June 16, 2017

Slack in the narrows was at 6:30 and would take us just over half and hour to get there, so it was up at 5:30-ish to leave on time. The narrows was a none event and we continued chugging up Grenville channel against the current for awhile, and then with it once we got out into more open water. It was a little choppy and a little windy, but not bad. We arrived in the "new" Cow Bay Marina somewhere around 11:30. It was not as protected as we thought it would be any so anyone in the harbor who did not obey the "no wake" area could rock the boats. It was also quite breezy, but also nice and sunny which was a welcome change from the pouring rain.

We checked the weather report of course upon arriving. Although we had made reservations for 2 nights here, the conditions for crossing Dixon Entrance tomorrow look spectacular, and then very much less than that the following few days. We pretty much decide to "make hay while the sun shines" and cut our time here short by a day, and cross tomorrow.

We went for a walk down to the Walmart to buy a few supplies. Poor Bella needs her nails clipped so we needed to by some dog nail clippers so we can do it ourselves. A little harder to find dog groomers up here, and it's just something we forgot to buy. Also, Greg managed to put holes in the knee's of all his jeans and so he ended up buying new jeans at Mark's Work Wearhouse! Ahh, the luxury of cities we do miss sometimes.

Back towards the marina area looking for a late lunch, we ended up at "Cowpaccinno's". Really good coffee and really good panini's and Bella got a "pawscotti" biscuit. All is good in the world.

Back to the boat where we put stuff away, and then notice a large familiar boat arrive and tie up on the breakwater dock. It was Stella Maris with John and Judy who we met in Port Harvey. We deposited our recycling and then stopped by to say Hi on our way to the grocery store. It was great to catch up and they also were planning on going to the famous "Cow Bay Cafe" for dinner, we made reservations for the 4 us. We picked up some ice and some pre-made food for the trip tomorrow.

Back to the boat for some more maintenance, clean the sea strainers, and some downtime. We met John and Judy at the restaurant at 7:00 and had just a wonderful evening and conversation. They have done the trip up around 9 times and so it was good to get some "local knowledge" about going into Ketchikan and just general Alaskan stuff.

June 15, 2017

Still raining. Sometimes pouring, sometimes less hard, but always raining.

One of the other reasons we came to Baker Inlet was because a gentleman at Shearwater raved about how much he loved it. In a previous year, he apparently spent a week in here just crabbing and prawning and enjoying the scenery. And we certainly wanted to re-try our fishing since we've had a spectacular fail so far. Yesterday, it was nasty so no go. But this morning the wind was still down and so Greg go everything together and went out and set the crab pots near the boat. He then scouted some locations for the prawn traps in the main inlet and then came back and got them, and then back out to put them in. Bella and I took care of the boat and made sure it didn't go anywhere.

Fortunately, there was no wind at all today. Rather weird since today was supposed to be *the* storm day, and yesterday just the prelude. Go figure. But it was nice having no wind, and it certainly made fishing that much nicer. Greg still had to done his boot shoes, his rain pants, and his heavy rain jacket just to go outside, but at least it wasn't windy too.



Coffee, Lunch, some work on the computer took up the day. Around 5:00 he went out to check the prawn traps, and glory be! He returned with 90 prawns! The jinx is now over Then he went out to check the crab pots, but they had just a couple little ones in them. So he re-positioned the big crab pot a little deeper and came back in.

We froze half the prawns, and ate the other half for dinner. Greg was back out around 7:00 to check the crab pot again and got an "almost" legal sized one. In retrospect, we probably should have put the traps more in the middle / deep part of our lagoon. Oh well. It takes some time to put all the fishing gear and dingy away, so we made sure we ran the generator and had lots of water for his shower.

June 14, 2017

It rained hard last night, we could hear it on the aft cabin roof. We woke up pointed in the same direction in the same place, so we'll call that a win. Didn't see much in the way of birds or wildlife here yesterday at all. Alaska Dream was gone very early so we never did find out who was on it.

Our plan was to go up to Baker Inlet today. It's supposed to be "the" most protected inlet of them all in Grenville channel. You need to go through Watts Narrows to get into the inlet, and apparently thought not necessary entering at slack water is easiest. So there was a slack around 11:30 meaning we left around 8:30 to get there in time which seemed civilized. There is a point in the middle of Grenville channel where the directions of the floods/ebbs switch. So we had to fight the Ebb going up a bit, but once we passed "Evening Point", then the Ebb was going with us and we got a push. We arrived at Watts Narrows about 10 minutes early.



