August 10th Grebe Cove to Cutter Cove

August 10th

Departed 9:15  cloudy  light fog in cove...got worse

As we headed into Retreat Passage, the fog intensified. David's eyes were focused on the radar screen working it like a video game while I concentrated on searching the water for other boats and logs. Not a pleasant ride.

Whenever we are boating in uncomfortable conditions, my pet question asked mainly in jest is always, "Why are there no other boats out here?"  Today was one of those days. We were quite alone. Luckily, the tide was in our favor and was pushing us to a screaming speed of 9.4 kts hurrying us along through our discomfort.

Blessedly, it was a short cruise to Cutter Cove...about 3 hours. Once the fog lifted, the potato chip bag was ripped open and the contents devoured. Just a little stressed.

Anchored in 36 feet. It was sunny and 69 degrees with a bit of a breeze. We were joined by a converted forest ranger boat named Forest Ranger II which is a classic beauty.

Oh, what a night we had!  Around 11:00, I noticed that David was not in bed and found him sitting in the wheelhouse watching the lightning storm over the mountains. It was a real light show and heading our way. About four hours later, we were awakened by the loud booming thunder and flashes of light. Then the rain came tumbling down. It was a mighty downpour but didn't last all that long before drifting off to the next target.

August 9th Blunden Harbour to Grebe Cove

August 9^th  Blunden Harbour to Grebe Cove

Woke up to sunshine pouring in to our stateroom. Hallelujah!  In the time it took me to dress, we were back in fog soup…my mood quickly changed. 

But, wait!  Once out in Queen Charlotte Strait, the fog began to float away. We could even spot Vancouver Island!  “This is cool being able to see, isn’t it?”  said the skipper with a grin.

Learned a new word from David today. I pointed and said, “There’s a whale’s spray.”  David said, “No, not spray. That’s the spume.”  I have been seeing spume everywhere and didn’t even know it.  I can imagine the whalers of long ago spotting a whale and screaming, “Spuuuuume!”

                                              Just missed the whale flipping his tale...

The seas were so friendly today that David was able to leave his less anxious first mate at the helm long enough for him to make some bread. Love the smell of bread baking. Love the butter that melts on it.

David urged me to enjoy the ride out on the bow. I perched in my favorite cruising chair and soaked in sunshine and loveliness. How did I get so lucky?

Our plan was to anchor in Waddington Bay but once we were in the Fox Group Islands, the task of weaving through rocks and islets became less appealing. David found Grebe Cove on the chart, and we scooted in there and grabbed a mighty fine spot. Waddington Bay is one of the most popular destinations in the Broughtons, and we could already see several boats anchored there. We had this cove all to ourselves.

                         We finally had to get rid of the webs. Couldn't see through the windows!


After lunch we took the dinghy out to try some fishing. I caught a baby halibut about 15 inches long. We released it, but I was encouraged. Maybe this evening off the bow, I will hook one I can keep.

 Water maker has malfunctioned but we have plenty of water in our tank.

                                                       Entrance to Grebe Cove

                                          

August 8th Fury Cove to Bunden Harbour

August 8^th  Fury Cove to Bunden Harbour

6:00 am departure   Foggy, once again

It was a stinky muddy mess after we hauled the anchor up. The chain links were covered in mud which created a challenging clean up this morning. Before shoving off, we put the fish in the water. We were off to the “big water” today rounding Cape Caution and passing Egg Island, and we wanted every advantage. To our dismay, we woke up to another foggy morning. Visibility was about a half mile.

During our journey, there was a radio call concerning an American traveler who had fallen off a dock. He was unhurt but had lost his wallet in about 20 feet of water. Apparently, a lot of cash was having an unexpected swim, as well. A diver was being requested to retrieve the wallet.

The BC waters have produced many floating logs and one managed to hook on to our fish cable. We had to stop and use our pike pole to push it off. It eased off easily since the seas were so smooth. No wind on the water creating waves…no wind to blow that annoying fog away!

After 8 hours of fog fatigue, we pulled in to Blunden Harbour to find it drenched in sunshine! That was our reward.

                                                  Here comes the sun

Last time we were here, we spotted a mama bear and cubs on the shore so we were on bear watch. They didn’t show up for the party.

David often wakes up in the wee hours of the morning and reads. Last night while in Fury Cove, he turned his light on and began reading and was attacked by hundreds of gnats (we keep our windows open).  He slammed his book closed and  went below to read for a while. When he opened his book back up, he found the pages covered with scores of  little black dots…gnat punctuation. 

August 7th Namu to Fury Cove

August 7^th  Namu to Fury Cove

Departed 9:30   57 degrees   foggy

Had time this morning while waiting for high tide to take a “nosey cruise” to the site of the old and dilapidated BC Packers cannery buildings. There were signs “Definitely no trespassing”, and I had read that boaters should stay away and not venture on to the dock to explore due to the danger. David agreed (after I wore him down) not to go ashore but just cruise by in our dinghy to take a close look.

