TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2006 – Prince Rupert

With the time change and late evening, it was tough to get up this morning. Mom and Dad left to take the ferry to the airport around 0830. John, Bob, and Tim strung together a bunch of hoses so that we could all get water (there was only one outlet for water and it was at the ramp). John got the boat washed and I worked on the interior. By 1230, the crew from Kasekuchen and Mystic Moon decided enough was enough and we took a taxi into town to eat at the pub. The pub had great free wireless, so we were able to pick up our emails and post onto the website. (Great cheeseburgers, too!)

After lunch, we walked around town, reprovisioned at the Safeway and liquor store and hauled it all back to the docks. We were all really wiped out, so we had heavy hors d’oeuvres for dinner on Kasekuchen and played Mexican train dominos and made it an early evening.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2006 – Prince Rupert to Captain Cove (Pitt Island)

After all the stuff I’d bought at the store, I discovered that I forgot to buy ice cream. Holy cow – what a brain fart that was! Cheryl decided she needed some things too and had offered last night to run up to Safeway and get the rest of the stuff. I took her up on it and she went out early while I slept in. It felt so good to sleep late! Thanks, Cheryl – I needed that!

It was 1030 before she returned with the goods, and we left Prince Rupert in clouds and rain. It felt good to get back on the water – Fairview floats were ok, but by the time we left, it had gotten really fishy smelling and there was lots of junk in the water. Not just the usual harbor gunk, but also soda cans, empty ketchup bottles and just garbage. It was really pretty gross.

At any rate, when we entered Marcus Passage near Smith Island, there must have been 30 to 40 fishing boats out there, all fishing this area. We altered our course to keep them to port – we could never have weaved our way around all those nets and lines. It about killed the guys not to be able to toss a line out, but they were strong and we continued on.

We planned to go to the west side of Pitt Island. We had originally thought to do this on our way up, but ended up altering our plans and doing the more conventional route with Josh. Bob and Cheryl were game to go with us now, so by 1500, we were anchored in Captain Cove, off a perfect bear beach in 60 feet of water, with Kasekuchen rafted up to us. It was a beautiful spot, but it was still raining, so we elected to just hang out on the boats and didn’t even bother to lower the dinghies. The guys fished off the back of the boat, but only caught 3 skates which we released because none of us knew how to clean and cook them. They look very much like stingrays and were kind of cool to see though.

Bob and Cheryl joined us for Tacos and Bugger Bridge on Mystic Moon. We had a fun, relaxing evening, in spite of the weather and no bear show on the beach.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3. 2006 – Captain Cove to Princess Diana Cove/Patterson Inlet

Still no bears on the beach this morning and we were all curious as to why. The other thing we’ve noticed are a lack of eagles – they were everywhere on our way up. John theorized that perhaps both the eagles and the bears had disappeared to the salmon streams because the salmon were running, and I bet he’s right. At least it makes a lot of sense.

Anyway, the rain had stopped and we were on our way out to try our luck at trolling today. We trolled for an hour and a half and never got a bite, except for one hapless rockfish. To make matters worse, Bob caught 2 nice salmon, a Chinook and a Coho, so John was thoroughly disgusted with the whole thing when we pulled up lines at 1030.

Making our way to Patterson Inlet was a fine ride – the sun was almost out and it was very calm. I picked more of the crab in the refer, and made Crab Louie salads for lunch. John is still forbidden from crabbing until we eat more of the crabmeat out of the freezer!

We stopped to troll at 1330 for another hour, and still had no joy. By this time, I was the cranky one, so we pulled up lines and headed into Patterson Inlet. Actually, I’d been in a funk all day – I’ve no idea why, except that perhaps I’m just finally relaxing after having had guests nonstop for the last 6 weeks. We truly enjoyed having all of them, but I have to admit, it was a lot. And, it was nice to have the boat to ourselves at last, keeping only our own agenda. (Really, guys! We DID enjoy having you!)

We entered Princess Diana Cove, and it was just lovely. There was already one boat in the anchorage, but Bob found a good spot and he put out his anchor and we rafted up to them. John lowered Moon Shadow to put out the prawn pot and Cheryl got down her kayak to do a tour of the cove. I was still in my funk, so I sat in the cockpit and finished picking the rest of the crabmeat from the frig, while Bob kept me company with a glass of wine.

