Dreary but flat calm day
Klemtu on our left
Photo Gayle Robson
Breaching Humpbacks
Another dreary travel day. But no wind! Listening to the weather on the VHF radio this morning and its a good thing we made our crossing when we did. Its quite snotty down coast so our timing has been impeccable, thus far.
A good travelling day as we have to make a lot of miles today and we are hoping that the weather is calm. We all took different routes today, as there are many ways to get up into the inside passage if you are small like us (A no cruise ship zone!). We five all spider webbed out on different little routes and met back up again on Finlayson Channel. Some went through Jackson Narrows, some went through Oscar pass and some went right on the outside and came up the middle. The weather was settled enough and it was a good no wind day. Our route took us about half an hour ahead of the others so we missed the whale show. The group received a nice performance by some humpback whales, some breaching and some aerobics by these mammoth whales. Nice pix Gayle. While cruising today, we were listening to the VHF radio and it appears that the navy ship with all the young things on board enjoyed the hockey game too much last night, it appears that the Bar Manager left her purse on board the ship last night.
What a day! We managed to get into Khutze Inlet by early afternoon. After setting the anchor, Mike takes the dog to shore for his business. This inlet is one of our favourites! It’s truly one of the most spectacularly beautiful inlets on our coast. We have not been here for 2 years and sometime over that time period, there has been a huge slide in the bay. Other than the slide, all thing are as they should be in our favourite stop. A valley surrounded by steep mountains and waterfalls with a river coming down, split by a large delta. Due to the influx of fresh water (from the river and waterfalls) and the nice sandy bottom, the crabbing is awesome!
Not long after, the rest of the group make their way into the inlet, we hear on the radio that Penny has spotted a bear on the beach. Turns out that where Penny saw the bear, there was 2 of them - a grizzly sow and her cub. What do ya know, they are in the exact place on the shore that Mike had just let the dog ashore! The cub looked to be last years cub. They were not the least interested in us and continued foraging and eating the grass along the shoreline. We took the dinghies up the river to look to see if we can see anything else – no more bears, but I finally found my Harlequin ducks! After our little jaunt up the river, Mike, Gayle and myself headed over to see how Momma and her bay were doing. We sat and watched them for a while and then were lucky to witness one of the most poignant moments between the sow and her cub. The cub started crying and the sow immediately sat down and proceeded to nurse the cub. We quietly left and went to Ladner Lass for an awesome dinner. Oh --- I forgot about the crabs – gayle put her trap down as soon as we got there and just prior to going to bed, Mike dropped our trap. In the morning after the “dinghy the dog to shore” (to a different spot!) – I pulled up our trap and found 8 crabs with backs the size of the kitchen sink…..some had to have been 12” across their backs. Bob witnessing this great haul asks how long we are going to be in the bay and we told him throw his trap down anyways. After an hour and a half, Bob pulled up his trap and much to his amazement had 12 crabs – with 11 being keepers. Being the good friend I was, I offered to pull Gayles trap -- no crab?..... either her gates on her crab trap opened and allowed all the crab to escape or the interloper in our inlet who also had crab pots out with a similar buoy, accidently pulled Gayles trap and allowed the crabs to escape or took the crabs. Next time Gayle!
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