Where the Heck are we now???

Today was a lay-day in Wrangell, with a nice sleep-in, brunch (steak and eggs), and a bit of time to update internet and boat stuff. We walked into town and caught up on showers and laundry, found a new fleecy for Kelcy, and generally played tourist.
I've been receiving some requests for more maps - a reasonable request, since I wasn't sure where Wrangell and some of these places are, and I'm here! So in aid of keeping things perfectly clear, I'm adding a map of our journey from Prince Rupert to here, and then threw in a dotted (sort of) line from Wrangell to Petersburg, our destination for tomorrow. If the resolution is too poor to make out stuff, try clicking on the map to view it:

Ketchikan to Wrangell

The rain continued throughout the night, and by 0600 the following morning, the near-gale force winds had subsided and we were looking out at moderate rain and fog. We were underway by 0630, making use of our radar and chart plotter to motor-sail out of Tongass Narrows and say goodbye to Ketchikan. Several hours later, the fog had lifted, and the wind picked up , as we crossed into Clarence Strait. By 1100 we were broad reaching with 15 to 20 knots of wind astern of us, and having a great sail. A pod of orcas passed us by....strangely, the first orcas we'd seen so far on the trip.






An Orca greeting us in Clarence Strait




There was a bit of a swell running cross-wise to the waves, so the motion was a bit lively - Kelcy took some gravol for a queasy stomach, and promptly fell asleep for the rest of the trip. By 1300, we'd tied up to the state dock in Meyer's Chuck, a very small inlet with about 20 homes, a post office, a dock, and a craft shop. We'd been in only a short time when 3 large power boats arrived, and filled the rest of the dock space - lucky for us we'd left (and arrived) early enough to get a spot! Several more boats tried entering, so we called a sailboat newly arrived, and offered to have them raft onto us, which they did. "Irish Dreamer" is a 45 foot Unison, from Poulsbo Washington, and the 2 couples onboard were grateful to have a tie-up spot. Shane and I hiked a trail through the village, visiting the craft shop and ending up on a beach overlooking Clarence Strait. We got back to the boat at 1630 to find Kelcy up and only a bit groggy from the anti-nausea drugs. Dinner of chicken quesadillas, and we decided to swap positions with " Irish Dreamer" tied alongside us, as we'd be leaving early in the morning, and they were planning on staying. So we swapped over, with us on the outside, and then came aboard the boat for some wine and a visit. By 2300 we were calling it a night, and hit our berths.

On Thursday (24th), we departed at 0630, motorsailing out of Clarence Strait and northeasbound into Ernest Strait. There wasn't much wind, and seas were smooth, although the weather was misty with a few rainshowers. By the time we pulled into Anan Bay, at the east end of Ernest Strait, the rain had disappeared, and the weather was a bit warmer. We tied to a Forest Services float (normally not allowed, but the area is still not officially open for summer so we were allowed a short stop). Tied to the other side of the float was "Star of the Winds", a boat from our sailing club in Comox! We dinghied ashore, and followed a boardwalk leading to a blind built specifically to watch bears, which congregate here to catch the salmon which will soon be running up the river. Along the trail we ran into Rick, the owner of "Star of the Winds", so we agreed we'd meet together after our bear-watching, and sail to Berg Bay, about 10 miles further north. We then continued along the trail, and as we rounded a corner to approach the blind, a bear walked out on the trail immediately in front of us. He just looked at us, and ambled off, while we took some pictures and ambled into the bear blind. Another bear walked by us, when we realized we hadn't closed the gate to the blind....but the bear didn't care, and just kept going. We managed to view several bears, and then departed back to the boat for the rest of our day's sail.








Black Bear at Anan




By 1730 we were tied up to another Forest Services Float, this time in Berg Bay, with Rick's boat alongside the opposite part of the float. The weather had turned quite cool and wet again, so we fired up the heater for a bit, while we prepared our dinner (a nice curried chicken prepared by Shane). A visit with Rick, and it was time for bed.
For a third day in a row, we set off at 0630 again, this time to make slack water in Eastern Passage and the Narrows just before that. Again, we were in reduced visibility in rain and fog, using the radar and chart plotter to navigate. Again, as the morning progressed, the weather improved. By 1030 we were rounding Wrangell Island, and approaching the town of the same name...Wrangell. We got tied to the dock by late morning, giving us a bit of time to check in with the harbormaster and customs (Canadians now have to report in to customs at each port), and then head out on the town. Shane and Kelcy headed for the golf course - the only one in Southeast Alaska, while I shopped for some boat hardware and groceries, and then walked about town sightseeing. I visited a local beach with Petroglyphs (stone etchings by long-forgotten natives), and was greeted there by a very friendly black labrador who insisted I throw a stick for him.














