The oysters are delicious and they don’t move too fast, so we’ve been able to collect them for “cocktail hour” the last two nights, BUT they are vicious!  Both Ann and I now have cuts on our hands and fingers from collecting them.  We’re now using gloves whenever we’re near them.

View from Galley Bay this morning.

So, we moved again today.  All of…get ready…five miles!  We’re now in Tenedos Bay.  It’s just so beautiful here we want to savor all the little nooks.  Tomorrow we’re not going too far either.  Prideaux Harbor where there are lots of little inlets and some more “storied areas” captured by M. Wylie Blanchet in her 1927 adventure.  We’re going to try and anchor in Melanie Cove and hike to several spots mentioned in the book including visiting a wild cherry tree that marks one spot.  I doubt the cherries are ripe, but here’s hoping!

In the mean time, we are currently in Tenedos Bay.  We tucked into a tiny cove, barely big enough to turn around in.  We dropped in 35 feet and backed down until we were little more than 30 feet from the rock wall.  I took the dinghy ashore and tied a stern line to a tree and now we’re “balanced” between our anchor and the tree.  It’s different for us and a little un-nerving.

Stern line to the trees.

Once we were settled in our new spot we had time for a hike, so we dinghied over to a spot where there’s a trail up to a gorgeous lake and Ann was inspired to have a swim!

Clear, crisp - and not too cold - water. How could she resist?

So, we seem to be on the edge of the internets.  Starting tomorrow, we’ll possibly be out of touch for a few days.  Stay tuned to find out!

We’re heading for Prideaux Harbor in a couple days, but in the mean time we’re meandering – just enjoying the scenery.  Since we’re in Desolation, the scenery is magnificent?

So today, Galley Bay, tomorrow, Tenedos Bay and then by Thursday we hope to be in Melanie Bay, Prideaux Harbor.  It’s a spot memorialized in the famous (at least up here) book, “Curve of Time” by M. Wylie Blanchet.  Set in the 1920’s, a widow and her three children cruise in a small powerboat in this same area.  Amazing story how they pioneered some of the tracks we’re taking – but without GPS, and so many other modern conveniences.

Once thing we have in common is the ability to live off the land – at least to some extent.  When we’re hiking, we have been enjoying the wild berries.  Right now that means salmonberries.

Love those fresh berries.

A little later in the year huckleberries, wild blueberries and blackberries will come in season as well as apples and other fruit.  We’re also setting crab traps, prawn traps and fishing for salmon and other fin fish.  The challenge in todays’ world is the commercial value of these things.  We haven’t caught any of the above and the story so far from locals is the commercial fisherman are stripping the place bare.  We need to get further north before the commercial impact is less felt.  Cross fingers on that.

In the mean time we did score some fresh Pacific Oysters today.  A half dozen raw, fresh oysters for Charisma time (yes, they are safe – at least for now.  The government puts out regular reports of closures due to red tide, etc).  Maybe tomorrow we’ll get some more and have a fried oyster dinner.

Yum!

And, much of this area hasn’t changed much since the ’20’s.  It’s pretty remote.  So the hiking is awesome, although like Wiley Blanchet, more commonly known as “Capi” we have to beware of bears.  In California, black bears are pests and when I’ve encountered them in the high country while backpacking I throw rocks at them to keep them away.  I’ve been told in no uncertain terms, you DO NOT do that with the bears up here.  So…we make noise and have now added bear spray to our arsenal.  I’m not sure what good it will do since the instructions note that you deploy it at 12 feet!  Measure out 12 feet and think about using a pepper spray at a charging 1000 lb bear at 12 feet…well, you get the idea.  But it’s something, eh?

Our new addition to hiking - Bear Spray!

The butterflies practically dive bomb us when we wear red.

Lovely trails...

Galley Cove, where we're spending the night.

One of the things we heard we would love in the Pacific Northwest was the fishing. Prawning, crabbing, oysters, salmon, lingcod….people have led us to believe it was like picking apples from a tree. I use this analogy because we have really enjoyed walking along dense forest paths and finding salmon berries to enjoy along the way…they are everywhere…kind of like the fish….right?

I should correct the title of this blog…we, especially Bob, has thought about fishing a lot. Who doesn’t love catching their own food. We caught lots of Mahi on the Pacific; we know how great it feels. We did some catching the other day coming into Desolation Sound.

The spinning reel twanged and the line started zipping out of the reel. Bob quickly slowed Charisma and grabbed the rod from its perch. In the process of balancing himself for a good fight against a salmon, Bob’s deck shoe fell off. And into the water. Oops. No time to be concerned as we focused on our catch. Unfortunately whatever hit the line had escaped by the time Bob got it reeled in.

When fishing, a shoe is better than nothing. Especially when it's your own. Thanks Ann!

