We stayed in Ballet Bay another day and paddled and clambered over one of the uninhabited islands and watched the boats come and go. On Thursday we headed to Pender Harbour to spend the weekend with Ben and Erin at Erin’s parents’ home. There were lots of people around and we had a great time socializing at the house, on the dock and on a day trip to Buccaneer Bay. At mid day on Sunday we took advantage of a…
The weather has changed and it actually rained a bit as we continued our journey homeward, ending up in Ballet Bay on Nelson Island. We had planned to go on up into Hotham Sound to swim, but with the cloudy, somewhat cooler weather, decided to stay down at the mouth of Jervis Inlet. There are lots of little islands to paddle around, and the shore is lined with summer homes to admire.
A westerly wind piped up about midnight last night (a late change in the forecast—we wouldn’t have chosen to stay there if we had known earlier what was in store) and Snug bucked on her anchor line for an hour or so. It didn’t last long, though, and when we woke in the morning the sea was as glassy as when we had gone to bed. We carried on to Westview where we had set up a visit with Jan…
The day was hot and sunny and still as we moved down the west side of Cortes Island, through the narrow channel between Cortes and Marina Islands, past Hernando Island to Savary Island. There were lots of boats anchored or beached on Marina and lots of sails in the bay on the other side—people enjoying their summer everywhere you looked, although the sail boats weren’t going anywhere in a hurry. I swam off Snug when we got anchored at Savary,…
Last year we found a lovely anchorage in an unnamed bay on the east coast of Read Island with a beautiful view down Sutil Channel and the mountains of Vancouver Island. We headed there today, hoping it would be unoccupied and that the water temperature would be warm enough for swimming. The bay was empty and no one was at the very cute cabin at the head either—perfect! It’s amazing how few boats are on this side of Cortes Island,…
Bears on the beach again! The engine noise of a boat leaving Port Harvey early this morning woke us, so we figured we might as well get going to beat the wind on Johnstone Strait—it was 6:30 when we got underway. Ron steered a course close to the shore out on the strait, and spotted black bears on two beaches before we were down to Port Neville. We exited the strait at Sunderland Channel and went careening through Whirlpool Rapids…
Bear on the beach! A humpback was cruising around at the mouth of Knight Inlet this morning, and a group of orca met us a little way up the inlet—with a baby in their midst! Lots of fork-tailed storm-petrels were skimming the water. We’ve not identified them before; we’re not sure if we haven’t seen them in previous years or just been oblivious. We went up Knight to Minstrel Island, made the turn into Chatham Channel with the current running…
We went back to Sointula this morning to top up the water tank and the fruit bowl before we begin a major move to the south tomorrow. There were no dockside berths available when we arrived so we rafted to a local log salvage boat. Old Nanaimo friends, Wilf and Marg Bradley, were tied up (in our spot!) and we made a date for a visit later in the day. Bikes were available at the harbour office when we went…
Today we had a couple of close encounters with wildlife that make this cruising life so enjoyable for me—small things but they made me smile. The first one occurred in the group of islets east of our anchorage just at the edge of Weynton Pass. We paddled there this morning to hang out in the kelp bed and see who showed up. There were several species of birds on the rocks and lots of seals around. Last year seals were…
Today was what we have come to call a classic Blackfish Sound day—calm water, sunshine, humpbacks every which way, Dall’s porpoises coming to ride the bow wave, orca passing through, sea lions, minke whales, and this time, even a coho in our net. We caught the fish as we left Freshwater Bay this morning, trolling up the shore of Swanson Island. At that point we turned to cross Blackfish, seeing humpback blows at the top of Hanson Island. The sea…