We had dinner aboard Kasekuchen, John grilled the fresh Coho on the cedar planks we had bought in Prince Rupert, along with baby bok choy, while Bob made his famous buerre blanc sauce and rice with pinenuts. Wow! Food does not get any better than this! Bob opened a wonderful bottle of Murrieta Wells Teasoro white and John opened a Duet from Cedar Mountain. We all agreed that there couldn’t be anybody in North America having any finer meal than this tonight. And oh yeah, Cheryl made fresh crepes with strawberries for dessert, topped with ice cream. I was finally out of my funk and have decided that tomorrow I will float test the scale.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2006 – Patterson Inlet to Khutze Inlet

Since we were rafted up to Kasekuchen, John didn’t need me at the anchor this morning. He and Bob got underway at 0730, while Cheryl and I slept in. I had stayed up last night and watched the stars, one of the few nights this summer that had been clear enough to see stars. There were so many points of light in the sky, it was difficult to make out the familiar constellations and it was just too pretty to go to bed early. It was nice to sleep in, though, and I didn’t roust myself out of bed until 0900.

Our plan was to make our way down to the northern portion of Gil Island and troll the points where we had had so much luck when Josh was with us. We arrived at Blackfly Point at 1130 and trolled for a couple of hours. John caught a couple of small Chinooks, which we released, and Bob and Cheryl didn’t catch a thing. We were disappointed, but I guess the salmon have moved on.

We shut down the get-home engine and headed into McKay Reach. We spotted several humpbacks in the reach, and a couple more in Graham Reach, but they all seemed to be on a mission to get somewhere, so didn’t stop for long. One surfaced very near our boat, but he dove and didn’t come back up.

We planned to make this a long day so that we could spend a couple of nights in Khutze. We had heard that it was beautiful, and Cheryl and I wanted a kayak day.

Khutze Inlet was indeed stunning. I think it may be the most scenic anchorage we’ve been in yet. Fairytale waterfalls come tumbling down a steep granite mountain, covered in lush greenery. The Khutze River enters the inlet on the opposite shore and there are mudflats and bear grass intertwined with the arms of the river. Seals were popping up in every direction near the river, looking for salmon. In the distance beyond the river, were tall mountains with numerous snow fields on them. Just indescribable beauty.

The only issue in here is anchoring. Douglass doesn’t really recommend it, and Wagonner’s gave some ideas, but the problem is the mud flats extend for a good mile, and are exposed at low tide. They are steep to, and come up very rapidly, so you have to really watch where you are in relation to the flats.

At any rate, there were several other boats already at anchor, but we sounded around a bit and found a good spot in 100’ of water, just off the waterfall. We set our anchor and Bob and Cheryl came over and rafted to us. Voyager had come in just ahead of us, so we hailed them to say hi and find out how their summer cruising had gone. Super nice folks, and I did have the names close, but not exact – they are Gary and Jeanette.

By the time we were settled, it was already almost 1800, but we agreed on a late dinner and sat in the cockpit to take in the scenery and enjoy cocktails. It had been partly sunny all day, so we had hopes that tomorrow would show us some sun. Last night we had had a really good discussion about how to get our boats ready to cruise far waters and how to assure the reliability of our systems, and had been mulling over it all day. We continued our thoughts on all those issues over a relaxing steak dinner.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2006 – Khutze Inlet

This was such a nice day! We all slept in and had a leisurely morning. It was actually partly sunny this morning, and it felt really good to see some sun. Around 1100, the tide was up, so John and I took Moon Shadow up the Khutze River to explore. (Bob and Cheryl were busy cleaning and cooking crab – they caught their limit here – huge haul, with enormous crabs! No prawns for us, though.) Seals were everywhere near the mouth of the river, popping up and shyly watching us. They’d pop up behind the dinghy, and if we turned to look at them, they’d go back under water with a big splash. Just after we turned up into the river, we noticed a small brown bear, feeding on the tall grass at the shoreline. He appeared to be an adolescent, perhaps maybe a yearling, but well-fed. He seemed very unconcerned with us and went about his business while we drifted in the dinghy, watching him. We were able to get quite close, so I got some good pictures.

Further up the river were hundreds of gulls resting on sandbars, common and black-capped alike. The river shores were haunting, with many moss covered trees and beautiful wild flowers on the banks. We explored both arms of the river, finding an old fish trap of some sort on the southern arm. There were several falls on both arms, and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. As we were entering the southern arm, Bob and Cheryl came out in their dinghy and went in search of the bear.

When we returned to Mystic Moon, we could see that Bob and Cheryl had found our bear just right on the point. He was noshing away on the grass, quite distinctive because he had a blonde head and shoulders, and then got very black towards his rump.

