Reflections of 5 Months to Alaska

Our "Adventure of a Lifetime" has come to a momentary pause. We have been fortunate that the weather has been relatively good, the people we have met have been extremely friendly and our family and friends have been so supportive of our travels.

Dave & Penny and Wayne & Cathy have been the best travelling companions and hopefully they will lead future expeditions of Alaska Bound boats! To you, we thank for the extra 10 lbs. of travel belly! The meals were marvelous, the wine and card playing something we looked forward to everyday, dinner conversations were always stimulating and the comfort of knowing that in any emergency, you had our backs covered! Had it not been for your companionship and willingness to "push the envelope" in where we travelled to and how we did it, the accounting of our trip would not have been nearly as interesting!

Thank you to everyone for their encouragements and well wishes. I will be continuing to update the blog with charts, video, waypoints, photographs and other information to the places we have visited. The aim is to take this blog framework, add more text, photographs and history and then to go to print! Check back in a few weeks and you will see some more interesting things on our blog!

September 7 - 14 - Iron Bay - Indian Arm

After washing the boat, setting up our new spot and getting caught up with a few chores, we untie the lines early Sunday morning to meet up with everyone up Indian Arm at our outstations "Clementine" and "Iron Bay". We meet up with Dave and Wayne at Clementine where the end of a great "Family Weekend" function is coming to a close and after lunch, we untie and putter over to "Iron Bay". I jokingly say to Dave, I have nothing to photograph, there are no "great" wildlife shots to look for.

We will rusticate the week away at Iron Bay, getting aclimatized to our new old lives and wrestling with the fact that we will be going out to get real jobs and try to get back into our old routines. We have missed our families and friends but have not missed the city and her trappings.

September 6 - Homeward Bound to Vancouver

A slight breeze in the morning and a listen to the VHF radio weather, prompts us to pull anchor and head for Vancouver. The crossing is a mere 25 miles, but can be brutal if the winds are on the beam. We arrive late morning in our new spot at Burrard Yacht Club with mixed emotions. It is good to be home, but I liken it to taking daddies grand old cadillac around the block for a sunday drive and finding out you really are a participant in the Indy 500. There are boats everywhere in the harbour, freighters, cruise ships, fisherman, work boats and cruisers. Paying attention to whats in front of your bow reverts back to other boaters and harbour traffic instead of Dolphins and whales, debris in the water is more than we have seen the whole trip!
We are happy to be able to see friends and family and to have a new berth for Shaman at BYC, but we are already missing the bays, inlets and wildlife we have been witness to and enjoyed for the last 5 months. Reality Bites, really it does!

Septemer - 5th - Silva Bay to Pirates Cove

One of our favorite anchorages in the Gulf Islands with the history of "Brother X11" to be found here. If you are looking for solitude, don't come here! There are a lot of changes since we last stayed here, with the Locals on Decourcy Island building their own private docks to the edge of the Marine Park. There is a floating dock in the middle with Maple Bay being the Host Boat. We assume it is to answer any questions boaters might have about the area.
We are joined by Bean and Scott and Carson & Mag on our first night stay as this is a good jump off point to head back to Vancouver for them. At 6:45 am they pull out and are back in Vancouver in just over 2 hours.
We opt to stay another night to work on odd jobs on the boat and do some more gunkholing in the area.

September 2 - 4th Silva Bay Gabriola

Our first time stay in Silva Bay waslots of fun. Gabriola Island has alot to offer all boaters. The meals in the pub/restaurant are good, fair priced, but could use a little bit of imagination for daily specials. The dock at Silva Bay that BYC has rented is a bit hard to find as there is a "D" dock at Pages Marina and a "D" dock at Silva Bay Marina. In short order we were all tied up and headed up for dinner at the pub.

There are moped rentals, good food store, golfing, kayak rentals and all sorts of fun pasttimes to while away the days. We chose Golfing and had a great time hacking our way around the Gabriola course. Gunkholing in and around Gabriola has a lot to offer with little bays and channels everywhere. For some excitement, take our dinghy through Gabriola Pass at full flood! A good stay can be found at Gabriola.