Where the narrows and Grenville Channel meet, there was quite the kerfuffle, but after that it was fine. The entrance is "blind" meaning you can't see if anyone is coming from the other direction, so you honk your horn to let them know you're there. We entered at low water and so it was really squeaky getting in. It's very deep so you don't have to worry about that part, but you wouldn't want your boat to be pushed around very much. Our friend Alan told us he visited Baker one time and went in and out not at slack and it wasn't an issue. But then the second time, he said he got surprised and ended up "white knuckling" it outta there!

Once inside, it opens up into a huge inlet with cliffs all around. And it was surprisingly windy! Not what we were hoping for at all. We even went through a really quick 30kt gust. We headed down to the head of the inlet which is where the protected anchorage was. Didn't seem all that protected really! It was fine, but there was a valley to the south and since the wind was coming from the south, we were getting some gusts of 20kts. But we anchored and got a really good hold and watched to make sure we didn't go anywhere.

It was just pouring down still with rain. Generally the wind was below 10kts and fine, but then every so often you'd get these big gusts. No conducive to getting off the boat. So we had a hearty lunch, read our books, and then watched a movie. Around 5:00 or 5:30 the wind settled down to nothing for the night. We read some more, had dinner, and watched a bit of TV. Night quiet night. Oh, and it poured rain.

June 14, 2017

Ugh. Long Day. We left Windy Bay at 7:00am with not an exact plan because we weren't sure how it would go. Our original plan was to go to Hartley Bay as they have a cell signal there - internet! We wanted to be able to get a recent weather report and to download some GRIB files to see what the weather would be where *we* are. Oh, and OK, download email too to make sure there was nothing we needed to deal with. But the real question for us was what to do with the Gale warning starting tomorrow, Wednesday. As I said, we have all this information but not enough knowledge to know what effect high winds outside in Hecate Straight might mean for here inside the protection of all those islands. We were thinking about spending the night at Hartley Bay, however there is no marina there, just a free public dock. Which means that you know there will be a ton of boats there, there will be fishing boats rafting up to us, and Hartley Bay is at the crossroads in Douglas Channel where the "inflows" and "outflows" are. So would we be able to get out comfortably and continue heading north? Or should we just stay there for 3 days ? (we can work on the computers and get stuff done if we have internet)

In the end, we knew that Grenville Channel would be fine, and the anchorages just off of Grenville Channel are supposed to be "bomb proof", so we decided to push on through even further to Lowe Inlet. But we did get close to Hartley Bay and turned on the cell phone amp and got a lovely Telus signal. So we downloaded all the weather related things we wanted to, Greg processed his email, I processed mine and confirmed that Cow Marina in Prince Rupert has room for us on Friday and Saturday, turned around and went back to where we came from when we *lost* the signal, downloaded a few more things for work, sent a text, and turned around and headed north again. We pulled a crazy Ivan - maybe nobody noticed.

It was 16:30 before we pulled into Lowe, and there were 4 boats here already. One of them was Alaskan Dream, which is owned by a friend of ours in Bellingham and also used to be in the NWE fleet. NWE "borrowed it" for their Leg 1 to Alaska, and now someone, we don't know who yet, is bringing it back to Bellingham. We might go over in the morning to say hello.

We were able to anchor right in front of Verney Falls. We got close enough to them so that the fresh water coming into the inlet keeps Spellbound in the same direction and we don't have to worry about the boat swinging around in a circle. We should stay in the same direction all night. (Better check tomorrow's Blog entry to see if it worked!). Time for an anchor steam on the flybridge.

June 12, 2017

It was lovely and glassy leaving Shearwater at about 7:00am. We headed out to Seaforth Channel towards the open water and for the first time, into "virgin" territory for us and Spellbound.

Greg turned the watermaker on as usual once we got out into "clear" water. After awhile though, the amount of water in the tank had still not increased. We look at everything and the water maker reports that everything is great and it's making water without any issues! So Greg takes the front berth apart and starts to poke around - everything is fine except the water is not coming out. Out comes the manual and it says that the diverter valve might be stuck or broken. Essentially, at the last minute it does a check of the water and if it's not the right salinity or it's not happy, it just "diverts" the water overboard. The manual also tells you how to "hardwire it" to bypass the diverter valve which Greg does. We check the water using the "manual salinity method" and it's great. So we leave it that way to fill up the tank on our way.

