Barbee & Larry's space

Well, we are home now and I think I have done as much laundry as I possibly want to do in one week!!  So I will catch you up on our journey.

 

After leaving Greenway Sound Marina, we left for Shawl Bay Marina to join with Merlin (Susan, Rod and Katie).  This was a typical marina in that they cram you in which is what the 3 boats did.  Luckily there is usually help on the docks and of course, since we are usually the last in, we get help from our friends!  It is almost worth being slower.  The next morning this marina has a pancake breakfast for all of their guests.  We left Shawl Bay for Waddington Bay.  The 3 boats anchored.  This was an absolutely fantastic place.  I think when we come back to the Broughtons that this is a must stop.  The kayakers kayaked and Larry and I took a dinghy ride.

 

The next day Merlin left to meet other friends.  Puffin and LaMouette anchored at Village Island.  This is where the last of the potlatches were held way back.  When Larry and I were here several years ago, many of the houses were still standing but now only 2 still stand.  I have just finished reading Totem Poles and Tea by one of the school teachers of long ago.  What a life these people had.  Tuberculosis being a common occurrance.  It was also overgrown with blackberry bushes and the like.  Steve pointed out a ball of snakes!!!!!!!which I greatfully avoided!!!

 

We left Village Island for Potts Lagoon.  We had been the only 3 boats here on our way up but tonight there are 5 or 6.  From here we went thru Whirlpool and Greenway Rapids to Blind Channel Resort.  Here we reprovisioned and had a nice dinner in the gourmet restaurant that is usually not open when we are here.  The next morning we motored to Dent Rapids and killed some time to get thru them at the right time.  We went throught Dent, Guillard and Yaculta Rapids and on to Von Donop Inlet where we spent another delightful night.  Von Donop is another of our favorite anchorages.

 

We crossed over the water to Heriot Bay Marina where we met up with Merlin again. One of the boats on the dock was "Art Sea".  It turned out to belong to Sue Coleman a world renown watercolorist.  Needless to say, I was totally in awe of her.  We have one of her prints on LaMouette. We reprovisioned at the great grocery store they have here and then had dinner at the restaurant.  The food was awesome!  On the 23 we went to Rebecca Spit and walked the Spit collecting who knows what.

 

On the 24, 25, and 26 we were a Comox on the Vancouver Island side.  We are waiting out weather before heading to Nanaimo.  This is a working harbor and we were able to partake fish from the vendors.  Steve bought salmon and Larry bought prawns.  We love these working docks.  We hung out a Nanaimo before heading through Dodds Narrows and on to Montague Marine Park.  Traveling in August is very different for us as most anchorages and marinas are crowded.  From Montague we went to Beaumont Marine Park where we met up with Merlin again.

 

After clearing customs Puffin and LaMouette headed off to Garrison Bay on San Juan Island where we will participate in Squalicum Yacht Clubs annual cruise.

 

So after covering almost 23 hundred miles on LaMouette over a 17 week period there are lots of thoughts about this journey.  What a journey it was.  We are very glad that we did it and we had an incredible time.  The whales, icebergs, bears and scenery were amazing but in actuality the people we meet along the way made this trip fantastic.  It was proven time and time again that boaters are boaters and that the size of your boat did not matter.  In spite of a couple of glitches, LaMouette proved to be smallish but handled each situation well.  I am not sure that we would do this trip again in a 30 foot sailboat.  There is big water up there!  The things I missed most on this trip was, and not necessarily in order, the washer dryer, the dish washer, looooooong free showers, Fred Meyers and of course all of you---our friends and family.

 

So where are we going next, you may ask.  Well, LaMouette is coming out of the water tomorrow for cleaning, waxing, etc.  I think we would like to spend much more time exploring the Broughtons, like a month or so in early summer.

When we left Shearwater, the weather was partly cloudy with some sun.  It was warm.  We are heading to Namu, B.C.  Namu was once a thriving cannery (sound familiar?) that slowly went down hill.  It now has two couples as caretakers:  Renie and Pete and Teresa and Tom.  They are something else.