We had brunch, Bob supplying sausage gravy and biscuits with cream cheese eggs, while the YB’s made Bloody Mary’s, and enjoyed another fabulous repast in the cockpit. Afterwards, the guys took the dinghy out in search of salmon, while Cheryl and I got down the kayaks and paddled up the river. It was almost low tide, so we fought the current on our way up, but had a great ride on the way back. I had gotten ahead of Cheryl, and she was lucky enough to spot our bear again, this time on the opposite river bank, so he had to have swam across. The seals were still around, sneaking up to take a look, then suddenly disappearing under the water.  They are so shy, yet curious at the same time.

The guys returned to the boat salmon-less, and Cheryl and I paddled over to check out the waterfall. The base of the falls is obscured by a densely wooded islet, and we never could figure out how to get close to it. The islet was way too overgrown to make our way through on shore. It was pretty humbling being right there near the crashing falls though, and you could see the alluvial fans created by the rushing water.

The only thing that marred this otherwise perfect day, were the biting black deerflies. Jerry and Linda had said that they didn’t anchor here because of them, but they were not in evidence last night. Today while the crab was being cooked, they showed up in swarms. I guess the sun and windless weather (and crab) brought them out. We must have zapped over 50 of them in Kasekuchen’s pilothouse after brunch. They were rather relentless in their pursuit, even following us for a while in the kayaks. With enough bug candles, vinegar, and Deep Woods Off, though, we managed, and by cocktail hour, they were gone.

Dinner was fresh crab and corn on the cob. There were stars again tonight, but my mission to see Northern Lights remains unfulfilled.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 2006 – Khutze Inlet to Oliver Cove

This was to be another travel day, so we were up early. As we were preparing to get underway at 0800, we noticed the bear coming out of the grass and onto the mudflats. It was low tide, so the bar that comes out next to the river was totally exposed. The bear sort of sauntered out, sending the eagles on the flat back into the air and the hauled-out seals back into the water. He clearly owned this place! He wandered down the bar to the edge of the water, stood up on hind legs, looked around and then pounced on a salmon. Grasping the fish in his mouth, he started running for the grass. His excitement at catching the fish was almost palpable. He disappeared into the grass, his prize between his teeth. If bears can smile, I think he did.

Shortly thereafter, he reappeared and this time, came down into the river, looked around for a moment, got impatient and turned back around, went up into the grass and started munching on the tendrils. This has been a very fun guy to watch because he’s so active.

The ride to Oliver cove was good, although we bucked the current most of the way. We finally went out into Millbanke Sound to try and get a push. There were a few swells, but it saved us at least an hour. We anchored at 1535 in Oliver Cove, a protected area right off of Reid Passage, in 35’ of water. The guys took the dinghy out fishing, but pulled in only rockfish.

We were all tired after a long day, so we put hamburgers on the grill and finished up our Domino game.

MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2006 – Oliver Cove to Kisameet Bay

We were up and underway at 0900. There were low clouds and mist, and the air was cool. By 1000, the rain had started, but we stopped to troll at Idol Point for a few minutes. Not even a bite.

It was a mellow day, in spite of seeing more boats on the water than we had in a long time. As we turned into Fitz Hugh Sound, the wind and seas picked up and it was quite choppy. The rain also began in earnest again. On our approach to Kisameet Bay, there were many commercial fisherman out, and we dodged gillnets for almost an hour. 

Dodging the gillnetters and/or purse seiners is somewhat stressfull, particularly if there are any seas at all - the nets have a (small, relatively, seems to me) red buoy at the end of them, and you have to be careful not to go between the fishing boat and the net.  The problem is to spot the buoy in the chop and poor visibility. It usually takes both of us with our stabilized binocs, to find the buoys in these conditions.  The fisherman are often so busy tending their nets that they don't even see approaching boats and assume that they will avoid them.  At any rate, we were successful at avoidance techniques this time, and entered Kisameet and calm waters.    

After anchoring, tonight with us rafted up to Kasekuchen, the guys went out in pouring rain, hoping to catch some of the salmon that the gillnetters had evidenced. Cheryl rested, while I worked at the computer. It was just too nasty to take out the kayaks. I think we are all really tired of the rain.

Kisameet Bay, though, is a lovely, pristine anchorage, and quite well protected. I saw seals and fish jumping and lots of scoters while I worked in the pilothouse. There’s a creek that runs into the bay and there’s supposed to be a good hike up the creek, but there again, I was pretty warm and cozy right where I was!

With no fresh salmon caught, Bob and Cheryl pulled halibut out of the freezer and made Parmesan Incrusted Halibut with Orzo for dinner and I made up a big salad and we ate on Mystic Moon. Which still left room for brownies and ice cream for dessert. J  (Yeah, okay.....the scale DID get float tested!)