We snake through Reid Passage which bypasses the open ocean swell that comes in at the end of Seaforth Channel. It's very scenic and we follow a well traveled, but strict route through the area. We travel through Perceval Narrows which was a none issue, and up into Mathieson Channel. Our original plan was to stop in Rescue Bay, or to go through Jackson Narrows and then up into Bottleneck Inlet. But it turns out that Jackson Narrows appears to be one of the narrows that should be transmitted at slack, and we were there at max. So we "could" hang out in Rescue Bay until slack and then go through, but that would be quite late. Or we could stay the night in popular Rescue Bay and go through the next morning, but we decided to try and make it further north. So we went all the way up Mathieson to Windy Bay. It was a long but calm and quiet passage. As we were about to go through Mathieson Narrows, we saw 2 humpbacks hanging out in the current there very close to shore and our boat. We also surprised a river otter who was swimming around in mid channel for some reason. It's very deep and not an issue at all to transit. Two Bald Eagles hanging out on a dead tree screeched at us as we went through too - it was quite lovely.

As we entered Windy Bay, there was one other boat there. It's a huge bay but quite deep so we tucked around and got as close to shore as we could so that we were in shallow enough water. As soon as we shut the engines off, we heard the distinctive south of a "whale breath" and saw a humpback leaving the bay.

June 11, 2017

It was a long way today and we weren't sure what the wind weather would be like, so off we were at 6:00am. Turns out it was windier in Pruth Bay than it was anywhere else! The forecast was for 15kts-25kts, but we had 5 or less all the way up Fitz Hugh Sound. A bit windier in Lama Passage, but then that went away too. We saw some good Bald Eagle action on the way up as well. There were a lot of logs in the water and there were Bald Eagles using them as "rest stops" while they were hunting. Greg got some great shots as we tootled on by.



We arrived just before noon so it was essentially a 6 hour run which is long for us. But they have WiFi! And even better, there is a fantastic Telus signal here to use for when the free WiFi goes to …. away. Our iPad get's a workout.

So we lunched and caught up on email for a couple of hours, and then went for a walk around the complex. With the Bald Eagle welcoming committee as we walked up the ramp, we probably didn't need to waste time taking photos on the way up!



They have a coffee shop here with nanaimo bars. Guess what we did? We watched the world go by with Miss B outside the coffee shop. It's still early in the season here, so there is really not much to watch. There is a ferry over to Bella Bella and so when it arrives, the population doubles! We walked over to the fishing dock and chatted up a young guy working there. He was out the day before and got 33 spring salmon, but he said no one was more surprised than him! Very unusual for this time of year. Their season doesn't really start until July 1st - Canada Day. And August is the busy season. So not a long season at all! We told him we'd be back in August to try some fishing 😆.

And new this year, the pub has baked goods on Sundays! So we have some sticky buns to help us get through tomorrow morning. It's rough.

Back to the boat at 4:00 where I did some work emails, and Greg checked for a leak in the Starboard injector (not, just the supply line) and then cleaned the water maker filters (filthy). There is always boat maintenance. It got a bit windier at the dock in the afternoon, but it was sunny and warm out of the wind. We watched fishing boats keep coming in all afternoon to the public(?) / fishing dock next door. The RCMP float plane also arrived to get fuel at the fuel dock. Lot's of float planes around here. And helicopters. It's seems quite "empty" to us compared with two years ago, but the harbour master told Greg that it was quiet yesterday too, until 3:00pm when 17 boats arrived all at once. Don't know where they were because we didn't see them!

We decided to take advantage of the services here and had dinner at the pub. (Choose your meal wisely). As has happened several times now, we've been out on the boat and eating dinner in a pub when the Stanley Cup final was on. And here we are again! (Not a Pittsburgh fan at all, but surely to God the Stanley Cup can NOT be won by a team from Nashville!!). During tea and dessert, we ended up sitting and talking with Hank and Lindsay and their niece Taylor whom we met yesterday on West Beach. Hank and Lindsay are from Victoria and are traveling for the summer on their east coast style lobster boat, and Taylor was enjoying a week off of work from the Great Bear Lodge in Seymour Inlet. Can't talk to any Canadians without starting out talking about American politics. Even so, we had a nice conversation. Although "open mike" night at the pub was to start at 9:00pm with a really good harmonica player, it still hadn't started by the time we left at 9:40pm. Oh well. Still so bright out so late at night - Had a great "red at night" ….