So now to our catching….yep…we went after the shoe…and with excellent driving by the captain and swift movement by the first mate using the previously unused fishing net we successfully scooped it out of the 350 ft deep water. Good thing it floated!

Bob talks to lots of people about the best places to fish, the best lures, techniques, etc. Still we are 0 for 2 on prawning and 0 for 2 on crabbing. Bob did catch some kind of rock fish in Maude Bay that was just a bit too small so he released it. But we think our catching days are just around the corner…and here is why.

Last night as we finished dinner in the cockpit, really nice weather right now, we heard a small engine and saw a small vessel come around the island we are anchored off. The guy looked directly at us which in Ann’s vernacular is the same as a hearty “hello”. So we went up to the cabin top and he came over to chat. Our new Canadian friend, also named Bob, lives across the channel on one of the last pieces of property that is not part of the Marine Park.

Canadian Bob shown here building us a new lure. And it only cost a cold beer! Good trade.

And Canadian Bob knows fishing! Canadian fishing! For about an hour the two Bobs discussed all that stuff. Canadian Bob made us feel much better about the prawning (the professionals have been out hot and heavy and things are over prawned) and crabbing (there hasn’t been crabs around this sound for a few years). He also confirmed that the oysters were okay to harvest and where to best find them. We have seen warning signs all over indicating they should not be harvested.

But the magic of the evening was when Canadian Bob went to work fine-tuning Bob’s fishing set up. He opened up his own fishing tackle box and gave Bob a few lures as well as adjusted some of the ones we had. And for fair trade we gave him a cold beer. Mostly he gave us a renewed confidence….look out fish, we are coming after you!

We’re been hanging here at Powell River getting our fill of internet, laundry, showers and multiple grocery/liquor stores before leaving tomorrow for Desolation Sound.  Hasn’t been too hard to stay since it’s rained on and off for the last three days.  Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty nice, so onward and northward we go.  By tomorrow night if all goes well we should be in Desolation Sound.  As the name suggests, we may well be out of touch again for a while.  Please bear with us.  We’ll post as soon as we have some sort of internets.

In the mean time, here’s a short pictograph of what we’ve been up to.

Tucked in behind the breakwater at Westview Harbor, Powell River. Lots of fishing boats this time of year, but the harbor is very accommodating and there are lots of stores within walking distance at which to provision.

Powell River is almost the end of the 101. It stops just 10 miles or so north at Lund. From here, it goes all the way to Chile, South America. So...we decided we would walk a little bit of it up to old town, Powell River!

After the 4 mile hike, lunch. Poutine. Very French Canadian. French fries, "stuff" (in this case mushrooms and cheese) with gravy. Sounds, um, well...I dunno, but it's actually pretty good. But very filling!

We went for an authentic evening at the Canadian Legion Hall to see Neil Diamond. OK, it was really "Nearly Neil", but he was really good and it was an authentic cultural experience (of the very good kind). And we went with our new cruising friends Beth and Bill from Hakoom.

Nearly Neil.

Ann the Groupie with Nearly Neil. This was actually a really good concert from a very talented musician.

Had to add one more pic from Louisa. This one kindly taken by Verena Kellner off of m/v Limerick

Charisma (reluctantly) saying goodbye to Chatterbox Falls

We just pulled into Westview Harbor, Powell River.  We’re actually in what is known as – “South Harbor, Westview Harbor” for those who might be following.  It’s a nice place.  Right now, there are a lot of fishing (prawning) boats, but we think they clear out during the summer.  We’ll hang here for a couple days to re-provision and wait out some rain and wind before heading north to Desolation Sound, probably “Saturdayish”.

EagleCam!!

Coming out from a magical, spiritual place we were lucky to be able to stop in a couple of really nice anchorages.  At Harmony Islands in Hotham Sound we met up with S/V Kingfisher, from Point Richmond, California.  Turns out we had a bunch of friends in common and had a great time (thanks for the spectacular dinner, Alison!) and then on to Maude Bay for a quiet night in a nice little spot before turning the corner and heading north to Powell River – which is where we’re provisioning for our next “in the wilderness experience” in Desolation Sound.  There’s some weather right now (rain, wind), so we’ll likely hunker down here for a couple days and head up to Desolation on Saturday or so.  So nice to not have a timetable.

Our view from Maude Bay. Worth stopping here!

Maude Bay. Charisma is loving this!

Well, it “felt” like sailing into Yosemite.

Snow-topped mountains.  Vertical walls of granite rising thousands of feet straight up from the water.  Dense conifers.  The view was just…jaw – dropping.

Princess Louisa.  Just the name has to get your attention.  It’s been said that Princess Louisa Inlet will change your forever.  Ann and I now believe that to be true.

A promise I made 40 years ago. Visit Princess Louisa - a magical place.

OK, gotta have a selfie in a spot like this!

