Friday, July 25, 2014

Hidey Hole to Farewell Harbour




Thought I better clean up all these posts.....better late than never!  We spent 2 days sitting in our favourite hidey hole in Blackfish sound, alas....no fish to speak of.  Stopped into Port McNeil to fill up the boat with fuel and food.  Can it rain any harder?  Had a nice visit with Carol the Bead Lady who is now in Port McNeil.  She is missed in Shawl Bay for sure!  :)

Fury Cove to Hidey Hole

View Looking North as we cruise by the entrance to Smith Inlet


Fury Cove is extremely busy with last count of approximately 20 boats.  With a bit of bad weather, we can only guess everyone else is waiting to make the jump south, back to the heat and lack of rain!

It was a bit of lumpy ride down...but no fog.  I think we lucked out and missed all the wind.  The sun is going to shine today and we are headed to our favourite little hidey hole to do some fishing.

Fougnar to Fury Cove

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Shearwater to Fougnar Bay

Saturday - July 19 - The rain has stopped and we are following Raven Spirit to Fougnar Bay.  They are heading south the day after tomorrow (giving them a week to get home) and we will be heading back out to Spider Group Fishing.  we hope to make our Crossing sometime in the next week and catching up to the "outstation Tour!"

Well, we said our goodbyes to Raven Spirit and spent 2 nights in Fougnar Bay.  One more Halibut for the freezer and a change of weather.  I think we got one months worth of rain in just a few days.  Seas are calm and we will head to Fury Cove to wait weather to find the ideal crossing back south.

Barnard Harbour

Sunset in Barnard Harbour
We spent two nights in Barnard Harbour.  Last year when we were in here, there were no camps or resorts.  This year, we are in a month earlier and WestCoast Fish Camp is still in here.  We still managed to find a dock where once there was the five star "Pacific King Lodge" (now in receivership).  I think the mortality rate on businesses up here is quite high, there are so many factors for success, that it only takes one lean year to put them under.

There are a few fish around, Rick caught a nice 12-14 lb. Coho, but Mike and Ruby are at zero.  Lots of pinks and no whales.  Below is the photo of the Whale I took last year, with Gayle and myself in the dinghy.  The weather is still smoking hot, which is bringing out the little "no seeums" and with their itty bitty bites, leave these huge red welts all over your exposed skin!  A good spray of Raid in my bathroom before bed, yielded @ 150 dead bugs on my counter.  Good thing I did this as it would be a painful sleep with all those bugs!

Humpback Whale in Whale Passage - 2013
This has been the leanest year yet for seeing whales, although its the first time in about 7 years that we have seen Orca up here, but very few humpback.  Some years, there have been so many whales, we just sort of viewed them as everyday occurances.  Yet this year, our Federal Government has seemingly decided that there are plenty of Humpbacks and there is no need to protect them.  Our travels this year show this to be contrary.




Humpback Whale in Whale Passage - 2014


Friday, July 18, 2014

To hell and back and then to Shearwater

Take the northerly longer route of Oscar Pass or Moss passage?
So...remember our motto.....we leave late, don't go if its rough or windy, stay if the fishing is good!  None of the above applied today.  We had a quiet night in Pryce Inlet (an uncharted bay) with some Generator problems and some dinghy problems.  Both were not detrimental to our stay, but kind of urged us to head to Shearwater with Raven Spirit in case we needed to order parts.  We did leave later than Rick and Faye, but only by about 1/2 hour.  In retrospect, we should have stayed put and spent another night there!

The morning started off with the first rain we have seen this vacation.  A stiff breeze into our bay from the South east and low gloomy clouds....we are sometimes to dumb to read the signs - even after all this time on the water.  We thought it was best we head south as we couldn't get our generator started and the dinghy was doing some sputtering yesterday, so we hated to end up being stranded.  It started out fine at the top of Milbank Sound after we left our cosy bay.  The weather radio said it was only 4 feet at McGinnes - which is miles to the east of us with 2 islands separating us, so we thought...might as well try it, we can always come back.  But alas, we never do. 
A slight chop of @ 2 feet for the first hour and a bit and holey moley, 7 and 10 foot waves and holes that we were being tossed in.  The sound of items crashing and things being tossed around were enough to have us just sit tight and hold on.  With both hands braced and my legs wrapped around the dog (so she didn't go airbourne) - we bounced our way through.....it was an intense hour.  The fridge jumped out of its spot again and there wasn't anything left on the bunks up front......buttons, did I mention the buttons?  My sewing kit was on the front bunk with about a million buttons ( a slight exaggeration!) but when that kit blew off the bunk and sprayed buttons from one end of the boat to the other, it sure seemed like a million.

