July 20-21 - Turnbull Cove

After a brief stop at Sullivan Bay for fuel and some greenery (produce) we head up to Turnbull Cove.  We run into Tim and Kaarina, Colin and Heather, who made their way down this morning.  It was not a nice crossing for them, so we will give them time to have a nap until we harass them into telling us where they’ve been since we last saw them in Khutze Inlet.

Still no sign of Sea Raven, but the last AIS sighting showed leaving Hakai and heading down to Fury Cove.  Gotta Love that AIS.  I think next year we will have it.   We have the capacity to see others, but so far, we have been pretty good at evading everyone! :)

This morning, two of the three “Albineers” came in.  The “Albineers are three Albins around 25 feet that were up in Shearwater when we were up in that neck of the woods.  One of the Albineers is Faye’s brother, Tim.  Before we know it, they are on shore and  hiking up to the lake!  We did not get a chance to say hi to them as we are now pulling up anchor and heading to Lady Boot, you guessed it, halibut fishing

 

MV Honour - part of the " Albineers"

The second of three "Albineers"

 

July 19 - Dickson Island

We are now into a new anchorage, Dickson Anchorage, in behind Dickson Island just off of Wells Passage.  It was so flat calm out, we stopped to halibut fish along the way (in the middle of Queen Charlotte Sound) – no fish but sure was calm.

In the afternoon at high tide, we gunkholed over to Carter Passage, which connects Greenway Sound with the open ocean.  First time we have made it through.  No way to ever get the big boats through!

Gunkholing up Carter Pass - Osprey

View to Greenway Sound - we made

 it all the way through

Flat Calm Crossing! "Gulf Island"

Someone's bent that they didn't

get to come gunkholing!

July 18 - Tracy Arm or thereabouts

Off early this morning to the other side of Queen Charlotte Sound.  The ocean is flat calm, there is a bit of fog, but nothing to worry about.  We have not heard from the rest of the group and hope they made it safely back down.

Lo and Behold - this morning as we are raising anchors etc.and getting ready to leave, there is a very large Sea Otter in our bay.....must have drifted in last night sometime.  We also notice some of that yucky algae bloom that we saw up north.  No clamming this trip!

We continue to watch AIS for Sea Raven and see that they have moved from Fognar to Hakai.  Hope they caught some halibut!

View at Dinner time from Hidey Hole

Nice Moon over our wee anchorage

Note the foreground - similar sludge outside Hidey Hole
that we saw near Banks Island

 

July 16 - 17 - Hidey Hole

Two days of winds making us feel quite smug in our Hidey Hole.  The fishing is awesome and we are secure in our anchorage.  Tony catches a 25 lber, 15 lb. and about a 10 lb coho.  Woo hoo.....Fish on!

We have a lot of laughs and get caught up with news from home!

Well done Sir!

July 15 – crossing back to Port McNeil side.

We leave early in the morning and wind out way through the Spider group of islands and start our journey south.  We will miss being on the central coast but know that we will be back soon! We see our first pod of Killer whales this morning and report back to Rick and Faye who joined us yesterday but are on a different return schedule to us. 

We make it to the Hidey Hole leaving at 7:00 am from the McNaughton Group and arrive @ 5:00 pm in the Hidey Hole.  A bit of a swell at the bottom of Rivers and after Cape Caution, we rec'd the swell on our stern, making for a comfortable ride down!  By the time we arrive in the island north of Port Hardy, it is windy and there is about a 2' chop.  We arrive to Tony and Gayle anchored with a nice secure sternline to shore!

What a great time we have had, both with old and new friends!  My personal highlight has been the Sow and Triplet cubs in Khutze Inlet, followed closely by the howling wolves in Parsons anchorage.

First Killer Whale sighting in a month

Calm out - gotta go!

Bye Bye Spider Group

July 13, 14 – McNaughton Group

We arrive back in time from Bella Bella for check out of Shearwater and we leave Rick and Faye behind and head down to the McNaughton group.  We find a nice anchorage that is sheltered from the swell and wind and Mike spends a couple of days fishing.

 Beauty day fishing with Mike catching about a 40lb. spring (Chinook) on the second night.