Petroglyphs


















My friend, the lab.





I complied about a hundred times before tiring out and returning to the boat. Rick and I telephoned our club for their TGIF beer call, and to wish our friend Wendy a happy birthday. Shane and Kelcy returned from the golfing, Shane having scored an eagle on a par-four hole.














Kelcy and Shane, enjoying the golf course in Wrangell.










We enjoyed a bbq'd steak dinner, before settling down for a bit of internet updating, and a movie, before retiring for the night.

Spending the Solstice in Sunny Ketchikan

We got nicely settled into our berth at Bar Harbor Marina in Ketchikan, and decided to "do"a bit of the town. Being a Sunday night, the town was basically shut down.....but we were able to pick up some quick groceries at the Safeway nearby, and then to walk toward town, checking out the occasional bar on the way. (Okay.....we did a pub crawl into town).







This bar has an interesting theme!








By 0200, we were done - literally - and crawled our way back to the boat.












After several hours of pub crawling in Ketchikan, this is what we look like!









Monday morning was a very slow time on the boat, as no-one was feeling too frisky. But with a nice sunny day, I couldn't waste it. I left Kelcy and Shane to sleep it off, and hiked into town for a bit of a self-guided walking tour of the town. The Discovery Center has a good presentation of Alaskan wildlife and history, and the town itself is quite interesting. Many of the old brothels have been left in 1800's style, but are now shops and restaurants (I'm pretty sure). The main marina/boat basin has some very skookum-looking tide grids, and is well set up for the fishing community here.







Some of the old brothels, now shops.











During our pub crawl the previous evening, we'd learned about a local celebration for honouring the Summer Solstice - we couldn't miss that!
So following a bit of dinner at Godfather's Pizza, we took a free shuttle from town, to the small fishing port/pub called "Hole in the Wall", a trip of about 12 miles south of town. Many hundreds of locals (dare I say perhaps close to a thousand?) come out here to party and celebrate the longest day of the year.....here in Ketchikan, the sun sets about 10PM, the skies stay "twilightish" for a few hours, and then the sun is back up again at 3AM. There were so many people crowded on the floating docks, that at times they were awash with seawater as the docks sank with the weight. A rock band in the pub, and then fireworks, made it an interesting exdperience. We caught the midnight shuttle back to the boat, although the party was only just getting going.








Fireworks for the Solstice
















The dock is getting heavy!








Today is Tuesday, the 22nd of June.....we've been luck up to now with the weather (sunny, and nice - perhaps a bit cool).....but today the rains have reappeared - actually, this area is famous for it's plentiful rainfall of over 300 inches per year. We have topped up the fuel tanks and are now about to stock up the groceries from Safeway. A bit of exploring to do, and then tomorrow morning we'll be off for Meyer's Chuck, a small place about 34 miles north of here, and about a third of the way to our next town of Wrangell.

Bears.....and Alaska

Sunset over Prince Rupert Harbour

We left Prince Rupert bright and early (yes....it was a nice, sunny day on Thursday!). I wanted to transit out of Rupert through Venn Pass and Duncan Bay, which can claim boats on sandbars....so we were underway for high slack tide, at 0600. Very little wind for our trip northbound, until around noon when we started picking up a fresh following wind into Steamer Channel. We sailed into the channel, and the wind picked up even more, as a quite brisk inflow. Broad reaching, and wing-on-wing, we followed the channel into Khutzeymateen Inlet, sailing at 8-9 knots straight into the inlet. About 4 miles down the 13 mile-long inlet we came to the float home/cabin owned by Greg Palmer, with a beaver aircraft tied to the dock. We sailed in, and tied up, visited with Lorne, the pilot, until Greg and his friend Lisa drove back in (on a Rigid-Hull-Inflatable boat) with the tourists who'd flown in. They made us feel very welcome when we introduced ourselves as friends of the Coast Guard folks in Rupert, and of Reyann. We broke out the scotch, and rum, and wine, and started to party. Greg had lots of crabmeat which we all devoured with crackers and cheese, and followed up with a special garlic caesar salad created by Greg, and followed by more scotch, and an evening sauna.