September 1 - Friends Bay to Schooner Cove

A 3' beam sea most of the way from Lasquiti to Vancouver Island. The sun is shining and we are having a nice crossing from the middle islands to Vancouver Island. we are eagerly anticipating swimming in the pool and having a soak in the hot tub at Schooner. Both of our clubs have reciprocal moorage agreements with Schooner Cove Yacht Club, but we find that only one spot is available. What a disappointment to find that all the buildings are closed and will soon be demolished, no pool, no hot tub. A tricky entrance awaits anyone wanting to stay in Schooner Cove, so go when seas are a bit calm and preferably at a high tide.
A nice stay, but not one we would not do again.

August 31 - September 2 - Jedidiah Island

Mike & Bettys "Grand Boat" - The Duke

View to Sabine Channel from Friends Bay

Cattails growing on the Rocky Island

Glorious Sunset from Friends Bay

The arrival of our grand boat, "The Duke" - is exciting. CJ (our son) has spent all of his former years boating with mom and Daddy and is ready to sail away on his own.
We meet up with Gulf Island, Funtime and The Duke in a little bay north of Jervis Island in Sabine Channel. This bay has been nicknamed "Friends" Bay as it has no name on the chart. It appears quite exposed and if you do not anchor correctly in the back of the bay, it is. We rocked all night long with swells from Sabine Channel and at 5:00 am when the noise changed, I went up on deck and to my horror, both our dinghy and Funtime's dinghy were gone. Gulf Island still had her dinghy firmly attached, but the other two were nowhere to be seen. I quickly awaken the group to notify them of this turn of events and we put on a pot of coffee and wait until first light to go search. We immediately report to Coast Guard the missing dinghy's incase they are floating out in Sabine Channel and are a hazard to navigation. Were they stolen? How come only two of the three dinghies were gone? Coast Guard advises us to contact the RCMP and report the missing dinghies for insurance purposes......
At first light, we get CJ to fire up The Duke and ask Scott to take the puppies to shore prior to going out on the big search. We are theorizing about the disappearance and are in denial about tieing up the dinghies too loosely in that they would float away....surely they must have been stolen! Scott is gone a long time with the one remaining dinghy and the dogs are anxiously awaiting a pick up on shore to come back to the boats. When Lo & behold, out of the surf comes Scotty towing in both of our dinghies. They are sitting gently bobbing up and down on the other side of our little island.....
We do not know how they escaped, let alone together and past two stern lines and or a very narrow channel behind our boats, but we do know that they stuck together and were neatly awaiting to be picked up. A very strange episode indeed!
The island is very diverse in flora, on one end of our little island, there is a marsh with cattails and frogs, on the other end, there are succulant plants related to the cactus family and flowering thistles and crickets. The island is perhaps 150 yards across (a Large rock really) with one side having arid like conditions and the ocean side has marsh like conditions.

Aug 29 & Aug 30 - Pender Harbour

We arrive at Pender Harbour and spend a couple of nights cleaning up and getting ready to meet family for the Labour Day Weekend. We are pleasantly surprised that our "Outstation" at Pender is under new owners. Some of the rules are changing and they are now Dog friendly. Time will tell whether the new owners are a good thing for the club.
Bean and Scott meet us on Friday night and we anxiously await the arrival of our "Grand Boat." Gulf Island and CJ in his new boat are stuck in Vancouver waiting out weather and we will see them tommorrow.

Definition of Grand Boat - when you son does not give you grand babies, but buys a boat instead!

Aug 28 - Grace Harbour to VanAnda

The weather is lightening up somewhat today, with brisk winds from the Southeast. In this part of the coast, this means more rain! We depart Grace Harbour and will come back here some day when its hot and sunny. A stop for a few hours in Powell River, Lunch with my sister and a quick shop to restock Food & Booze. The public marina is full to extreme, with every slip rafted 4 deep. People think we are crazy to be leaving the safety of Powell River Harbour to go to who knows where!
As we head the 4 1/2 miles across from Powell River to Vananda Texada, it starts to get a bit exciting. The seas are at least 7-8 feet on our beam, not to bad, but Mike decides to "Tack" a bit as we will never make it into the opening of the marina. Dave & Penny have "reserved" a spot on the dock for us and are watching us from the breakwater. According to them, there were times that the waves were so high, it covered our boat up completely with ocean spray. I can attest to that as I was sitting on the bridge, listening to things in the main salon crashing and banging around, but was not leaving my chair to go see. Not to mention that the dog had his talons dug right into my feet, so in effect, my feet were nailed to the floor. At one point, the waves were so high, that they were spraying through all the zippers and it was like we were being sprayed by a fire hose. Mike and I looked at each other like drowned rats and had a bit of a laughing fit. We safely make it into the marina, and it takes about an hour to dry everything out (including all of our electronics on the bridge), de-salt all the windows and canvas (so we can see out again)and we join the group on the dock to watch the storm from the safety of our moorage. Vananada is a good place to hide out from bad seas. Not many people know that this little marina exists, but mark it in your books for a safety haven in bad seas.
We had jokenly said that after 5 months, we were due to get the crapped kicked out of us and sure enough, Malaspina Strait did not disappoint!

