Arrival at Winter Harbour

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Winter Harbour after a very wonderful day of sailing down wind on Vancouver Island's west coast. Just wanted to let everyone know where we are!

Shelter Bay, northwest Queen Charlotte Strait

A nice surprise awaited us when we anchored in this small bay, a beautiful big soft white sand beach. You can see Splendid Mane in the background, the bay is shallow so we had to anchor a ways out. We are staying here today and then will head out across Queen Charlotte Strait to the Vancouver Island side to position ourselves for the rounding of Cape Scott.

Blunden Harbour

We arrived in Blunden Harbour on Thursday afternoon, got in a little sailing but mostly motoring. Tucked into the west corner of the harbour, we still had winds buffeting us up to 10 knots. After dinner, we went ashore for a little exploration.

Friday we decided to take it easy and just stayed put, did some reading and then took the dingy to see the reversing falls, very cool.

Today, Saturday, we are heading out again. On our way to the Walker Group of Islands, just a little north and east of Port Hardy. We are having a beautiful sail today, and just spotted a group of about 8-10 orca... they swam right under our boat but didn't stop to say hi. It looked like they were on a mission, or maybe chasing some fish. We are hoping to catch a nice salmon for dinner tonight, got the line out so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Catch du jour

Here are two of the five nice sized Dungeness crabs we caught this evening. They are already cooked and will be dinner tomorrow and maybe a few more days too! This was all the result of talking to a fisherman who was cleaning his two salmon, he didn't want the heads and he told us where to put our trap down. Voila!

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning and heading north again. I am not sure about our internet, so if you don't hear from us for awhile, no worries, we will be in touch again once we get to Winter Harbour.

Port McNeill

We arrived in Port McNeill yesterday and met Margie for the Mom transfer. Thank you Margie for coming all the way up island to pick her up, we know that was a long 3 hour drive for you. And adios to Mom, we enjoyed having you aboard!

Today we are spending the day doing laundry, stocking up on fresh produce and then filling up with fuel (and propane) and water. We will probably spend one more night here, then be off tomorrow.

Pearse Island Marine Park

We just finished our lunch and are getting ready to take a dingy tour around Pearse Islands Marine Park. This park is located southeast of Port McNeill and is a wonderful anchorage with beautiful sunsets, just on the edge of Johnstone Strait where it turns into Queen Charlotte Strait.

Potts Cove, West Cracroft Island

Jerry and Maggie looking for sea asparagus for dinner in Potts Cove. The cove was home to a pair of eagles and mom's keen eye spotted their nest. Tried some crabbing but it was crappy.

We are on our way to Crease Island, a small island on the edge of the Broughtons. The wind has finally settled down, we had a great sleep last night and a very relaxing morning. Tomorrow we will head over to the Broughtons and then hopefully sail back (rather than motor) to Port McNeill on Tuesday. 

Shore duties at Rebecca Spit.....

Barnes Bay (Sonora Is) to Knox Bay (W Thurlow Is) then Port Harvey.

Our attempt to transit Johnstone Strait has been a tough one. We have mostly been travelling at night to take advantage of the lesser winds and waves. Last night we left our anchorage at 1:30 am to catch the ebbing tide and winds of only 20-25 knots instead of 30-35 during the day. What a night.... we had waves coming over the bow and hitting our dodger, but we made it to Port Harvey for some sleep. We are now on our way to a more protected anchorage, Burial Cove, a short distance away to spend a much needed rest overnight. 

Mom is doing great... she sleeps through anything and is quite happy the next morning when we are in a new location... just like on the cruise ships!

Leaving Bowser behind....

Getting ready to leave our family reunion yesterday morning, Maggie was enjoying a snooze in David's arms. She really played hard the whole weekend! She spent the rest of the day sleeping.

We anchored on the northeast end of Denman Island yesterday afternoon. After a walk on the beach, we headed back to the boat and were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen! It literally looked like the sky was on fire.

Today we are aiming for Octopus Islands Marine Park on the north end of Quadra Island. Waves slapping on the stern forced an early start this morning, we pulled anchor at 4:15!! We have the current in our favour right now but a 15 knot NW wind is pretty much straight on our nose. Hopefully the wind dies down a bit (sounds odd coming from a sailboat!) so we can make better time today.