Looking at the abandoned and neglected site, you could just imagine what this community was like 50 years ago with such a vibrant enterprise and bustling town. We are anxious to talk with Ron who was captain on a fish packer way back when. He might be able to shed some light on what Namu was like in its heyday.

This looked like it was once a massive operation with several rooftops seen on the hillside of what we believe to be homes of the long ago residents. It is such a shame that another site of such historical significance  has been left to decay.

We gave our dinghy a good scrub when we returned from our wonder. It had rust stains from the sawing of the old logging cable. Our little skiff looks 1,000% better!

I did something yesterday that I have not done since the early days of boating (and I used to do it far too often). Before pulling back the lever to haul the anchor up, I forgot to release the “dog” which locks the winch wheel. David saw a squirt of hydraulic fluid caused by the force of the wheel straining to move. We now have stains on David’s newly painted deck from the fluid leak. I feel terrible about it.

The Belle made her way through the rocky entrance to Namu in heavy fog only to find 15 to 20 fishing boats scattered about. We had to keep careful eye out for any fishing nets strung out in the water and boats that were in the process of letting out their nets. You don’t want to get tangled up in anyone’s net. Once on the radio, I heard a fisherman warning a boater that he was about to go through his net. He kept saying, “Go to Port. Go to Port. Go to Port.”

We wove our way through the fishing fleet in the fog which was quite a feat. It remained foggy in varying degrees throughout our four-hour journey today. My eyes were hurting from glaring into the wall of fog on the look-out for obstacles of any sort. We were on high alert the entire journey.

During our trip, a radio call by someone with a raspy grandfather-type voice was made to Victoria Traffic. The boater had rented a fishing boat from a resort, and he and his companion were lost in the fog. He had rented the boat from someone in River’s Inlet very near where we were headed. He just wanted a call to be made to the resort for help but the traffic officer had many more questions for him.

We watched a seal with a fish in its mouth fling it out and birds soared down to see what he had left for them.  We have been told that seals just bite off a chunk of the underside of the fish leaving the rest for other diners to enjoy.

As soon as we entered Fury Cove, we were greeted by heavenly sunshine, and the white sandy beaches glistened. We had a view of Queen Charlotte’s Sound and the lingering fog. Hoping that tomorrow the fog will find another place to land…far away from us.

                                                  The fog stayed out in the strait

David glanced into our small galley freezer and discovered the ice age. While it defrosted, we sat in the glorious sunshine on the bow and listened to another Sue Grafton book on tape while breathing in the stillness and soaking up the warmth. We watched two whales cavorting out in the strait.

Tomorrow we hit the open waters once again and round Cape Caution pass Egg Island. From all reports, the winds should behave themselves. The only question is the fog. That blanket of thick clouds unnerves me. Doesn’t seem to rattle David and that’s what counts.

We still had some crab left to crack and enjoy last night even after making crab cakes and crab bisque. Those were some hefty crabs!


                                                       
                                                          Two photos just for fun

                                                             That grey is really water

August 6th Tom's Bay to Namu

                                                  We brought up an old logging cable



August 6^th  Tom’s Bay to Namu

9:30 departure    61 degrees   sunny but changed to cloudy

A discovery of even more evidence of a once active logging operation in Tom’s Bay was made this morning when we hauled up our anchor. Wrapped around the anchor was a thick, extremely heavy old logging cable. There was no way to lift it off the anchor. With our anchor dangling off the bow, David grabbed his “zippy” and went to work. The big worry was once the cable was cut, where would it snap. You don’t want it whipping toward the skipper or causing damage to the boat. David picked the right spot to saw through, and the cable slipped back into the water. There were layers of rust and corrosion on the cable, but David said that once he hit the center of the cable, it was bright shiny steel.

In spite of our morning surprise,  Tom’s Bay was a very pleasant anchorage. With the calm evening, we were able to spend a great deal of time outside enjoying our lovely surroundings. Once again, we were the only boat in the bay. We are certain that will change once we return to the busy Broughtons.

 The rocky mouth leading out of Mathieson Channel had us on high alert especially with the low visibility this morning. David likes to call it “mist”…no, it’s fog. We entered a portion of Milbanke Sound which David heard could be “an ugly piece of water” so we put down the fish for better stability, which saved us from a lot of rocking and rolling in that patch of open water.  Turning into Seaforth Channel, we smiled at the sun.

Seaforth Channel lead us to Hunter Channel past New Bella Bella, a major native village, which was our original destination.  Once again, we felt fine so kept moving. We entered Lama Passage and cruised on to Fisher Channel. We had several turns today around rocky points and lighthouses.