August 27 & 28 - Grace Harbour

Just a few of the 25 boats in Grace Harbour

Oceanaire leaving us to go home

River up Lancelot Inlet

To our recollection, we have not seen it rain this hard in Desolation Sound for many many years. The wind is blowing 20 knots and a good many of the 25 boats anchored in here must be waiting out the winds. There was jockeying for position last night in the wind, but for the most part, the anchors held.

It was a sad sight for us to see Oceanaire leave this morning bringing to an end, "The Crazy Canadian Trio Floatila". With the last member of our small "Alaska Bound" Floatilla gone, we are back to where we started, in Desolation Sound (only with a brand new Anchor Winch).

We are reflective over all we have done and seen in the past 5 months, up and down our beautiful coast with Dave & Penny and Wayne & Cathy. We were a good fit as travelling companions and have had some very good side splitting laughs and adventures up and down our coast, not to mention the rousing card games! We have seen places and things that will be taken back by nature (sooner than later) and were lucky enough to venture into Whale back yards and Grizzley Summer homes. Mother Nature has treated us well with very few storms and some great summer weather. She allowed us a few salmon, crabs, prawns and the epicurean delights we enjoyed were 5 Star! We have started a list of all the places we wanted to do but ran out of time and these place and events will be saved for our next "Great Adventure North".

Mike and I are having a hard time even thinking about the reality of assimilating ourselves back into "Real Life" but sooner or later, the reality of Big City life will come back into focus.

I will continue to report on our trip home as we have another week out before we head back under Lions Gate Bridge, so stay tuned. I will be entering in side trips into this blog that covers areas we have visited on previous trips but did not do this time, so in time, this blog will become a complete accounting of our meanderings up coast BC and Alaska. There are charts to be entered, mileage logs and yes...even meals enjoyed along the way!

August 26 - Blind Channel to Grace Harbour

We woke up to a heavy blanket of fog this morning and the vhf radio squawking that we were in for 40 knot winds tonight. So we bid farewell to our new found friends that are heading south to the States via Nanaimo and we motored through the Dent Rapids to Desolation Sound. Our destination is Grace Harbour in Okeover Inlet where we have not stayed before. Its a good place to hide from the winds and if the weather improves, we can maybe get some fresh oysters off the beach!

August 25 - Lagoon Cove to Blind Channel

"Wing on Wing" Sailing in Johnston Strait

Summer has arrived in Blind Bay

With the Sunshine comes the foggy mornings

Blind Bay Store, Post Office, Liquor Store

Our first choice to moor for the night was Cardero Lodge (aka "The Schnitzel Place) -but it was fully booked. So we turned right in Cardero Channel and went over to Blind Channel Marina for the night. It has been over 10 years since we have been here and although it was a pleasant stay, the moorage is almost double ($1.50 foot) over every where else we have stayed and power was up to $20.00 per night. Apparently last year, costs were the same as everywhere else at .85 cents and $10.00 for power. Because the marina was full, I suspect that we subsidized their power costs for when they are not so full.

The meal in the restaurant was good and we were glad to see that most of the boaters there supported the marina with a dinner reservation. There is a semi-stocked gov't liquor store there and a well stocked food store.

The next generation of owners are now running Blind Channel with Papa being semi retired.

August 24 - Echo Bay to Lagoon Cove

Owner Bill going out to get Happy Hour Prawns

Mike & Betty Enjoying Happy Hour

Siblings waiting to be fed

Historic Minstrel Island

Minstrel Island in the Background

Misty Morning

The ride from Echo to Lagoon is improving, with the falling of cats and dogs (rain) almost down to mice and rabbits! There are a few "Sucker Holes" of sunshine popping up and we are looking forward to seeing Bill & Jean at Lagoon. Most everyone has pulled out of Echo Bay this morning and its a mass exodus south! We expect that most of the boats we saw in Echo will be in Lagoon when we get there!
We arrived at Lagoon Cove to find about 4 of the boats we have been travelling with since Shearwater tied up to the dock. The sun has come out and I do beleive it is shorts time! Happy hour is at 5:00 pm and we have been invited to "Grand Lady" for dinner tonight. A wonderful meal and an early night for the next leg of our trip.

