Day 17/July 17 – Miles Inlet round Cape Caution to Beaver Cove

Fullest day yet. Pulled anchor at 6am. Gorgeous, sunny, calm.

Rounded Cape Caution in just a few knots of breeze blowing over the rollers.
Headed up Rivers Inlet and the beach at Open Bight caught our eye. It’s not a usual destination due to it being NW facing, but today, with an unusual SE wind, it was perfect. Motor sailed in, dropped 30 feet of chain and rowed over the turquoise shallows to the white sandy beach with a picnic lunch. Examined the HUGE tracks on the beach – cougar? Wolf? Walked 40 feet through cedar and salal over to the other side of the bay – another gorgeous view. Back in Sturdi to the boat for showers on the bow.

Sailed off the hook into a perfect downwind leg. Perfect until we gybed and got the boom caught  on the backstay (note to self, this is possible on our boat). No harm done though, we rounded up quickly and sorted it out. Went a little further, looked at each other then went head to wind to reef to main. Reef was fussing, head sail whipping – “look a whale!” – I saw a humpback spray, then a lot of its back and the satisfaction of a full tail! Scott saw it too – about 100m away.
Surfed the waves of the Rivers Inlet daily thermal up to Dawsons Landing and tucked into Beaver Cove for a sheltered evening. Asleep by 9:30. 

(A humming bird just buzzed up to the window to check my grammar…)  

 

Day 16/July 16 – Murray’s Labyrinth to Skull Cove to Miles Inlet

Awoke to fog. Pretty thick fog. Not ideal for rounding Cape Caution. We gave it a few hours, navigated out of the labyrinth, poked out around the corner and verified our anticipated discomfort with the fog. We have radar and GPS onboard, but part of the fun of going around Cape Caution is being able to see it! Gave us an excuse to tuck into Skull Cove, row to shore and explore a rustic whale research station we’d seen going past the day before. Lovely spot on a point with an old Dickenson stove, fire pit, cedar benches, driftwood swing and plywood roof.

 

Day 15/July 15 – Port McNeill to Murray’s Labyrinth

Glassy calm as we left Port McNeill. I scrambled to get off a bunch of emails before we left range and Scott landed a nice 6 pound spring salmon. Headed across the strait. Waves turned to rollers. We saw a huge otter in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. The wind behaved itself and we got used to the rolling motion of the open ocean. Found our way into the outer coastal islets. Now we feel like we’re getting North. Wind pummelled trees. Booming waves. Bare rock faces. We were feeling adventuresome and so took the advice of the cruising guide and crept in slowly to Murray’s Labyrinth. Tricky entry, but not too bad with someone on the bow – a wonderful lagoon of moss laden trees, crevassed rocks, kelp forests. Broke in the new dinghy engine with a slow exploration. Had the whole place to ourselves.

 

Day 14/July 14 – Port McNeill

We said good-bye to Gary and Lorraine - they hopped on the bus back to Campbell River and we stayed in their motel room long enough to find ourselves a dingy on Craigslist?! Yup – inflatable Titan dingy with never been used 5 horse engine – it had been posted it the night before by the lovely Art, he’d had a bunch of responses from people further away but noticed our email which said we were in Port Hardy for 4 hours and so he called us. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect exchange! He came into town and picked us up, took us to his gorgeous property just outside of town (the most amazing concrete raised garden beds), helped us start the never before been started engine in a barrel of water, provided all the tools for us to fix the grommets on the torn webbing that keeps the gas tank in one place, helped us launch the boat, taught us a new knot, shared a few life lessons and took Patchi back to his place to store it for the summer! It really couldn’t have worked out better for us – just perfect. Took her out for a little warm up/break in the engine put-put around the harbour and named her, ‘Sturdi’. Tried to get an early night for the big passage tomorrow, but got distracted by odd jobs. Ate at Gus’ Pub, again.  

 

Day 13/July 13 – Crease Island to Port McNeill

Cruised through the crazy currents of the Broughtons. Passed by all sorts of birds and minke whales. Gorgeous calm, flat seas as we b-lined for Port McNeill for a town day. Laundry, groceries, a few extra fishing tackle accessories…a new dingy! After 5 days of wobbly boarding and un-boarding of Patchi, plus the sketchy evening of rockfishing off Port Neville, Gary and Lorraine convinced us we needed a more substantial dingy. So off to the marine store we went – all they had was a Walker Bay for $2300. We found another one on the street that wasn’t for sale, but was in the yard of a yacht broker. Knowing every boat is for sale for the right price, we tracked down his name and number off the Port McNeill Marina, left him a message and he got back to us – yup, it’s his dingy and it’s not for sale, but for the right price he didn’t want us to be stuck.  Walked back down the hill to cruise the docks for other boats for sale that might have a tender up for grabs and a guy on a motorcycle pulled up to ask us directions – it was Scott Baker! He used to sit across from me (Kim) back at the office. He came over for beer and chips on the bow and a little confab on his way up to the Dawson City Music Festival.

Day 12/Jul 12 – Matilpi to Crease Island

So. Good. Sail. Orcas. Sun. Steady 15 knots. Upwind heaven for 2 hours and more than half our leg today. Nothing else worth mentioning – o except our no-knead bread attempt didn’t really work out. We think it had something to do with the whole wheat flour we used, but after sorting out the pinched fuel line – the diesel oven slays.