Inside the Floathome of Palmerville

Relaxing on the deck - Pictured: Lisa, Greg, Kelcy, Don

Friday dawned bright and beautiful, and Greg and Lisa took us out in their high-speed boat to drop our crab traps and to check theirs. We hauled out 16 beautiful large crabs, which became dinner that evening.

A catch of crabs

Cooked up, and yummy!

Then they took us further into the inlet, bear-watching. Near the crab pots were three grizzlies - a male, and two females which he was working on seducing. We later saw three more grizzly bears, alone and munching on their sedge grass along the shorline.

Sedge Grass makes a tasty appetizer

"What are you looking at?"

A visit to the ranger station was interesting, as well, with informational data on the area, the bears, and the natives in the area. Back at Palmerville, which Greg calls his place, we decided to utilize the inflow winds which had again developed, and took the two of them for a sail in the inlet - they hadn't experienced sailing in brisk winds before, and found it quite exhilerating.

Jade 1 tied up at Palmerville dock.

I found it thirsty work, so we went back to the dock for some refreshments, and cleaned the crabs for dinner. Al and Jerrod, the two rangers from the station, dropped in, and we made a night of it noshing on a crab / pasta dish created by chef Greg.
Saturday morning was another beautiful sunny day, and yet another early departure.....I wanted to avoid the inflow winds which begin late morning. We picked up our crab traps on the way out, and discovered I am a true jinx at crabbing, as no-one should be skunked at catching crabs here - but we were! We motored out of the inlet and channel, into Dixon Entrance, westbound for American waters. As the wind picked up we were able to sail close-hauled, and by 1100 were across the border and into Alaska. As we passed Lord Islands we were able to fall off the wind a bit for a nice beam reach northbound. There was a 2 metre swell runnning, with a bit of wave action on top, so we were experiencing a bit of movement in lots of directions.....enough to have Kelcy feeling a bit queasy, but not bad for only two bouts of seasickness in over 35 days of sailing.
By 1400 we were picking our way around the rocky entrance to Foggy Bay, Alaska, where we had a nice peaceful anchorage for the night.
I am now sitting on the boat in Ketchikan, following another good sail. The day started out quite cool and cloudy, but broke out into another fine day as we approached Ketchikan in the early afternoon. Ketchikan is a lively tourist city of 8000 citizens, and as we entered the Tongass Narrows to approach the harbour, were met by a cruise ship (Carnival Spirit), outbound, with very little room in the narrows for the two of us.

Ketchikan

Downtown Ketchikan

In the harbour, two more cruise ships were docked at the city centre. We found a spot at the marina, and managed to clear customs quite readily. A walk to the local mall found some bbq'd chicken for dinner, but very little wifi for uploading pictures. There is a weak signal near the marina, which I'm using for posting this blog entry......not sure if the pictures will work or not, so if you're reading this without pics, then check back later ......we will find a way to add them!

Farewell to Rupert

This is just a short posting, following a bit of a party at the Crest Hotel in Prince Rupert, as we say farewell. Today was productive, in that we got our propane tanks refilled, the boat restocked with groceries, and we put a foot valve onto our bilge pump, which backs up a bit and overworks (now fixed, I think). Art had left us his car to use for the day, which also allowed us to do our last laundry and grocery shopping .... we didn't want to disturb Shelley, who had been on a night shift last nights. We also managed to check in with US Customs in Ketchikan to get permission to cross into their waters, and to anchor in Foggy Bay in the trip up. All of that in hand, and it was time for dinner - so we did a sushi restaurant, nearby, which turned out quite well.....and then Kelcy and Shane went for a date night....finally alone without me.....to see "The Karate Kid" at the movies, while I went to the hotel for a party to celebrae the checkout of 2 new Marine Communicators at the Coast Guard base....Shawn, the son of a good friend fromComox, and Lindsay, who also recently made the grade. The party was also to bid farewell to a young woman who was leaving the job to become a veterinarian in the interior. Because of the multiple celebrations, pretty well all of the people from the Coast Guard Centre were in attendance, and a good time was had by all! We met a good friend of a guide from Khutzymateen, where we are heading next....so maybe we will be able to look up the fellow and better experience the area. It is now midnight, and the light is fading....so this is it until we can find some more internet, likely in about four or five days, in Ketchikan. Many thanks to our friends here.....especially to Art and Shelley, who made the stay extra special. For those of you who think of Prince Rupert as solid rain, I have to admit that although we experienced a bit of rain, there was equal amounts of alternate weather experiences, including some sunny weather.