When you leave Lagoon Cove, you go through a narrow channel called the "Blow Hole" - upon exiting the "Blow Hole" you pass historic Minstrel Island. Back in the 40's, Minstrel Island was the focal point of the lower Broughtons with a dance hall, post office, pub & hotel. Today, it has fallen into a bit of a funk with the new owners developing the back of the island and the marina sort of lapsing into a free for all for moorage and amenaties.

Bill & Jean of Lagoon have done a fine job and we expect that we will see them back next year. Way back in April, I had written that they were looking for new caretakers, it appears that Pat & Bob will be staying on for the winter and that Bill & Jean can go south with the comfort of knowing that their place will be well looked after.

August 22 & 23 - Pierres at Echo Bay

Carving up the Pig at the Roast

Due to Bat Infestation, the old hotel will be gone next year

Pierre's Lodge in Echo Bay

We had heard many times over the years from fellow boaters that we should go at least once to partake in the pig roast at "Pierres". We had tried a few times before but it was always full, so this year, it was on our list of things to try. We managed to a get a reservation this trip, the hook in getting your slice of pig, is you have to stay 2 nights. Up until this spring, Pierres was in Scott's Cove but in early April, almost all of the buildings were moved over to Echo Bay. All of the docks are new and there is not much left of the original marina at Echo Bay. There are plans for aggressive growth here with a large lodge and the selling of interests in 2 fourplexes, the owner Jerome told us informally that this will be somewhat like Poets Cove in the Gulf Islands when complete. Some of us will like that and some will not, but it appears, it will be a popular destination for a lot of boaters in the future. That is good for all the operators up here as the more people that get drawn up, the busier everyone else will be. We beleive that there is plenty of "Yachtie Pie" to go around with each establishment having something different to offer.

All of the docks are new, there is ample power and lots of color in the way of fresh flower baskets. The store is well stocked and all that they are missing in our estimation is a Liquor Store.

August 19 - 21 - Shawl Bay

Lagoon behind Shawl

Everything is so bright & Cheerful

Lorne's Flowers add the crowning touch

Who needs the Sunshine?

Shiloh (Kobi's new best friend)

Why go anywhere else?

It is good to be back at Shawl Bay. We have missed seeing Lorne who has gone to Pt Hardy to do engine repairs on his water taxi. It is bright, hot and Sunny the First Day, a bit dreary the second and sunny the third day we are there. Shawn, Robbie and Mike are keeping the boaters happy with a potluck dinner one night, fish fry the second and we are gone the third night. We have run into alot of the boats that we have been travelling with on our return from Alaska. Everyone is on the same route to get home for the fall.

The hottub is working, but we are busy with happy hours, chatting with old and new friends, that it slips our mind to sneak in after dark! The place looks spanky clean and very homey with all of their flowers in bloom.

While there we gunkholed to Moore Bay and around the corner to Belleisle inlet. We had a thoroughly enjoyable stay and are sad to leave to continue our trek home.

August 18 - Jennis Bay to Shawl Bay

Who's the Bearded Guy?

Its a beautiful sunny morning and we head off to Shawl Bay for a few days. We have appreciated the hospitality from Tom & Allison and hope that they have had a great summer season. The weather is apparently changing (again) and all the marina's up here are full up for the night except for maybe Sullivan.
We arrive at Shawl Bay in time for Lunch and get caught up with all the news of their summer.

August 15,16 & 17 - Fury Cove to Jennis Bay

Bravo from Jennis was attacked by a wolf - lost his eye

The end of Wayne & Cathy's Great Alaskan Adventure

Towing a New Cabin back to Jennis

Yummy Mussels off the log boom!