David had wanted to explore Namu on our trip north, but we ran out of time. Namu is where we headed and Rock Inlet was our anchorage choice. Once in the inlet, our attempt to anchor was hindered by currents pushing the Belle in the wrong direction. After a bit of a struggle, we finally secured our hook. Our bow was facing the Channel, and we knew that if the westerlies kicked up, we were right in their path.

Soon after we were hooked, two men came along the Belle in a small fishing boat and talked with David about moving our boat to the inner bay where we would have more protection. When David explained that we didn’t go that far because we did not know what the depths would be at the entrance, they took off to measure the depths for us. When they returned, they reported that the shallowest spot was 25 feet and told us there was plenty of room for our boat…another example (among many during our trip)  of the kindness of strangers.

We took their advice and found a perfect spot in 50 feet with plenty of protection and surrounding beauty. Later that evening, David took some beer over to the kind gentlemen’s boat as a thank you for their help.

It had been 9 hours of boating for us so having a peaceful refuge was something to celebrate. Ahh, more crab! Why not!

August 5th Kkutze Inlet to Tom's Bay

August 5^th  Kutze Inlet to Tom’s Bay

Departed 8:30   63 degrees

It was a gorgeous morning!  My “crab whisperer” husband couldn’t wait to check out our traps. It was a bumper crop!  We had 19 in one trap, 8 in another and 3 more in the other two traps.  All of them were keepers!  This was our biggest catch to date. We kept our quota which meant we had to release the majority, but still had plenty to enjoy. My hubby was feeling mighty pleased. He said he was going through “crab withdrawal” and this was definitely going to fix that!

                                                                     Crab Wrangler

As we exited the inlet we yielded to a tug and barge…rule of “biggest”.  Our plans were to dock at Klimtu, a First Nations village, but as we glided by we saw no room to dock the Belle. Decided to continue on Tolmie Channel to tiny Clothes Bay. Once there, we decided it made more sense just to press on…weather was favorable and it was early in the day.

                                                           Klimtu ferry building

It did get a bit rocky in Finlayson Channel and we ended up putting down the fish. We turned left into Oscar Pass on our way to Rescue Bay where we had anchored previously. After checking charts, David suggested we instead carry on to Tom’s Bay on Mathieson Channel which would save us at least an hour in travel time tomorrow. It was a unanimous decision.

Tom’s Bay looked mighty inviting after 8 hours of boating. We put out all the chain and a good chunk of the cable as well to get a secure hold. There’s plenty evidence of logging surrounding us…lots of new growth.

Sunshine is sparkling on the water. After so many days of clouds, rain and fog, I was ready for this golden goodness.

Looking forward to chilled white wine and fresh crab tonight. Life is delicious!

                                                               Pat at the helm

                                     One big muddy mess to clean up this morning

August 4th Lowe Inlet to Khutze Inlet

                                                 Wow!  I caught that whale's tale!

  

August 4^th  Lowe Inlet to Khutz Inlet

6:20 departure.  57 degrees with fog

The three fish boats that anchored late last night left at 5:30 this morning. We sometimes hear announcements from the Coast Guard announcing certain fishing “openings”. The last one was in Petersburg for salmon fishing that would only be open for 15 hours. Those fishing vessels have to put in  some long hard hours to “make hay while the sun shines”.

                                                                    Whales at play
                         

Been listening to NPR on the fires in California. It was reported that the enormous CARR fire near Redding is creating its own weather system…lightening, wind, and fire tornadoes which is the first I have heard of that phenomenon.  There has been information regarding fires in Athens and temperatures reaching 118 degrees there and a heat wave in Helsinki of all places! Makes us feel quite fortunate to be where we are right now, but can’t help but think if this is now become the norm.

David figured out the Horizon radio scanning problem. It had to do with the squelch setting. Easy fix.

Today we cruised down Grenville Channel, entered Wright Sound to McKay Reach and finally to Fraser Reach. Several whales entertained us along the way. We expected some rough water, but it was fairly calm all the way. It took a little over 8 hours to reach Khutze Inlet where we had anchored on our way north. The beautiful waterfall was not as grand this time but still flowing. There’s still snow on those mountain tops and we find ourselves once again in awe of this place. It definitely is one of our favorite destinations on this trip and probably one of the most splendid places on earth we have experienced.

                                                          Another whale in the distance...splume!

David didn’t hesitate to get the dinghy down and crab traps ready to drop. We only got one female in Lowe Inlet and last time here, we had a bonanza of crab. Both of us our hoping for the same luck.

When we anchored, it was a pleasant 73 degrees. Lots of seagulls soared above us, rested on shore and bobbed in the water. Diane told me that where you see lots of birds, it usually means there’s good fishing. I wish I had had the energy to drop a hook. Early night for us.

                                                             One big chunk of granite

                                                                    Summer snow

                                                                   Our crab pot float