We opted to duck into Moss Passage to take the "backdoor" down to Shearwater rather than taking the longer route of Oscar Pass, as Oscar Pass would leave us with a beam sea for at least 1/2 hour versus going into it to head south down into Moss passage.  The scale of the map is that the route direct from our anchorage to Moss Pass is 30 nautical miles. Rick and Faye drop anchor in Boat Bay rather than go through any more of this yucky sea but I said, no keep going, I only want to clean up the boat once, I don't want to do it again tomorrow.

All is cleaned up with the only casualty being the doggie biscuit canister.  We will replace it Ruby!!!

Higgins Pass

Chart of Higgins Pass
Higgins Pass seperates Swindle Island and Pryce Island and when weather is not settled, it cuts about 30 miles off of your trip south.  We have gone through this pass before and found that if you are patient and wait for half tide (Halfway to high tide) - there is plenty of water for us to pass through.   Where I have the chart circled is the only real problem point and at half tide, we had 6.5 feet of water under us.  Our boat needs 3.5 feet to keep floating.  At low tide, its probably a good place to get clams as its sandy and dries up quite nicely!  This little bit of tension goes along way versus lumping it out in lousy seas.

Emily Carr Cove

A view to west from Emily Carr Cove
This picturesque cove is at the top West corner of Princess Royal Island.  My last chance to see a Kermode.  The heat must have definitely driven them up the mountains.  The rain forcast for tomorrow will definitely help the creeks and small rivers that the fish are waiting to go up.

This cove is one of the prettiest on the coast, with little islets dispersed between huge boulder bits sticking.  We spent a quiet bugless night there.

Lion's Mane Jellyfish - Abundant in this inlet

Skinny Entrance to our little cove

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Khutze Inlet

Raven Spirit coming out of the Fog

Khutze in the Morning Fog
Up Early and off to Khutze Inlet.  Perhaps one of our favourite anchorages on the coast!  Thick pea soup fog greet us as we pull out and we are in the soup for about 2 hours.  Once we headed up Finlayson Channel, it all disappeared with brilliant, cloudless skies of blue!  With luck, I can post this and then get caught up in about a week.  We are nearing Klemtu which includes some cell and internet service.
Leaving the Fog Behind enroute to Khutze Inlet

After a  brilliant day cruising to get to Khutze Inlet we are gleefully ready to drop anchor and drop our crab traps. What greets us is nothing short of being a participant in some sort of horror movie. (probably the starring roles!)  As I go to the bow to ready the anchor, I am swarmed with deer flies, 100's of them.  I ran back up to the bridge to get the bug spray, and saw Mike, with a zapper in both hands, trying to kill another 100.  We have never seen so many of the painful buggers in our lives!  We do get the anchor down and manage to go on a very big killing spree.....they appear to like the hot sunshine and anything that has a little dampness.....saltwater on the boat and human sweat perhaps?  Temperature was up in the low 30's (Celsius) so equally as hot as in the lower mainland (Vancouver).  I had some leftover screening that I found Mike Duct taping to the our bridge windows so that we wouldn't have to sit in side to get away from the nasty flies.  The sun goes down and they go away, and in come the little black flies that are equally as horrible.  We took the dinghy over to Raven Spirit for happy hour and burgers and not surprisingly, Faye went through the same trauma when she went to go drop the anchor! 
Arrow Post coming out of the Fog

We did run into Oceanaire and Dave and Penny joined us for a drink on Raven Spirit.

The next morning, after puppies went to shore, Rick came over by Dinghy to say, "We don't have to stay here"..........our anchor and crab trap was up so fast, I don't think Rick was even back to his own boat yet.  Its a shame about the bugs, but was not nice being in amongst the beasties and not being able to sit out on such a hot day.  Even the dogs and cats were not spared!
Waterfall in Khutz Inlet



Khutze drying Delta @ zero Tide
 

Idol Point


A proud Mike with 28 lb spring
Two nights @ Idol Point….yielded one 28 lb. spring for Mike and a very hot anchorage.  The weather is as hot up here as it is down there.  With the heat inland, comes the fog.
When we entered the bay that I think Rick and Faye have named “Eagle Bay” – there were floats strung on a line just about all around the bay.  After a bit of outrage that someone should try and keep us out of this anchorage, we deduced that they are holding Kelp.  It appears that this is a method of stringing kelp and in the Early spring when the herring spawn, the Bella Bella peoples can then just come and take off the Roe after spawn.  It’s the only logical explanation.  The bay is usually abundant with herring, so it stands to reason that there would be herring spawn in the spring.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Ruby's First Trip North

Since Ruby is a neophyte to both boating and to the north country, I thought it would be good to let you know how she is faring.


Ruby has turned into a fishing nut and get down right fretful if Mike leaves without her.  She seemingly is so puzzled about the whales, birds and fish (that Mike seems to never come home with!) --- we forget, its all new to her...the sights, sounds, smells.  She has had her first hose shower and shampoo after rolling in something quite dead and quite stinky on the beach.  All in all,she has adapted well  to the boating life in the north country - other than an accident on Sunseeker's bow, she has been very well behaved from a potty stand point.  She now understands that when she is on the dinghy in the morning going to shore, she is to do her business and get back for breakfast...there appears to be no dawdling!!  Good thing, because I am always concerned that there are wolves or bears around.  Best to see them from the boat. 