Less & Less of this old coastal ferry remain

Fireworks put on by Jennis Bay

A "bare" of a different kind

Jennis Bay cook house and gift store

We pulled out in thick as pea soup fog and headed south for the Broughtons. We pulled out with about 5 other boats from Fury and we all set our radars to "3 Mile" and proceeded to thread the rocks from Fury to Wells Passage. This is the first time in about 20 years that yours truly got a bit sea sick. I don't know if it was because I was reading or because the swells were genuinely making me ill. Oh well, it only lasted an hour and I was right as rain. There was no chop but a gentle swell from the west. Halfway downn, we started to here chatter between some of the other south bound travelling boats and the Seattle Ferry "Columbia" - and there looming out of the fog and coming in between us and some rocks was the biggest, bluest, gigantic Ferry steaming towards us. We are amiss to understand why in dense fog, the ferry would have taken the most treacherous route for the crossing? All other large vessels go out in the middle and stay in their perspective shipping lanes. They were a bit nasty to some of the boats on the radio and I am sure there will be some letters written as to the stupidity of the ferry.
The fog lifted when we were almost in Wells Passage and we decided to go into Drury Inlet to see Jennish Bay as Wayne and Cathy had never been. A three night stay is in order so that we can do the motorbiking and gunkholing portion of our stay. Check back with you later with photos and adventures.

Day 2 in Jennish - The marina is full and we are very pleased for the owners! There is a group here from Salt Spring Yacht Club and they are having a ball having a rendevous and playing real life survivor. Deep fried Kelp was in there pot luck supper (kind of like kelp chips). The boys went biking with Wayne taking a turn on Dave's bike to explore all of the back roads here. They found the lake and I beleive that Dave and Penny went Chunky Dunkin'! (refer to Ketchikan post for definition) We went high speed gunkholing up into Acteon Sound and up to Tsibass lagoon. At the entrance we ran into the gang from Saltspring Yacht Club with the help of Tom the owner, towing back an old float house to Jennish Bay. Quite the undertaking as it is a bit lopsided and in danger of sinking on the one end.
The water in the lagoon was 74 degrees, too bad the tide switches so quickly as we would have gone for a swim. If you miss the tide change in this lagoon, you will find yourselves going down a waterfall in your dinghy with rocks and other dangers all around. We did manage to make it to the end of the lagoon for the first time! On the way back, we stopped at the old logging camp and there on the log booms, was a Sow black bear and cub, feeding off of the mussels growing on the boom. Another First!

Our new friends Pete the Plumber and his wife Donna were also here as was Ocean Dawn (we met in Ocean Falls & Shearwater). We invited them in the Dinghy with Mike and I went with Cathy on our gunkhole (assuming they signed a waiver.....j/k) Alot of fun was had and we settled into our last night of cards with the 6 of us as Wayne & Cathy are hot footing it back to Vancouver for BYC Club duties.

REMINDER TO ALL YOU FAITHFUL READERS

Late Afternoon Fog raising

Even Humpbacks were out in the Fog

Oceanaire just barely seen in the fog

"Gorilla in the Mist"

Boats anchored in Fury doing the Crossing Tommorrow with us

Shaman in the Mist

Our Beautiful Coast in spite of the Fog

Over the course of our trip, we have had sporadic internet service and when we were able to get internet, it was usually public access (ie;libraries) and or short times through wireless. Hence, alot of the blogs did not have photographs. Over the next few days while we are in the Broughtons, we hope that our signal will be strong enough to fully update all days and their respective photographs. Please make sure you scroll backwards to see some of the latest updates on photographs. There are some amazing photographs (Especially Daves jumping whale shots!) please go back to older posts and get the updates.

Photos above are from our crossing of "Cape Caution" southward bound in the fog. See above post for all the details.

August 14 - Kismeet Bay

Moonrise at Kismeet

Falcon Fishing beside our boats

As if to say "Whad Ya Lookin' At"

Talking Whale

Bye Bye Evesdropping Humans

We have driven by this bay many times over the years and have never had the forsight to stop in. We had heard good things from different people and slowly made our way into a very scenic bay just off of Fitzhugh Sound. The bay is filled with large schools of herring - minus two. Minus Two? Dave was fishing off the bow of Oceanaire and managed to land himself two of the largest herring we have ever seen. They are about the size of the pinks he was catching earlier on in this trip! We froze them in the hopes that Mike would be able to get a nice Spring Salmon with them!
We went off highspeed gunkholing and managed to sneak through a ditch that took us clear through to the next channel (Burke Channel) and on the way back to our anchorage, we stopped to see the whales. I have never experienced hearing whale calls before, I never knew they could be so vocal. They sound like very loud Trumpets mixed with a bit of a fog horn. They would come to the surface and through their blow holes would make this loud sound that echoed off of the surrounding land and then another whale in the distance would answer. What a treat that was!
After our return from our amazing gunkhole, we were sitting outside having a drink when we heard the sound of the blowhole of a whale and there in front of Oceanaire, was one of the whales feeding. This bay must have been part of his dinner circuit! Another First for us all.

