Sea Mist

Friday, August 6, 2010

Awesome!!! Minutes after leaving the entrance to the inlet this morning we spotted a grey whale feeding along the coastline. It was moving along the rocky shore and weaving in and out of the little coves along the way. At one point it surfaced and then did a sounding dive, showing us the white underside of its enormous tail. What a sight! We were caught off guard and neither one of us had a camera in hand.

Throughout the days travels we had several porpoise come up to the boat and saw several more pairs of grey whales. About an hour out of Bella Bella Chris snapped this shot of a large Grey whale that came up just off our bow and slapped its tail.

Fitz Hugh Sound

We are currently in Fitz Hugh Sound, British Columbia.

We Left Bull Harbor on Hope Island this morning around 8 AM and crossed Queen Charlotte strait. The ocean swells were a very different feeling but not bad, none of us felt at all seasick and everything stayed in place on the boat. Chris does think that we need to have larger fish on the stabilizers so that we have a bit more drag. The worst part of the crossing was the fog with visibility less than a mile. There was no wind and we used the autopilot all the way across.

A big plus to the crossing is that we seem to have left the colder weather behind us. We are back to blue skies and sun, and the water temperature is in the upper 60s again.

We are anchored in a beautiful, well protected area called Kwakume Inlet. After dinner we took a quick dinghy ride around the area to take peek and it is wonderful. The shore has areas with beach sand with nearby areas of snow white broken shell, and next to that, rocky volcanic outcrops.

The water is clear near shore where starfish, jellyfish and fingerlings are clearly visible. As always, Max’s idea of beach combing is finding a great stick!

We have discovered that when we run the water maker in these inlets that have several freshwater streams feeding into them, our water production increases considerably. The Echo 2 that we have is marketed as producing 13 gallons of water an hour and that is what we can expect in most areas. But in these areas with freshwater sources we have seen as much as 19 gallons per hour which is pretty significant. Another pleasant surprise. So Far, the solar panels, water maker, and window screens have exceeded our expectations on the trip.

We haven’t been bothered by more than the occasional mosquitoes but we seem to be plagued by the relentless biting flies. Everywhere we go they appear. Anytime we are upstairs, where we don’t have screens, you will see us each be armed with a fly swatter.

On the other hand, the number of Orca whale sightings has been disappointing. We did see a pair of grey Whales on Tuesday.

This inlet is home to quite a variety of bird life and the paw print impressions on the nearby sandy beach indicate mink and raccoon presence. We have yet to spot a bear but they have most likely spotted us.

Crusing North

We are currently in the northern most part of British Columbia and having a great time. We have met some really nice boaters along the way and have made many new friends. We are hoping to hook up with two other couples that we met a few weeks ago tomorrow in a Bella Bella. We are really getting tan and have not had any rain since leaving Olympia. We did have a few days of fog and colder weather last week around Port Hardy, but since crossing the Queen Charlotte Strait we have had beautiful weather again. We have seen Orcas, porpoise, and Gray whales along the way. Yesterday we saw a pair of humpbacks.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Queen Charlotte Strait

As we cruised back across the Queen Charlotte Strait, which can be notorious for rough water, Chris deployed the stabilizers. It was smooth enough for me to lounge on the upper helm and continue reading a book, but Chris has not had much opportunity to use the stabilizers and really wanted to put them out.

As you can see, Max could be a commercial rep for stabilizers and the comfortable ride they afford.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ....

We will be doing a 39 mile open ocean crossing tomorrow or the day after on our way to Bella Bella so it is good to have the stabilizers at the ready.