Catching Up

This Blog entry is basically to catch everyone up....I know many of you don't know where these places I've been talking about are, so here are some maps with our routes on them. We will be staying here in Prince Rupert a couple of days more, to get an oil change on the engine, do some more restocking and organizing, and to wait for the present northwest flow to either ease or change direction. In the meantime, we have internet, so can catch up with the Facebook and Blog entries, and with our other connections back home.

The maps may appear a bit blurry from the upload, but if you click on them, they should appear much clearer.

Shearwater to Klemtu via Oliver Cove

Klemtu to East Inlet (Klewnugget)


Hartley Bay to Rupert via Klewnugget

North Coast of BC to Rupert

Time flies when you're travelling, with no options to upload to the Blog! Lots of catching up to do, with our adventures and experiences for the past 10 days to relate.
We said our farewells to Ray and Kathy on "Summer Breeze", as they sailed off to the south out of Shearwater. They'd presented us with a lovely dome/puck light for our head, making our night trips to the toilet much easier. But now we were on our own again....so we untied the boat, and rounded the peninsula, crossing into New Bella Bella (a distance of just about 5 miles), where we topped up our fuel tanks with 32 litres of fuel, and our water tanks with very nice clean water (Shearwater had a boil-water advisory and very brownish coloured water). A quick look around town, however, made us decide to continue on, with little else to attract us to the village. So north and west we went, past Ivory Island lighthouse, and into Pierce Passage, where we found a very nice little anchorage all to ourselves, at Oliver Cove Marine Park. Although the day had started out a bit cool and cloudy, the sun greeted us as we anchored, and a juvenile eagle sat on the Marine Park sign, watching us.

This Eagle greeted us into our Oliver Cove anchorage

It was still early afternoon, with fair weather, so Shane and I launched the dinghy and headed back down the pass to have a go at fishing for dinner. We were successful in catching a rockfish and a ling cod, so supper was fresh fish. The heads and tails and offal from the fish were placed in our crab traps and set out for the evening....but although they resulted in several crabs, they were too small to keep. The days are getting noticeably longer now, and with a clear day, it was very evident at 23:30 that we are getting further north, and closer to the summer solstice - the sun was set, but twilight remained even then.
The following morning found us up and ready to go at 0730 with another pleasant day approaching....only scattered clouds, and light winds. We motorsailed out of the Cove and into Mathieson Channel, with no other boats evident for several hours. By 1100 we were turning west into Oscar Passage, with a moderate headwind developing, but an hour later, as we crossed out of Oscar Pass into Finlayson Channel, the wind was a brisk southwesterly 15 to 20 knots, and we sailed on a beautiful broad reach into Klemtu, a native village of about 150 souls. Here we tied to the town dock along with a couple of other sailboats, and walked up to the roadway. Some folks we met there suggested we visit the Big House, a ceremonial large house where the locals have celebrations and invite other villages to party. They called the local taxi driver, Shane, who promptly showed up and took us along to the Big House for a tour.....his grandfather had traditionally given these tours previously, but had died last January. It was a very interesting tour, with carvings and totems to represent the local peoples, a firepit in the centre with long benches around the walls, and drums and further totems at the head end of the building. Ceremonial masks, coppers, and photos were displayed in a separate area.