As we pull out in the morning in the fog, we pass two whales at the entrance to Kismeet. A mom and Baby. We are probably about 50 feet away when they surface and both blow simultaneously. What a stink! I ran back into the bridge of the boat and said to Mike, if whales fart through their blow holes, they sure stink! Probably just bad breath?

Aug 12 & 13 - Ocean Falls

Curious Otters

Oldest Building in Ocean Falls circa 1920's

View of Dam from Above

Spillway with broken bridge

Tennis anyone?

Debris in Gunboat Standing Straight Up

Martin Valley Fishing Rules

Check your oil Sir?

Bit of Color in Ocean Falls

Ocean Belles Store

Still one of our favorite stops. And this particular time in Ocean Falls is special as its hot and Sunny! Out of the 1/2 dozen or so times that we have been here, we have been lucky with weather. The bridge is collapsed (in May 2008), making it difficult for the residents to get fuel for their vehicles and dispose of their garbage. Being this far away from any amenities, the residents have made a new burning dump and are able to get fuel by going over via boat and filling jerry cans with gasoline (for their vehicles).

Mike and Dave & Penny went biking to the other side of Town to see if they could get to Martin Valley Lake. 8 miles into the bush, Mike's bike quit.....turns out one of his favorite things not to do, check the oil, bit him in the backside. There was no oil in his bike, so ingeniously he drained some out of his crank case and refilled the oil (albeit old) enough to get him started up and the 20 some odd miles back to the boats.

We have met great folks here from Vancouver, Heriot Bay and Powell River.

The crabbing has been awesome, prawning not so good.

Aug 10 & 11 - Shearwater

In the Spirit of the Olympics - a Swan Dive?

Dryad Point Lighthouse

Chance of a lifetime Shot

Woooo Hoooo

Excellent Shots Dave!

Breathtaking

A friendly Tail Wave

A ton of Fun

Until the next time

Shearwater Terrorists

A lumpy ride from Tate to Shearwater where we were able to re-provision, fuel up and eat dinner in the Pub! Enroute through Millbank sound, Mike saw a huge whale jump right out of the water, by the time we waited and had camera ready, the whale had moved on. However, the same whale did run into Dave and Penny who were at that time two mile behind us and they were treated to a spectacular show! These are once in a lifetime sightings, so we hope you enjoy Dave's photos (even without the telephoto lens)
We bumped into the Simpson's (BYC)here and they are going back out for a few weeks in the general area. Sambuca looks good and has managed to get power on the dock. Shearwater is the central stop for all of those boaters going North or South and here we run into a boat we have seen numerous times in Alaska. "IMB" - we go over to talk to them and meet two very nice people. Jim and Karon are very avid boaters and do a fair amount of winter boating on the sunshine coast. IMB by the way means "Its My Boat". We also ran into Mike and Bernice whom we met back in April at Shawl Bay.
We will be heading back to Ocean Falls for the night. Excellent clear water to fill up our tanks. We hope to meet up with Wayne & Cathy in Fury Cove at weeks end and wait for the weather to make the crossing. There is a storm up here now, but we will not feel it where we are going. Leaving Shearwater is always a signal that we are en route home, so it's kind of bittersweet. Its the busiest we have ever seen it with all the docks full and 11 boats anchored in front of Shearwater.