 

 

Mikes Smile is as big as the fish!

July 12 – Shearwater

We finally get on the dock at Shearwater, the reservation that Rick made held.  Gotta love that satellite phone!  We run into more BYC’ers – “Celiadh” and have dinner with Bill and Eileen that night.  We are not guaranteed a second night stay, so early in the morning, we (Rick, Faye and myself) run over to Bella Bella in the dinghy to see what’s new. 

If ever a place should get an award for the best makeover, it’s Bella Bella (known also as Waglisla).  The newly built store is fully stocked with an in-store bakery….mmmmm  fresh bread and fresh raisin bread.  Produce is not wilty and plenty of it.  Dairy has some good long dates on it!  Should have not spent all our money on food in Shearwater, but should have stopped here.  Oh well, for next time!

The beaches are all cleaned up, the people super friendly and the new longhouse is still being built.  The display centre is a must see!

Beautiful Exterior Painting on the Bella Bella Display Centre

Giant Bentwood Box

Beautiful Artwork in Display Centre

Dryad Point

Canoe that was used in the 2014 Tribal Canoe Trip

July 10 & 11 – St. John’s Harbour

An uneventful run from Parsons Anchorage to St. John’s Harbour.  Just as we are heading into the bay to anchor for a few days, the swells are picking up and the wind starts to build to 20 knots.  Timing is everything up here if you wish to have smooth crossings and an unharried wife!  Mike and Rick fish for two days with a net result of a couple of coho each and a couple of springs each.  Catch and release for a few springs to save room on the dance card for the elusive 50 lber.

Both Faye and I are out of produce now and our meals (although still very tasty) now have frozen or canned veggies as the accompaniment. After being safely anchored out of the wind for a few days, its time to get caught up with internet, groceries and a meal out!

Sunset in St. John's

Nearing our approach to St. Johns - Flat Calm

Couple hours later - not so calm

July 9 – Kitisou Bay – Swindle Island – Parsons Anchorage

A nice run down on fairly calm seas to another new bay to stay in.  Well almost a restay.  We were tied to Sea Raven, optimum word, were.  When the anchor went down, it was nice and calm, winds were forecast to be light.  We took off gunkholing and whale watching.  Some great anchorages that the douglas book says not to go into – not be-labour a point, but the book errs hugely on the side of caution.  We found quite a few nice, calm, protected and scenic bays that the book says local knowledge only or not recommended.  Pshaw I say.  After a nice gunkhole and some good whale watching, we head back to the boats.  The winds have picked up some and its quite rocky rolly in the bay.  After dinner, we choose to separate and we anchor separately.  I ended up putting the glasses down and the jewellery down as the rolling is now sideways and I was worried that stuff would start being tossed to the floor.

It finally settles down enough for me to go outside for a smoke for fear that I would get tossed into the water J - what do I hear, wolves howling to the moon behind our boat, the very place where ruby had been playing on shore.  Spooky!  I did wake up around 3:00 am to hear the wolves had moved on to the bush beside the starboard side of the boat (around 50 feet away!) – not taking Ruby to that beach again!  Ruby gets taken to the beach on an island after we lift anchor and head out of the bay.  There we are greeted by Humphrey the Humpback doing acrobatics and lifting its side flipper to wave goodbye!

 I do not recommend this anchorage but rather Cowards cove or the unmarked inlet to the east of Parsons.

My travelling companians!

Flat as can be!

View looking out of Parsons Anchorage

Humphry the Humpback saying Good Morning

And saying goodbye

This humpback was swimming around and feeding

in @ 40 feet of water

 

July 8 – Tate Cove – Aristabel Island

A fishing we will go, a fishing we will go, but hi ho the fishing sucks, a fishing we will go.  Nothing around the top end of Aristabel.  Both Rick and Mike fish for the afternoon along with the North King Lodge boats, no-one appears to be catching anything.  It is turnaround day for the lodge as the helicopters are coming in non-stop – picking up guests that are leaving and dropping off new guests for the next few days.  The hardy couple on their float home are still there (tucked in behind the lodge) and their house appears to be twice the size.  There was probably good Flotsam and Jetsom finds to be able to add on this amount of house.  There is also another Gulf Commander in the bay – “Sundance” – from the Victoria area.