Totems guarding the entrance to the Big House at Klemtu

Following the tour, we walked around the village, admiring several totems outside of peoples' homes, and visiting the local general store, stocked with a bit of everything. Back to the boat for dinner, followed by a game of cards.
In an effort to catch the end of the flood tide, for a push up the channel, we left Klemtu at 0730 under a cloudy sky with little wind. By 1030 we were following alongside Princess Royal Island, looking closely for the renowned white bears, called Kermode or Spirit Bears. They inhabit this very large island, and often are seen along the shoreline. Alas, they weren't wandering along our shoreline. By 1200 the wind was up again, astern, and we were sailing quite nicely along the channel, on a broad reach bound for Butedale. But at 1330 the skies decided to close in on us, with a torrential downpour and fickle winds. We were approaching a point and inlet leading into Khutze Inlet, so motored in and anchored beneath a beautiful waterfall. Khutze Inlet is one of the more beautiful anchorages I've visited, and reminds me a lot of a cross between Princess Louisa Inlet with its waterfalls and high-sided terrain, and Glendale Cove in Knight Inlet, with a river mouth opening out on grassy flats (ideal bear terrain).

Anchored off the Waterfalls in Khutze Inlet

The skies had cleared again, and we were now experiencing alternating showers with sunshine. We set out in the dinghy to explore along the river and look for bears - none were spotted in our travels until we were returning to our boat and saw another sailboat at anchor watching something on the flats behind us....it turned out to be a grizzly, right where we'd been looking earlier. By now, however, we could only view the bear from a distance, through our binoculars.

Khutze Inlet Falls

It was another beautiful clear and quiet night at anchor, and after dinner we watched a movie before settling in to bed at 2330.
Fog developed overnight, and was thick around us when we rose at 0700. But by the time coffee was made, and anchor up, it had cleared into another nice sunny day. The wind was light northwest, against us, so we motorsailed up the channel, and by 1130 we were passing Butedale, another abandoned cannery.

Butedale has seen better times


There is a spectacular waterfall beside the ruined docks and buildings, which still supplies electric power. There was no reason for us to stop, however, so we continued up Finlayson to cross McKay Reach, and into Ursula Channel, pulling into Bishop Bay Hot Springs/Monkey Beach Conservation Area. At the dock here, there was a 51 foot sailboat who offered to let us raft alongside (it's a small dock). The other side of the dock was the park ranger's boat, with the Rangers doing work on the facilities at the hot springs. So we visited with the family sailing their boat, "Northern Passage", back home to Seldovia Alaska from California, as the park Rangers completed their work. Our Alaskan friends had a quick soak once the work was done, and then left, leaving the dock to us. Interestingly, the Monkey Beach part of the name is from rumoured sightings and stories of Bigfoot living in this area......not that we saw him! So after our dinner, we wandered into the pools and soaked in the springs, joined by the Rangers for awhile, and then by the crew and several paying guests on the charter boat "Maple Leaf", which pulled up and anchored off nearby. Another evening arrival was a Kiwi, from Wanaka, NZ, who is kayaking from Haines Alaska, down the Inside Passage for Alaska. Amazingly enough, he'd only kayaked a few times previously, and bought the kayak for something to do while his girlfriend climbs Denali. He'd been averaging some 50 to 60 kilometres per day, which I find quite amazing.

Bishop Bay Hotsprings Pool

The following day, June 9, was a lay-day, with beautiful sunny weather, and a hot spring nearby. We opened up the boat and pulled out and aired out our bedding and cushions, to get everything nice and dry and aired out. We cleaned up the boat, and had a fire on the beach to get rid of some of our burnable garbage. We moved the boat as far back on the dock as possible, to allow a couple of fishboats to raft up ahead of us on the dock. Then, after a dinner of lamb chops, Shane and Kelcy enjoyed the beach fire while I soaked in the pools, and caught up on my log.
Moving the boat back on the dock hadn't been as good an idea as I'd thought - early the following morning, the tide was extremely low, and we were in danger of going aground at the dock....so we untied the boat and departed quite early (0530). We continued up Ursula Channel, into Verney Pass and Devastation Channel, to arrive at yet another Hot Spring, this one with a couple of mooring buoys. We tied up to one, which put us close to shore, so moved to the other buoy, and then enjoyed the WeeWanie Hot Springs, all to ourselves. The pools are warmer than those at Bishop Bay, and both places are unique in that there is no sulphur smell at all....just lovely warm spring water in pools.