Words just can't describe...

Just getting here means sailing, er… motoring (no wind whatsoever) at least 30 miles from the nearest encampment.  In our case, this meant the little harbor of Egmont.  Just a cove really with a couple docks, a grocery store and not much else tucked in just around the corner from the treacherous Skookumchuck Narrows.  On the way we saw some of the most stunning scenery we have every encountered.

Then…the Malibu Rapids.  After hiking from our moorage at Egmont, three miles downriver to witness the awesome display of the Skookumchuck Narrows – 14 knot currents, whirlpools 6 feet deep, standing waves people have been known to surf on – well, we were not looking forward to braving the last hurdle into Princess Louisa through the very narrow Malibu Rapids.  Turns out our anxiety was not misplaced.   When we got there, we saw “whitewater” at the entrance.  OK, we were 90 minutes early for slack water, but still it got our attention.  Another boat – a Canadian – was also waiting for the tide change.  We drifted over to them and I casually asked whether the 3:15PM time for slack water (that I had calculated from the tide books) was what they were using.  To my surprise, they answered, “No, 2:15PM, but we’re going a bit early.  We like to have a little of the ebb going in”.   Hmmm.  Now I’m really worried.  My calculations look to be an hour off!  Looking at the whitewater, my answer to them was, “Well, we’re going to wait a bit”.  If there’s anything we’ve learned in our years of cruising it’s, do what you think is right, not what others tell you.

So, at the appointed time – according to them – around 2:00PM, they turned in toward the pass.  We watched with our binoculars hoping to see an easy passage through which we could follow.  Instead we watched in near terror as their boat was slammed from side to side barely making way.  Several times I was sure they were going to hit the rocks.  At a few points they seemed to be going backwards, then suddenly they turned 180 degrees and were “spit” back out the way they came.  Yikes!  What were we thinking coming to a place like this?  After they gathered their wits, they motored over to where we were drifting waiting for what our originally planned time to pass.  As they came near they shouted, “We forgot to adjust the tide tables for Daylight Savings Time!  We’re going to wait and follow YOU in!!”

OK, maybe we do know what we’re doing.  We waited another hour and watched.  Sure enough, the whitewater diminished and as the clock counted down to 3PM we decided it looked safe to pass.  As it turned out, all the worrying was for naught.  We breezed through.

Inside the inlet…Magic!

The entrance to Princess Louisa from Jervis Inlet.

Wow, them are some tall mountains!!

6000 feet tall mountains, and some 500 feet and more deep in the inlet. Dramatic!

Coming up to the end of the inlet. Waterfalls everywhere!

Tied up at the little dock at Chatterbox Falls. It can accommodate about 20 boats. We were very fortunate to only have a few this early in the season.

This is literally a land of make believe.  We’ve been there and can almost not believe it it is so amazing.

OK, I just like to say, “Skookumchuck!”

But other than that, it’s the biggest salt-water rapids in the world (according to our cruising guide).  After hiking 3 miles from the harbor at Egmont and seeing it in action, I believe it!

Eagle Cam! Ann at the Egmont Grocery Store.

We made a leisurely 12 mile run from Pender Harbor to Egmont timed to take advantage of tides and arrive at Egmont (less than a mile from Skookumchuck Rapids) at slack water.  The rapids have currents up to 14 knots and not knowing the area, I didn’t want to chance arriving and having to fight a vicious current.  Turns out it’s the narrowing of the inlet that really gets the rapids going and Egmont was not too bad.  Although coming in was not without it’s challenge.  There was only one small space at the dock.  As we approached I “judged” it big enough, but knew it would be close.  As we got closer and were pretty committed, it also turned out there was an eddy current that was pulling us in.  OK, I put us in hard reverse to cut the building speed, then forward slowly.  As the current pulled us toward to dock and it became more and more clear that this would be a VERY close fit, I put the bow in at about a 45 degree angle, then once close enough kicked in reverse.  Reversing strongly the stern pulls sideways (prop-walk) as well as slows us and we slid in with 12 inches to spare on the stern.  Ann’s eyes were getting large, but she was focused on stepping off and getting the bowline to the dock.  The bowsprit was just even with the motorboat in front as we stopped forward motion.  Whew!  We made a tight one, with inches to spare.

Next day, we enjoyed a lovely three mile hike down to the rapids.

Ah, Oh! Need to watch out for bears in this country. We just bought one bear spray. It's essentially a pepper spray. The can says to deploy it, "within, 12 feet". Yipes! I've seen bears cover 12 feet in the blink of an eye. Oh well, it' something and I don't want to carry a rifle.

Crazy six foot deep whirlpools and rapids. You could take Charisma through here during the half hour of slack water. But the rest of the time? No Bueno!!

This place made our anticipation of going through Malibu Rapids into Princess Louisa very strong!