Departing Shearwater 06.01.2013

We departed Shearwater about 9:30 am PT for the short run to Bella Bella as we wanted to use their improved cell service to update the blog and see what their grocery store had in provisions.

As we were leaving Shearwater’s fuel dock we were able to see eagles as big as turkeys!

 

 

 And it’s always a great site watching the fish boats leave the harbor for a day of fishing

 

 

 

But it was hard to say goodbye to Martin, Jelly and Marty as we’ve all had a wonderful time traveling together!

 

 

 

 

 

So we have made plans to see them on the way down in Nanaimo and then again at the West coat Workboat Association rendezvous in Ganges on Salt Springs Island in September.

We finally got out of Bella Bella about 11am PT and onto our next destination.

Bottleneck Inlet 06.01.2013

It was about 6 hours to tonight's anchorage, what a beautiful spot!  But boy was it hard to find the tiny entrance into the inlet!  See if you can find the entrance!

As we got closer it finally got easier – but not by much!

 

We felt like we were in one of those “Where’s Waldo” games!

But getting into the inlet was certainly worth it!

 We were concerned on our approach into the inlet that there may not be enough room for us because the bay is small.  We were very surprised to find that with our boat there would be five boats anchored in the inlet and we knew each of the boats already from our travels!!  Shangri-La, Cantu, Stormy, Contessa and Second Chance!!

We had heard, and are now learning first hand, that when you have fresh water from the rivers meet up with the salt water you get mosquitoes and pesky no-see-umms!!  But fortunately we planned exactly for this!  My brother John made these wonderful screens for our windows and hatches! 

 

 
 

 

John always does the best work and these screens are a work of art!  Each window has different dimensions and certainly this job turned out to be A LOT more work than any of us planned!  But they are beautiful and certainly do the job!

It was the best feeling while laying down in the cabin to go to sleep and look up at the hatch that was now screened and see bugs on the OTHER SIDE of the screen!!  We are so glad to have these for our trip and the bugs are just going to get worst as we travel north.

As we were entering the inlet the fish finder marked a school of salmon at 180 feet so Ron and Bruce grabbed their fishing rods and went back out but unfortunately the salmon were gone.  We’re a little early for the salmon season but we are all confident that they will catch salmon someday soon!

Ron did put out his crab pot to soak overnight.

After dinner we all met for a captains meeting and the decision has been made to travel onto Khultez Inlet tomorrow.

 

Shearwater 05.31.2013

This morning while Bruce was rowing the dinghy over to visit Java he was able to see our first bear sighting!  Grizzly Bear!!  The bear he does not want to see!  LOL!  It was on the north point of Rocky Inlet grazing on the grass! 

We decided to go into Shearwater to see if Ron & Lynn could get their gen set worked on. 

 

 

Shearwater Marina is located in Kliktsoatli Harbour on the north side of Denny Island.  Shearwater has a shipyard that can handle just about anything your boat made need in repairs.  The biggest problem here will not be the labor but the parts.  Ron & Lynn are hoping to get in early enough in the day to be seen, as this is Friday and we all hope the gen set can be repaired and we’ll be on our way.  If not, it may be Monday or Tuesday before we’re able to move on.

 

 

This marina has a pretty good grocery store for provisioning, hardware & fishing tackle and gear, restaurant, pub and a very clean laundry.  Hot showers are at the laundry so you can have a nice hot shower while doing your laundry.  We have a shower on our boat but sometimes it’s nice to get a hot shower on land and not add that moisture on the boat.

If we are here for a few days, there’s a 20 minute ferry that runs from Shearwater across the bay to Bella Bella which will be fun to take.

It turned out that Ron & Lynn were able to get their gen set worked on and so we will be heading out for Bottleneck Inlet tomorrow.

We thought that Java was going to head to Ocean Falls tonight and then come into Shearwater tomorrow but they decided to head straight to Shearwater instead.  It looks like this will be the end of their traveling with us as Marty wants to do more fishing and less cruising.

So we decided to have a great last feast on Java together.  When we got into Shearwater the sailing vessel Stormy was already in port so Ralph was able to join us for dinner! 

 

 

Namu 05.30.2013

Then it was off to Namu!

After a 4 hour run we arrived at Namu. 