Looking out from WeeWanie Springs Pool

I'd made some bread while underway to here, and had enough dough to make a pizza for lunch, utilizing some of our ready-to-use-up meats and veggies. By late afternoon the wind had picked up to Southwest 25, with a bit of a sea rolling by the bay. Even in our protected bay, some of the chop made us rock about a bit, but by bedtime all was again quiet.
We untied from our buoy the following morning and worked our way south, back down Douglas Channel, and against a bit of wind, to arrive at the native village of Hartley Bay by 1430. We'd done a bit of motoring in this last section, so refilled our fuel tanks (69 litres this time), and our water tanks, before moving onto the docks. Unfortunately, there was still no internet available here, but we managed to get a cell phone signal to call Linda at home and advise her of our position and status. By now it was quite cool and rainy, but we still took a walk around the village, with its boardwalks throughout town. Locals run golf carts and ATV's around the community on the boardwalks.

Enjoying the rain and the Boardwalks of Hartley Bay

After dinner we visited with Garth and Doris Riggin on their liveaboard boat, GD Riggins, from Comox....and called it a night at 2300.
Saturday morning, the 12th of June, was very wet and breezy. We left at 0630 in order to enter Grenville Channel at low slack tide, and we were rewarded with a lovely following wind and tide pushing us northbound through the channel. We made such good time, sailing at over 9 knots, that we passed by our destination of Loewe's Inlet, and continued a further 10 miles into Klewnugget Inlet, to anchor in East Inlet for the night. We had a further go at crabbing, with no luck, but had a quiet night at anchor.
To continue with our early morning theme, we again arose early, to catch the end of the ebb tide and then get a push from the flood tide later on (the tide changes direction in Grenville Channel, so it needs a bit of planning). We were off the anchor at 0530, and had a very nice sail with Southwesterly winds, clearing Grenville Channel by noon, and continuing on a very lively sail into Chatham Channel. Prince Rupert came into sight, and we arrived in town by early afternoon, tying up at the yacht club docks. First thing on the agenda was to find some showers, and then connect to the internet. We managed to link up with friends from Prince Rupert Coast Guard, Shelley Clark, and Art Statham, who joined us in the evening for a few beers and a pub dinner at the pub beside the yacht club.
Today is Monday, June 14. It was a very productive day, thanks to our friends Shelley and Art. I met up with Art at 0800 and rode into work with him, and then had the use of his van for the day. That allowed us to pack up our extensive collection of laundry, and take the lot to Shelley's place. It was several loads, with in-between trips to the grocery store for some replacement supplies, and a look around town. By late afternoon, we were returning the van, and Shane and Kelcy got a tour of the Coast Guard Centre. Shelley was working a night shift, so we joined Art for a delicious meal at a Chinese restaurant, and then Art showed us around some of the sights of the area.....made even better by a spectacularly brilliant sunny evening, and sunset. We ended up back at the boat by early evening, and had time to catch up on the Blog. More adventures to follow.

On to the Central Coast

I am sitting at my navigation station, tied up in Shearwater (very near Bella Bella) trying to catch up on a week away from the Internet, and hoping to get the Blog caught up-to-date.
Saturday the 29th saw us waving farewell to Linda, as we departed Port McNeill to cross Queen Charlotte Strait. We were up by 0600, and motor-sailed out at 0700, getting a nice push from the ebb tide. By 1030 we were past abeam Port Hardy, mid-Straits, and northbound in Ripple Passage. Up to this point we'd encountered only a very light chop on the water in light winds, but as we neared the top end of Vancouver Island a bit of a westerly swell worked itself into our world. It was only 1 to 2 meter swells, but the rolling motion of the boat with little wind to steady things made my crew start to feel a bit queasy. By 1300 we were approaching our anchorage at Skull Cove, greeted by a raft of sea otters.....Kelcy by this time was feeling too sick to look at them. But inside the anchorage the seas calmed, and all became well again. It was a pretty spot, with good shelter, and we were the only boats (Summer Breeze rafted to us) in the anchorage. Shane and Kelcy borrowed the kayaks from Summer Breeze and had a good exploration of the shoreline.

