Storm at Shearwater

We are tied up to the dock and it is blowing about 40 knots gusting to 50. Remarkably the eye of the storm hit the coast right at Bella Bella and Shearwater. 

A super big yacht  lost one of  it's mooring lines. If it had gotten away it could have crushed our boat.  About ten bystanders got together to get it tied up again. The owners were off on an excursion somewhere.I am thankful we are not out in some exposed location today.

You ask " Where did he get those wind velocity numbers? Sounds like bullshit. "
They were taken off the instrument gauges on the sailboat parked beside us.

Back on the Mainland

Well we waited around for the perfect weather window and then left in the middle of the night to ensure a smooth crossing of Hecate Strait.

We arrived at Larsen Harbour, perched on the outside of Banks Island. The whole strait was smooth as glass and it was hot, hot , hot. We went for a dinghy ride among the rocky islets and then walked through the bush to another bay.  It was gorgeous.

We progressed south in mostly calm hot weather. Sometimes the smell of forest fire smoke intruded into our nostrils.

 We thoroughly enjoyed our anchorage on the South tip of Banks Island , Gung Ho Bay..  It was a real rock pile to get into but was great for exploring with the dinghy. 

  We stayed sort of inside on the outside.  Finally at Higgins Passage we broke through to the classic inside passage.

Now we are encamped at Shearwater Resort . There are all the amenities here and lots of boats all waiting out the current little bit of bad weather.  It feels really weird being tied up with all these yachts after being on the anchor for so long.  The back is sort of holding up to retrieving the anchor and chain by hand. 

Goodbye Haida Gwaii

 Morning Commute

 Crows chatting in front of Queen Bee Cafe

After the rain Sandspit

   

 Queen Charlotte City   Farmer's Market

We decided that yes, it would be fine to spend some winter months in Haida Gwaii either in Queen Charlotte Village (officially it is now a village and not the historic Queen Charlotte City…it has a lot less than 1000 residents) or the sleepy community of Sandspit, if you really want some alone time, solitary beach walks and more sun than QC village. QC is a friendly social place with community activities and amenities not found in Sandspit. So maybe one day this will be our winter vacation destination.

We left Sandspit at 2am to do the dreaded Hectare Strait crossing. The idea was to take advantage of favourable tide and to get across before an unfavourable wind. We bucked across the bar, an  annoying long long stretch of sand and shallow water than guards the entrance to Skidegate Channel. The swells were low and minimal once we got into deeper water.

The trip across was uneventful except for the massive apricot- hued moon that set around 4 am, sinking behind the San Cristobal Mountains of Haida Gwaii.  We had returned to the night sky, milky way and constellations that for us signalled the arrival of fall. The moonset gave us something to watch until sunrise. That, and the mysterious bright light of a boat we could not find on radar, a ghostship. Boris did some adjustments and poof, there it was, about 6 miles away. Other than that we were all alone.

We arrived at Larson Harbour 11 hours later, the same location as our take off point for the islands. The last time we were there the entrance had been a seething surging  kelp infested cauldron. This time it was a friendly flat sunny welcomed anchorage. The wind never materialized. Later we spent a couple hours in the dinghy touring the protected lagoons surrounding Larson, a wild and beautiful place.

ys

Haida Gwaii

“ Boating has a lot in common with being in jail, actually, with the added risk being that you can drown”  Susan Musgrave

Susan Musgrave’s book, A taste of Haida Gwaii is a welcome addition to the boat library. It is a cookbook unlike any other.

Our trip into the park seemed pretty uneventful. It rained almost every day. We did go into a couple of different anchorages, Kostan Inlet and Section Cove. For the rest it was revisiting anchorages that we have been in before.

As you may know an earthquake caused the Hotsprings Island , springs to dry up. A pleasant surprise was finding that some of the springs have started to reemerge.  We spent a very pleasant morning soaking in the spring and surveying the beauty of Juan Perez Sound.

Once again we visited Burnaby Narrows.  It is an incredible site for snorkeling .

