We went looking for bears today…from the dinghy. No sense in finding trouble. We will just watch them from the water, thank you very much.

It was a very peaceful and beautiful trip, but no bears. Seems they are all over the place when you’re not looking for them, but when you try you can’t find them for anything. Oh well. But we went up the head of the bay and shut off the engine and drifted for a couple hours. Such beauty. Such silence. You not only hear the birds call, but you hear their feathers ruffle with the wind when the fly. A heron that likely didn’t notice us since we weren’t moving flew by just a few feet away. Skimming along the water, gently flapping its huge wings it left a trail of gentle “touches”. Each time its wings stoked down toward the water it would stop just as the end most little feather on each wing barely touched the water leaving a tiny ripple like a raindrop. The sets of ripples were about five feet apart (the wingspan) and fifteen feet distance which is about how far the heron travelled with one complete stroke of its wings. Like magic steppingstones since in a moment as you marvel at their perfection, they disappear.

We’ve been anchored for a couple days in a lovely spot in Mackenzie Sound. We’re behind a little island called Blair Island, in a cove, in the sound end of the Sound in Burly Bay. There are some absolutely stunning views of jagged mountain tops in the distance and just across the bay from us is a monolithic, vertical granite face that rivals El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Fortunately, day before yesterday was warm with not a cloud in the sky and we relished the day. The last two however have been foggy and occasionally rainy. A different type of beauty where the mists brush past the granite face giving the place a completely different look. Given the weather, we’ve just stayed put but tomorrow we are heading back to Sullivan for a resupply of a few fresh items, then we’ll start slowly making our way back. We get to see some new places on the way back south/east and also stop at a few of our favorites. It should take about a month to get to Vancouver where we’re meeting up with a friend in mid-September for a last two weeks of cruising for the season.