Kayaking around Skull Cove

Next morning (Sunday) saw us departing at 0630, following the mainland side of the Strait, past Cape Caution. We had a light following wind but still needed to motorsail to maintain speed. At one point we thumped against a very large log adrift but mostly submerged....no apparent damage, but a bit of a scare nonetheless. I called Comox Coast Guard off Cape Caution to say goodbye to my friends there, as we were leaving their Area of Responsibility. Egg Island Lighthouse passed us by on our starboard side, with the wind picking up a bit, we were able to gybe our sails onto a nice broad reach to our next destination at the entrance to Rivers Inlet. Anchored between Penrose and Fury Islands we had a great anchorage, shared by 4 other boats. Shell and sand beaches on the shore made the spot look a bit like a South Pacific island, but the cool temperatures and passing rainshowers reminded us where we really were. We were now officially into the Central Coast area of BC, with much of the open waters behind us (Inside Passage waters ahead, with myriad islands protecting us from much of the "Big Waters"). We dined on Summer Breeze with roast beef and steaks, and Ray introduced us to his newest drink invention, a martini made from Pyrat Rum and Drambuie - yum! There had been no seasickness on this part of the crossing, so things are looking up.
From Fury Cove, we continued next morning on a short sail northbound into FishEgg Inlet, and anchored in Joe's Bay. The protection here is amazingly good, and we felt quite snug and secure here as the winds outside increased to full gale force, but in the anchorage hardly raised a ripple.
The north end of the bay has an interesting set of tidal rapids, leading to a large lagoon. The turbulence from the waterfall/rapids creates foam in the seawater which drifts out for several miles.

Tidal Rapids/Waterfall, and foam. The green on Kelcy is her jacket...not motion sickness!

We stayed here, safe from the gales outside, for two days, and managed to catch a couple of keeper-sized Dungeness crabs, as well as a pail of mussels for a steamed mussel dinner. In spite of the cool weather and incessant rainshowers, we managed to have some hot showers on deck, and clean up the boat a bit, as well as explore around the bay.
By late Wednesday morning, the gales had eased a bit, and we sailed out of Joe's Bay, and had a lovely beam and broad reach up FitzHugh Sound, arriving in mid afternoon at the deserted cannery town of Namu. Once a bustling cannery, and before that a native site (with 11,000 years of continuous habitation Namu is thought to be one of the oldest such sites in N. America), it is now a ghost town, falling back to nature. We met the entire population of the town, all three of them, within a few minutes of arriving at their dock. These three caretake what is left of the place for a vacant landlord. They have created amazingly rich gardens throughout the town, and many of their vegetables and flowers would rival those in Victoria. We were warned to watch for grizzly bears, however.....but the only four-footed creature we met was the caretaker's dog.

A walk around Namu.

We had an evening fire in a rustic firepit area of the docks, and then retired fairly early.

Namu Firepit

The next day , Thursday, was again showery, but the wind was with us, and we sailed northwest with our sails out on either side, wing-on-wing. As we were entering Lama Pass, the BC Ferry "Northern Expedition" passed us by, apparently with my friend and ex co-worker, Art, aboard, on his way to his new posting in Prince Rupert. We passed by Bella Bella for a more promising dock a few miles east of there, in Shearwater. Here we luxuriated in hot showers, and made use of the laundry facilities, and pub. In fact, it was time for a dinner out, so we treated ourselves. In the pub after dinner, we met a couple from a commercial fishboat which had come from Comox. They were killing time on their way to a fishing opening in the Queen Charlotte Islands on June 15....so invited the five of us (Summer Breeze and the three of us) to go out on their boat and have a go at some sport fishing.
Adam and Jill on "Rennel Sound" made us very welcome, and we spent the entire day Friday trying to catch fish.....mostly to no avail - we managed to get two salmon on the line, but didn't land them, and ended up with a couple of rock cod.

A day on a Commercial Fishboat.

View aft from the flying bridge of Rennel Sound

Being Friday, there was a hockey game on - so off we went to the pub to watch the semi-final match between Chicago and Philadelphia. Likely the only game of the finals we will have been able to watch on tv. We treated ourselves to a prime rib dinner, and then back to the boat for a tidy up, and bed.
Tomorrow we continue our trek northward, toward Klemtu...although we will likely only get about halfway there. Summer Breeze is heading back south again, as we continue on our way. It will be sad to say goodbye to Ray and Kathy- they've been great adventure-mates!