We anchor and have Rick tie to us so that he can fix his anchor – the swivel is not allowing his anchor to flip up into the holder the right way so he has been leaving it down a few inches .  All fixed now Rick and Faye anchor at the back end of the bay.

July 7 – Campania Island – McMicking Bay

The west side of Campania Looks like Hawaii (without the palm trees) with many miles of white sandy beaches. But don’t let the beauty fool you, I was remembering a story from one of our friends from Kitmat that camped on these beaches and how they heard wolves during the night and in the morning found out that the wolves had peed all over the corners of their tent to mark their territory.  I am leery of letting Ruby run but Mike says nonsense!  No drama and Ruby is one tired puppy.  Mike pounds it out fishing for a few hours while we wait for Rick and Faye to come in.  We anchor with Rick and Faye at the head of McMicking Bay.  Drizzly night and bit of SE wind but a restful night.

July 6 - Ethelda Bay - Trutch Island

Sad history here and I am afraid there is not much left of the original dream for a retreat/camp in Ethelda Bay.  I will update from an earlier Post

Massive red lions main jellyfish in this bay, we are scared to run our generators,

New Radio tower!

Sea Raven across the bay

Pretty calm in here!

100's of these uglies in the bay

July 5 – No-Name bay – Banks Island

We wove our way across to Banks Island and saw possibly the grossest thing in the water.  We are not sure if its an algae bloom or something else, but the bright orange water is not appealing.  I hope to post video but there are stills below of how thick it was.  Its almost a sludge.  In hindsight, we should have taken a sample to take home to see what it was.  There is miles of it around the sound and throughout Principe Channel.  Mike and I opt to sneak into the inner bay and lo and behold there is already a sailboat in.  This was a pucker 7 channel.  10 feet in at low tide with kelp all over the place so hard to see the bottom.  We opt to go the safe route out, but its not so safe, the chart shows a rock on the  starboard side, but in reality, its on the port side, we just squeaked by it.  Well, enough exceitement for one day!  We head back out and go to the “safe bay” where Rick and Faye are anchored.  We leave the sailboat and her occupants in their peace and solitude.

Its hot and sunny out without a breeze and no clouds!  A gunkholing trip out into “Calamity” Bay, which is aptly named for all the rocks everywhere.  In the middle of one of the islands is so much colour with wild flowers (Columbine, Paint Brush, and a couple of others I can’t name – yet) we find a brand new bubble to replace the one we found years ago up here for the prawn trap!  Lots of abalone shells on the beach and Ruby gets a chance to run  to expend some of that pent up energy.  I am a bit wary of letting her go on some of the islands up here as it is wolf country.  We did find some more oriental bubbles etc. but they are not in any shape that we want to try and take them back.

Paintbrush

Unknown but very vivid!

Ask us about the rocks on this island one day!

Columbine

Unknown but one of my favourite colours.

Sea Raven at Anchor

Harlequin Ducks! 

 

 

July 4 – Tuwarthz Inlet

A new place we have never stayed before.  Although beautiful it lacks wildlife, birds (Only one - see below) or anything unusual.  We finally found an anchorage on the west side of inlet as its quite deep and made anchoring a chore.  Lots of Kitmatians in here and a “carson” (Navigator) boat deep in the lagoon.  We did some gunkholing and had a nice dinner and early to bed.

A bit of a `yawner`` but new place nonetheless.

Sunset in Thwartz

Pacific Loon (I think - or is a non-breeding Red Throated Loon?)

Someone has a cabin and dock way in the back lagoon

Large Ferret running around on the beach

 

July 3 – Hartley Bay

Congratulations to CJ and Shannon on the purchase of their new boat!  Another Tolly coming into the club!  I predict many great memories for the boys, CJ and Shannon! 

A quick stop to get dinghy fuel, fill up the water tanks, and catch up with telephone and internet before we head out to the outside to Campana Island and perhaps over to Trutch Island.  Back at you in about week.