If the water is anything but flat calm, she pants her little face off and eventually tires herself out enough to sleep.  Ruby does not like anything more than a one foot chop and certainly doesn't like ocean swells. Thank god we haven't had any long days of any rough weather!  She loves to sleep on the bow at night or as in the case of the other night when there was a bit of ocean swell coming into our bay, she likes to sleep on our heads!  We have had her out running on beaches and she loves going for evening dinghy rides!

All for now, running out of internet time.......








Shearwater to Idol Point

View from our bay at Sunset!
After listening to whale sounds this morning, we came across two Killer Whales just to the entrance to Shearwater. Coincidence?  Perhaps.  First time we have seen them in years up here.

Shearwater is full up for another day, but we manage to get some dock space to run up get Beer, do laundry and load up on anything fresh they still have in the store....slim pickings today!  We have done as much internet as we can in a short period of time.

Signing off for now and hopefully when I next check in, I can upload photographs...got some beauts!  Signing in about a week.

Happy birthday tomorrow to both Shannon and Dorothy!  Hope you ladies have a killer birthday and we shall talk to you all soon.

Spider Group

We spent one night at "Dukies" beach and if Ruby has her way, probably the last night we spend there.  We were up all night with a nervous dog trying to crawl under the covers with us.  A slight swell came into the bay that night, which wasn't uncomfortable for us, but the dog was scared out of her mind. Since Ruby now rules the Shaman II, you can bet we won't be staying there again.  Weather has turned sunny but the remnents of the windstorm from a few days ago, is still making some of the bays a little uncomfortable.  Salmon win this round - Mike Zero!

Mike picks up the anchor and we head further into the inlet to get the calmest anchorage possible for our Ruby!  I'm kind of glad Ruby is a fraidy Dog........at least Mike won't make me stay in anything more than a slight chop!  We found another new bay and see that Lloyd and Sandy in Adiamo are in the next bay, we pop in for a quick visit and spend a restful night in this very peaceful bay.

The heat is upon us now....weather sure is beautiful.  I got up early this morning and heard 3 or 4 whales going by our little cove......if the tide had been a little higher, I may have seen them. 

Foughnar Bay to Spider Group

Immature Bald Eagle, sizing up Ruby!

Two beautiful days in Foughnar Bay - Halibut (catching - not fishing) abound in Jim's secret Fishing spot - thanks Jim for the pointers - we know you're sitting there somewhere with a line in the water!  A nice "chicken" size halibut for us and a halibut feast on Raven Spirit. 

We found a great beach in which to run Ruby to a "dog-tired" state....lots of white sand and shell beach.  Lots of eagles, harlequin ducks, osprey and whales.  Good photo of a full breach whale outside of Namu. (See Below
Harlequin Ducks a Plenty!


Namu -  What can we say....what damage wasn't done with the move out of Pete and Reeny - Mother nature took care of.  A potential environmental hazard if and when that ship tied to the docks goes down and what building weren't man-made destroyed will certainly be down with the first storm of the winter.  We just don't get it!

Only Active Humpback we have seen so far

Namu - one year closer to falling into the Sea

An Environmental Disaster in the making

Leaving the Hidey Hole to Fury Cove

After four days of fishing, playing cards and having some pretty fabulous meals, its time to head off again to points north.  5:00 am comes early and our merry little raft of friends and family split off, Gulf Island and Sunseeker head south to the Broughtons and Shaman II and Raven Spirit head off north.  If we didn't leave today, we would be stuck for another 4 days in the Hidey hole as the winds were projected to come in @ 35 knots that evening.

Flat calm seas greet our trek north and except for the tidal action in front of Slingsby Channel, its pretty nice cruising.  A low gentle north westerly swell allows us to get up around Cape Caution in @ 5 hours.  Since we are anticipating a big blow for a few days, we opt to not stop in Fury Cove but instead find a new place, called Phillips Inlet.  For as blowey as it got outside our little retreat, we didn't feel a ripple inside....it was pretty much a bomb shelter in this inlet.  Its even to rough to go out fishing in Fitzhugh Sound for both Rick and Mike.  The next day brings us Sunshine and we let the lines go and head up to Foughner Bay.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Meeting up with the Gang

"Gulf Island" coming in through the Cut
Off to the "Hidey Hole" - a completely hidden bay with a very small entrance that most boaters wouldn't dream of entering.  But then we are not "Most" boaters.
We have been coming here for over 5 years, its a great jump off point to head North.  When the fish are running and the whales are here, it makes for a restful time.  It keeps the boys occupied and there is lots of crabbing and prawning as well.
Sunseeker III Coming in through the Cut