August 9-10 - Tate Cove, Aristazabal Island

Rick & Jeanne House and Boat

View from our boats to the Pacific

Sandy Beach on our beachcombing expedition

A reminder on a dreary winter day of our adventure

Fisherman's plant - False Arelia? NOT

Some of the glass balls that Rick & Jeanne have found

Sunset at Tate Cove

Large Sandpiper on the Beach

Good Bye Sun for a few days

We left Surf Inlet at the crack of 8:00 and puttered over the 10 miles to a little nook on the outside of Aristazabal. Mike and I stopped to fish where we saw all of the fishing camp boats, without much success. When we arrived in our anchorage, we were surprised to see that the fish camp and a small float home were also in the bay. In the afternoon, we started to go gunkholing and ran into a fellow coming back from shore to his floathome. He invited us over to visit his home and meet his wife. Rick and Jeanne have been living on their hand built floathome for the last three years in this very isolated place, except for May - September when the Fish Camp comes in. They are the ultimate beach combers, having made their house 80% out of wood and stuff that they have found on the beach. They have found in the neighborhood of 1000 glass balls and some pretty neat miscellaneous stuff. Twice a year, they hop in their sailboat and take the long trip into Kitimat to pick up supplies. I admire them their tenacity to live in this isolated area, recycling what storms bring up on the beaches around them. We had a nice pot luck dinner with Rick and Jeanne and decided to spend an extra night here to go beach combing ourselves with the hopes of finding even one glass ball.
The next morning, we loaded up the dinghies with dogs and stuff and headed over to the Anderson Islets about 3 miles out. Being neophytes at this beach combing business, we did all right! Mike found a bamboo walking stick, and one glass ball. Penny found a sea lion skull, back bone and flipper and a skull of a dolphin. Betty found a wooden fishing float and pretty shells.

August 8 - Surf Inlet

Waterfall up Surf Inlet

Mergansers on the run

Dave & Penny in front of the Dam

Remains of the Mine Powerhouse

100 year old Dam still Standing

We left with the high tide in the morning to make the 25 mile trip down from Ethelda to Surf Inlet. In my mind, this inlet has been the biggest let down in so far as what we had expected to see. Friends had gone in here years ago and told us how beautiful it was and that the name of the inlet was everything you should expect......So from "Surf Inlet" what would you expect??? It turned out to be a 17 mile long yawner. The cruising books talk about an old ore mine that we could hike to at the end of the inlet, but turns out that it was a 14 mile hike in and 14 mile hike out...so we did not bother. The power plant that was built at the end of the inlet is barely standing, but the dam is pretty nifty (still intact after 100 years) The inlet was rough but no surf or white sandy beaches, no wildlife and only one bay that would suffice in a big blow. Penn Harbour (the bay we anchored in)was also blowing when we anchored, and we felt that in a true big wind, it would not be a safe place. The only surprising thing we found was the old logging road by the dam and power plant that had about 6 trailers and 2 boats on the lake and more rope and netting that you could shake a stick at....we thought this might have been a shingle operation at one point, but no one has been here at least two years (we found an old calender that the mice didn't eat)
Two thumbs down for Surf Inlet, we would have been better to go into one of the many other bays that we passed on the way here.

August 6 & 7 - Ethelda Bay (Estavan Group)

Odd Find in the middle of no-where

Beachcombing in the fog

Radio Room

Happy Campers

Rabbit Resident at Ethelda

Pucker Factor 4 Entrance

Betty on Top of the World - Helipadding it!

Lake on the Island

Sign leftover from 50's

New Friends from Dawson

Today by far was the shortest travelling day yet. We crossed 4 miles across the channel to the group of Islands called the Estavan Group. Our goal was to get to "Trutch" Island to see the radio towers and the remains of a Army base camp that oversaw the building and maintaining of the Radio equipment during the "Cold War". We saw the tower and went across the bay from Trutch Island to tie up at Ethelda Bay.

Ethelda Bay was the original base camp for the building and maintenance of the Radio Tower. The radio room, Helipad and a few out buildings still remain. They are owned by 2 fellows out of Vancouver and Rupert and were being caretaken by Dan & Danielle Pollard. When bad things happen up here, they strike hard! It appears that Dan died of a massive heart attack in Prince Rupert in February of this year and Danielle is now undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment in Rupert. Their home and the starts of a resort are orderly and thankfully not ransacked but will need some TLC soon if they are to maintain what has been done here so far. We know from some of the other places on the coast, that it does not take long for nature to take its own back. Dave took the dinghy to Trutch to see if he could find the road to the tower, but it was to overgrown and would require a machete to make it up to the tower.

We had just come back from our walk around the property and up to the Radio room and Helipad, when we heard what sounded like the Navy coming in! Four high speed 30' powerboats were screaming into the bay and heading straight for us at the docks. Turns out they are all one big family and they drive 13 hours from Dawson City to Kitimat to launch their boats and then drive the 5 or so hours from Kitimat to Ethelda and spend 2 weeks killing all they fish they can and then returning home. They were a very organized bunch, with freezers, plastic sealers and a big black book noting their catches against their fishing licence numbers so that all would be sorted out properly when they got home. They even had a portable fire pit and ax with them and they had a nice fire on the night we were all on the dock together.