Saturday, August 13

So, we’re anchored at Wahkana Bay off Tribune Channel.  A twenty-mile day from Greenway Sound.  We came here hoping to see some bears and catch some crab.

We just anchored and we’re sitting 100 feet or so from shore and overheard sits an eagle watching from his perch and along the shoreline lumbers a big ‘ol black bear.  Wow!  We can see his muscles ripple just under his very ample coat.

But, that’s not the topper for the day, that’s just the dessert.  On the way here I saw an orca do a full-on breach with a huge splash.   Ann grabbed the camera with the telephoto and we proceeded to watch an incredible display for the next 30 or so minutes.  It looked like the orcas had herded some salmon into a small cove and were feeding.  They would slash through, circle, then one would do a tail splash and on it would go.  They were clearly very busy.  Then after half an hour they came out from the cove and seemed to relax; and both of us commented that they just seemed “happy”.  They were “goofing”.  I’m thinking they were fully fed and having a good time.  There was more tail slapping, and a couple of full out of the water breaches.  I caught one where the orca was full-on horizontal about 10 feet out of the water.

Comin' at ya!

Sometimes you get lucky.

Sometimes really lucky.

The Canadian trifecta; orca, eagle, bear….happy cruisers!

We were about 100 feet from the rocks at low tide.

They came in all shapes and sizes.

This one finally heard the camera shutter and had to take a look around.

By the way, the crab trap has been deployed and a couple of seals are swimming around it eyeing it very carefully.  There is an anchovy and some lingcod inside.  Crossing fingers for crab tomorrow!

Friday, 8/12

So, since last we wrote, we stopped by Sullivan Bay on Wednesday for a quick night of showers, laundry and re-supply.  We left Thursday morning for Greenway Sound.  We’re anchored in a little cove just inside Broughton Point on the West side of the sound.  This is actually in a place called Carter Passage that bisects North Broughton Island from South.

OK, so much for the geography.  It’s really lovely here and we’re the only boat around.  Today we took the dinghy for a 45-minute ride over to a bay just east of Greenway Point.  There’s a rickety, but serviceable dinghy dock there maintained by British Columbia Forest Service Recreation.  There’s a well-maintained trail that goes up to two different lakes.  Recommended!  The first lake is about a 45-minute hike and the second another 20.  At the second lake we saw very clear cougar tracks in the mud by the lake.  Looked like a good-sized animal.  With Ann’s bell though I think all the animals are well alerted of our presence so I doubt we will see any.  We also saw signs of beaver.  Several trees were clearly gnawed.  Once had been felled and the other was close to it.

Pretty fresh cuts on this tree.

Anyway, when we got back to Charisma we did some fishing and I guess it was the right time of the tides because we pulled up a flounder, two rockfish and a dogfish.  The first three were just a little small so we didn’t keep them, but nice to do some catching for a change.

Tomorrow we’re going 20ish miles east back to Wahkana Bay up Tribune Channel.  We went in there to look around a couple weeks ago, but while very wild and lovely, it was a very windy day and didn’t look too friendly.  Conditions should be a little tamer tomorrow and we’ve heard of grizzly sightings there and ample crab catching.  Of course if there are crabs I won’t likely find them, but we can dream.

Oh, and we saw the Meteor Shower last night.  Lovely.  Well, Ann said it was.  I fell asleep in the cockpit.  But at least I saw one!  She claims 10.  Foggy tonight though.  Maybe tomorrow.