So here we are back in Skidegate Inlet waiting for a weather window to cross Hecate Strait. As of now Friday seems to be a good departure date. We want to hang out at the Sandspit Marina until 1100 when a  160 foot Yacht is supposed to arrive.

The original plan was to head down to Moresby Island then shoot across to the mainland. It is a lot further across but anyways none of that matters and God Willing we will shoot across on Friday.

Across the Strait to Haida Gwaii

It was an uneventful trip to Banks Island. On the last leg to Banks Island a small juvenile bird of some kind hitched a ride on our boat. Since identified as a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird.

The last bit into Larsen Harbour was windy and choppy. It is an intimidating  place to approach when the waves are crashing on the rocks and it looks like you are proceeding into a rock pile. Once safely inside we watched two French catamarans arrive. They were both in the 40-50 foot range and were obviously world travelers.

The next morning we left at 0430. There was moonlight and the waves had calmed down. By the time we had gotten out in the Strait it was flat calm. We motorsailed the whole way and arrived in Sandspit at 1500 hours.  There was not a lot of birds to be seen out in the strait . That was a bit of a disappointment.  On previous trips I had seen hundreds of pelagic birds.

The harbor in Sandspit is a cozy place and we spent two days there. We hitched to the ferry and went to Skidegate to get our National Park indoctrination. While we were there Explorer IV arrived.  This is Craig Hougen’ s boat. Or should I say ship. It is 60 feet long and built to go through the pack ice. We met Craig his wife Mary Jane and Brian Mcwatters and his wife Kim. We got a tour of the boat which made us feel quite small and insignificant parked on the end of the dock. We took a walk on the spit and took a hike up this stream close to the harbor.

Now we are anchored off Queen Charlotte City. We were all set to dinghy to town when I discovered a hole in our inflatable.  I have just patched it and we will have to wait until tomorrow to go to shore.

Oh Canada

Ok back in Canada. No roaming charges but everything has 12% tax tacked on to it.

Just after Ketchikan we stopped at a temporary anchorage. When hauling in the anchor the windlass sort of fell apart. At the time I thought it could be fixed. Then we had to bash into a 15 knot wind and big waves. Spirits were a little on the low side. Then a large bull orca cruised by about a 100 meters from the boat. Felt a lot better. That night we anchored in Foggy Bay with a catarmaran anchored near by. They took a picture of us.

Next day to Dundas Island where we caught a nice Coho and had two monster salmon dinners.

Green Island Lighthouse just North of Prince Rupert

Once in Prince Rupert it was time to extract the old anchor windlass. It was not easy!

For the next while I will be hauling a 35 pound anchor and a hundred feet of chain by hand. It is a good way to warm up in the early morning hours.

Tomorrow we are off to Banks Island and an early morning crossing to Haida Gwaii on Friday.

Aweigh

There are three or four things of interest over the first week of travels.

The weather has been spectacular. It has been either calm and clear or hot clear and a NW wind. Today in Ketchikan I felt a little queasy and I suspect it is from too much heat and sun. Not complaining though.

Lost our depthsounder on day one. Ours has been taken for granted for 39 years and suddenly as we prepared to enter an anchorage it gave up the ghost. Next day we were in Juneau so I immediately bought a 100 dollar fish finder. At first I tried siliconing it to the hull with mixed results. Now I have it attached to a stick on the end of the boat. Not the best solution but all I could come up with on short notice.

Oh yeah and half my windlass doesn't work.

In Petersberg harbour an enormous sea lion came up beside our boat. He was grappling with an enormous octopus. He spent several minutes wrestling with it and crunching down on it before with a big gulp he swallowed it. Unfortunately I didn't grab my camera quick enough.

Also in Petersberg harbour we ran into Kevin Barr, Paul Baker and Beatrice. Kevin is taking his boat down to Victoria for the winter.

Unlike India where I was able to blog away with my smartphone, I am unable to do the same here. So I fear these posts will be few and far apart. 

Hope everyone is enjoying summer.