This is a place right out of the Sci-Fi show the Twilight Zone.  You arrive at this falling down cannery with an old rusting hulk of a Japanese fishing boat in front.  The docks are old and everything is falling down.  Everything looks abandoned.  Ron & Lynn stopped in and spoke with the caretakers on the way in but didn’t stay long enough to walk around the old buildings. 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

In its boom time, this cannery town had 600 people living here in the winter and over 2,000 people in the summer!  Namu began as a sawmill in 1893 and was purchased by B.C. Packers and made into a cannery in 1912.  The cannery closed in 1980 and has just deteriorated from that time. 

The caretakers during the winter months move their home and sawmill which are on barges to a more protected cove deeper in the cove near a river stream.  The river powers a small electrical turbine for power which gives them electricity for their workshop and of course the satellite TV and internet!!  Oh my goodness!  This is taking living in a trailer to a whole new level!!

 

 

Marty & Jelly (pronounced YELL-ee) took Marty’s fish boat, which has been nicknamed “A&W”, into explore the old buildings and met the caretaker who gave them a tour of the buildings.  They said it was like walking back in time.  Jelly said that the caretaker spends time everyday in the gardens and so there are flowers everywhere!  You can’t see them from the water you have to go walk around on shore. 

Unfortunately this will be the last season that the caretakers will be at Namu.  They have decided to move to a more populated area as they are getting older and the winters are getting to hard.  Hopefully this old cannery will be saved in some capacity.

While we were anchored in Rock Inlet we met Paul & Carol who are the new owners of a sailboat named “Raven’s Way”.  They purchased the sailboat in Oregon (seems everyone is buying a boat from OR!) and are sailing their way home to Alaska.  They live in Palmer and will be storing the boat in Seward which is a few hours away.  It will be interesting to see how they make this work.

 

Fury Cove 05.30.2013

Here we thought we would have a relaxing down day and Contessa has developed a gen set issue.  The closest place to get the gen set worked on is in Shearwater so the decision has been made to travel half way to Namu today and arrive in Shearwater tomorrow.

So the morning was spent on the dingys checking out the bay and going to shore to explore the cove.  This is a beautiful place with a wonderful white shell beach.  We spent some time exploring an old cabin which was built for kayakers to use.  It is about 400 square feet and set up like a hostel in the woods.  A set of twin bunks, one double bunk, a table and kitchen area with a wood stove.  Very rustic.

There was a mossy path that took you through the woods down to another section of beach which had some tidal pools where we were able to see a ton of small crab and sand sifter fish.

At the end of the day we had beautiful sunshine and were able to hang out on the back deck of our boat Second Chance!  This is the reason that we reconfigured our cabin space & added 10 1/2 feet of deck space!!

Hope Island - - no, wait Fury Cove, Primrose Island!! 05.29.2013

We started the day early heading for Hope Island (Bull Harbor) at 5:30am to take full advantage of the ebbing tide as planned.  As we were approaching Hope Island traveling north in Goletas Channel an executive decision was made, via VHF radio between the three captains, to head up Browning Passage and poke our heads out to see what the weather and sea conditions were for crossing Queen Charlotte Strait today instead of tomorrow.  The water was fairly calm with a slight breeze; the next option, cross "open water" and round Cape Cation today!  We pressed on.

Although a VERY LONG DAY traveling to Fury Cove it was well worth it!  This was our longest motoring day yet – 10 hours of engine run time!  What a beautiful place!  We arrived at 5:30pm PT.

Finding Fury Cove on Primrose Island in Rivers Inlet proved to be a little harder than planned. Our charts were very accurate which really helped; Java missed the opening and was too far north; we radioed them and they came back to us at the entrance; while Contessa ended clear up the northwest side of the island and needed a pair of "pilots" to guide them to the entrance. 

As this was such a long travel day, the plan is to have a down day tomorrow and explore Primrose Island and maybe do so fishing.  Each boat is on their own for dinner and early to bed on this boat!

Port McNeill, BC 05.28.2013

Weather kept us in port today – high winds 20-25 knots from the south. 

This allowed us to catch up on some projects and have internet and cell service for one more day.

We ended the day on Contessa having “appie-hour”.  Ralph from the sailing vessel “Stormy” joined us.  He and his friend Scott are taking Scott’s new boat from Portland OR home to Alaska!  What a journey they are on!

The decision has been made to leave tomorrow morning between 5-5:30am PT for Hope Island (Bull Harbour) which is located at the top of Vancouver Island.  At this location we will be able to see what the weather & sea conditions are for crossing Queen Charlotte Strait.