogs off to run and us to walk difficult. Firing up the engines, it felt like a beautiful anchor for the night and a great starting point to head to Teakerne Arm.

We had been directed to Teakerne Arm by many people and it didn’t disappoint. It was a short ride up and around the tip of Cortes Island and down through Lewis Channel to West Rodanda Island. Teakerne Arm had two heavy volume falls ending into water deep enough that we could safely get the bow of the boat within a 100’ of the waterfalls and still be in 85’ of water.

Teakerne Arm has a small dinghy dock we could use after anchoring to access the trail to Cassel Lake. The trail takes you up and over the waterfall where you can walk along the stream that is feeding the rushes of water. You can see in a picture here how clear it is with layers of logs showing. The trail itself is short but steep and with some technical areas. There’s some rock scrambling and shallow water to cross. We had worn appropriate footwear with tread, rather than our flops, and it was necessary. The trail is made of all rock and is obvious in presentation on which ones to take to reach the lake.

Cassel Lake was a fun reward! Clear and warm enough waters with logs to take breaks at. It didn’t have the sandy shore that we had found at Hague Lake, but it did have some rocks to jump off that made it fun for the kids. It stays deep right up to the edge and the rope onsite was a helpful feature. The rocks to climb to get out were plenty slick. More boaters had joined us and told us they believed one of the logs to be the same one they had swam to 20 years earlier. We had packed a lunch with us and enjoyed it before heading back to the boat.

In 1945 Doris and Norm Hope purchased the buildings, docks and 186 acres of land from Jack Tindall, who had owned it for 15 years. In 1972, 18 shareholders formed The Refuge Cove Land and Housing Co-op on the Hopes’ acres. "We did not so much buy a piece of land as invest our futures in a tangled web of west coast history." From Dynamite Stories, by Judith Williams

Our final stop for our day was in Refuge Cove, a little farther south on the west side of West Rodanda Island. Refuge is a rustic spot with a lot of character. It is a 186-acre Co-Op owned by 18 people that live and run the businesses. There is no electricity to it, so any power needed to run the buildings or 15 amp boat hookups is fed by a generator that is only run during store hours. There is laundry, toilets, and showers available. The laundry is on the same no generator schedule after store closing thing. The kids missed the sign that said the last dryer load should be started at 3:30 pm to finish. We had made friends with the Turning Point, a 67’ custom vessel, and they were kind enough to share their Star Link service, which seems to be the hot boating commodity right now. They also had a washer/dryer on board that they graciously let them finish up in, while they served us wine and shrimp & grits. Super kind people that have been near us at Von Donop, then to Teakerne, and now at Refuge Cove.

"As I tour the boat, McCallie rattles off story after story about bargain boat parts, which he seems to have a knack for finding." - Article written by Brian K. Lind on the Turning Point for PassageMaker (read it here)