The upper coast of BC. Yah gotta be here.

We sit in a rolly Prince Rupert Royal Yacht Club docks, tied to the world for a while. A repair again. Gotta love the sailing life. But we're also enjoying the city life again. Cars are a real novelty, as are french fries.

It's been a while. In the last month, we've been watching out for the cruising kitty, so haven't stayed in any marinas since Dawson's Landing. So we're a little unsocialized.

We covered hundreds of miles through Fiordland Provincial Rec Area, soaked in a couple of hot springs, and learned a few cooking skills. We just watched our engine turn over to 4000 hours, so we're definately motoring much more than sailing in these inside passages. On the flip side, we've been better at going with the tidal currrents to get a push and save diesel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

During the last new moon, the tides were big, and we did a lot of poking around at low tides. We've found some remarkable creatures. Here, let us introduce some of them.

This nudibranch was our first we'd ever seen. We had no idea they were so big. About the size and texture of those big orange-slice gummy candies. But a whole lot more charismatic...

 Some others were the hairy chiton (yes that's seaweed growing on it) and the bat star. The latter smells like sulphur and was in the shrimp trap.

 

Another visitor included this young dishevelled Brewer's black bird in a foggy rain storm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

On to the hot springs. Life is good soaking in the rain or sun in hot water on a rocky shore. It's really crazy how apey humans get over finding water slightly warmer than body temperature and sitting in it. But why fight it. Our first stop was Bishop's Bay where you can tie to another boat at the dock. This was great.

We rafted to a very reluctant Bayliner from Terrace, BC who admitted they we're worried about it. We decided we were probably their worst rafting nightmare. A sailboat even, and of course, did we say we have a dog?

The boat owner got out his wash broom right after we walked across his back deck the first time. We noticed he gave up after a few more shore trips by us. They also admitted that they usually don't come to this hot springs because they are sooo busy. There were a TOTAL of 5 boats. And they pointed out that three were American. American! Can you believe it?! I soothed his troubled mind by explaining that we weren't here to just take all the fish, but we Americans were also making plans to turn the hot springs into money-making resort ventures. Oh, and to steal all the women.

Boats and boaters have been stopping and writing their names on the walls and leaving carvings in the rafters. We decorated a japanese float we'd found and hung it on the ceiling.

Somebody had set a campfire on the boardwalk or other such stupid thing, so there was a section burned to a crisp and cobbled together. We hope it is rebuilt soon.

 

After this we motored up to Europa Bay Hot Springs. More remote and mooring bouys to tie up to, we shared this wonderful place with two fishing boats. One boat had his son fly out in his float plane so he could get the newspaper and sports scores.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the soaks. Though once again the view was marred by old clearcuts. You'd think the Canadian government would have set aside some land around the hot springs from logging. But I'm sure they have little control over them from the conversations we've had with their contrymen. I can imagine the loggers were just as excited as us to soak off the grime and probably kept them a secret if they could.

Our first real Japanese culinary masterpiece was shrimp sushi here. We made it with 21 of the biggest spot prawns we've caught so far. The processing was a lot of fun. Skewer, boil, cool, unskewer, peel, butterfly cut, make a nigiri (vinegered rice bottom layer) and press it together. Artfully arrange (we need more work on this part, but by this time, we were really hungry), and enjoy with wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce.

 
 
 
 
 
 
If you aren't hungry yet, maybe the tofu paneer cheese and veggie shish kabobs will get you.

 

To Namu and the ghosts of the middle coast

Here Blain tries on the latest in beach fashions on the Hakai Coast. Urchin hats.

We did let it go after this photo shoot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To Namu we go. The rain kept at it, but lovely abandoned Namu - a cannery town was a lot of fun to see. The caretaker showed us around and let us wander. Mo made the comment that this was a tinkers fantasy island. It had so much cool junk laying around. Blain got bar-envy when he spotted this mighty Husqevarna laying around. The real men of this coast actually cut their firewood with these babies.  

The "girls" of Namu beautified it all up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One interesting bay we anchored in near Shearwater was called Kushkudish Bay, and we rowed out to this sweet little waterfall on the basalt cliff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Up Dean Channel to Alexander MacKenzie's monument and the hot springs. MacKenzie painted this stone at the end of his epic walk across the continent in 1793. Funny, but he only missed Vancouver's expedition by about a month in the same spot. That's why e-mail was invented.

Buy Blain a beer one day and ask him to explain what was the significance of this photo.

Cinco de Mayo came and we celebrated by making tamales. Black bean, peppers and feta. Aiyiyiyii.

We set the shrimp pot off a waterfall hoping for a few, and the next day pulled the pot up to find some of the largest monsters we've ever seen. Note the regular sized vs the super sized version. Lobster really.

Around the corner, Eucott Bay hot springs were fantastic. We could live there. This remarkable hot springs jewel in the middle of granite spires and jade waters. However, as a blaringly bad example of environmental stewardship, they allowed two forested clearcuts right across the bay. Nice job Canada.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On to Ocean Falls. A strange deserted industry town with a massive dam in the middle of it. The former residents have taken care of a few structures and this panel van shows the latest town map. Though as Blain's old boss George Dickison used to say - a map isn't a map without a north arrow, legend, and scale bar. So it's back to the Ocean Falls GIS team for a new one.

The fire hall had a nice boat-shaped concrete patio, but was equally in need of some municipal funding.

Up the dam. Wow. That's a big hydro power dam. Too bad nobody's around to turn on a light.

The marine ways looked to be freshly inhabited, and actually had a craft store in it. Not open, and no customers, though.

After this it's back to Shearwater to see if we have mail, then northbound again.Fjordland, Klemtu, and eventually Prince Rupert.

Northward Ho (the old meaning of "ho")!

It took us a whole week to get back to civilization. We're in Dawson's Landing now for a repair. More on that later.

Our exit from Port Hardy was accidentially escorted by the Alaska Queen, headed north to fish.

Tucked into Skull Cove our first night and found a little Treasure Island science research camp. The netting at the cook shack made a nice group hammock.Chance enjoyed the signage. Nobody around, but it was fun exploring.

Blain dug up a bushel of six species of clams and cockles in one tiny area. Impressive biodiversity.

Mo found fresh mint and made homemade tortillas, and we made our stomaches happy. Our tortilla press has become invaluable.

The first few days was spent getting around the notorious Cape Caution and into Fitz Hugh Sound. Going from one island of safety to another - avalanche avoidance-style. The seas with swell and chop were 2-4 meters at times, but Oystercatcher bobbed along comfortably and we even sailed a little. Though sailing a rolly beam reach with 2-meter waves is a little hard on the stomach (and dog) we found. Nobody got sick, but they were really long days. We have some video, but no photos to do it justice.

Up into Fury Cove for the beaches and exploration, we waited out a few gales comfortably and we got to stretch out legs and burn trash. From Fury Cove we juked and jibed through the islands and rock-peppered maze finally emerging in the protected nooks of Five Window Bay and some dingy exploration.

Our steering was once again going soft, so we decided to get to the nearest settlement to try to fix it. After lengthy conversations with the manufacturer and parts folks on Skype, we ordered a seal kit from Vancouver to be couriered to the airport for the next flight up. All in all, one little rubber "o" ring likely cost us $181. Oh the life.

Here's Dawson's Landing and Jasper - the welcome dog. Chance and he spent the days avoiding each other, both thinking they were the coolest.

If all goes well on the repair, our next port of call will be Namu, then Shearwater/Bella Bella.