 

We arrived 2 days before the annual pig roast.  It was decided by the four of us to stay as we felt this might be another "happening"!  And it was!  First off people from all over come to this event.  On Saturday morning, the party barge became THE place to be.  Pete, one of the caretakers, started the pigs on the barbeque.  The big decision of the moment was whether the pigs should be snout to snout, snout to butt or butt to butt.  Snout to snout won out.  Pete would painstakingly baste these pigs with beer and he told Larry that he wasn't sure whether it was 2 beers for the pigs and one beer for him or the other way around!  This was at 9:30 in the morning!  As the potluck progressed, more food was put out on the table and then at 5 p.m. the pigs were done.  I am sure that you are all wondering what a nice Jewish girl is doing at a pig roast and I know I cannot answer this question.  But it was definitely an event.  We were the "outsiders" but were welcomed with open arms.

 

On Sunday August 12, we left Namu to go to Fury Cove another step closer to home.  There was wind for us and so we put up sails.  The seas were lumpy when we arrived at Fury Cove but it was still as beautiful as on our trip up.  At 0 dark hundred the next morning we left Fury Cove to go around Cape Caution and the open waters.  Leaving early was a great idea because the water was like glass and we went around the Cape quite easily.  On the other side, the rollers started.  Steve and Joyce said that at several moments all they could see of LaMouette was her mast!  The rollers were 6 to 8 feet and not close together.  We arrived at Blunden Harbor and anchored.

 

We decided to spend two nites at Blunden Harbor so in the morning we all got in our dinghies to see how far we could make it to the waterfalls.  On the way, we spotted a black bear.  We turned off our motors and drifted close to him.  He could definitely hear us and knew we were there but he was too busy eating other things than to be concerned about us.  We made it to the waterfalls.  The current was great but it was truly beautiful.  At high tide you can go into the lagoon where the falls started from.  We will definitely do that next time.

 

We left Blunden Harbor on Tuesday to go down Queen Charlotte Strait and head into the Broughtons.  Because this is open water, we were a little concerned but again we had light wind to sail and glassy water.  We pulled into Sullivan Bay Marina and the sun was shining and it was warm.  Sullivan Bay Marina is situated on floats.  There are many float houses, all done in a New England style.  We had dinner at their restaurant and a quiet night followed.

 

The morning was cloudy and then the rains started.  We left Sullivan Bay Marina to go to Greenway Sound Marina where we are now.  This is another marina on floats.  The sun came out finally.  We made contact with Rod and Susan Dean on Merlin of SYC and will meet up with them over the next few days.

On Monday, July 30th, we left our slips in Ketchikan to head to Foggy Bay, our last stop before re-entering British Columbia.  The weather is sunny with some clouds.  Much more uneventful than when we entered Alaska.  The next day we got up at 4 a.m. as weather across Dixon Entrance is good.  The sun was shining and the seas cooperated.  We arrived at the Rushbrook government docks in Prince Rupert and both Puffin and LaMouette had to raft.  This is a very busy fishing dock and no one cares about wakes.  We spent 2 days there restocking.   

 

August 2nd and again another early departure.  The weather is great as we head down Grenville channel.  Our timing was great for the tide and current changes.  We decided to move on to Lowe Inlet which has become a favorite spot.  The next day we jib sailed into Hartley Bay for refueling.  Again we left Hartley and put the jib up.  A radio call from Puffin stated that there were hundreds of dolphins heading our way.  It turned out they were not dolphins but hundreds of pilot whales!  An awesome sight.

 

Our jib sailing kept us going 7 knots as we entered Khutze Inlet.  There we anchored in front of the cascading waterfall.  There was also a small whale here and we believe it to be a minke whale.  If you looked in the water you could see hundreds of schools of salmon!  I guess we know why the whale was here.  A seaplane landed in the inlet long enough to drop 2-3 crab pots off!  After dinner Larry and I took a dinghy ride through the marshes to another waterfall.  The channel got down to 10 feet across.  I tell you this because on the way back, we spotted a "moose" in the water.  That moose turned out to be the biggest grizzly bear!!!  We  were about 20 feet from him!  We kicked up the motor and took off to the safety of LaMouette. 

 

On Sunday August 5th we left Khutze Inlet to go to Klemtu, an Indian Village.  The sun was shining and we had the current with us so we were going 6-7 knots.  Klemtu docks had very little to tie to but we managed.  We learned that the BC Ferry would be serving dinner at 5 p.m.  It seems that this was an "event" as we thought the whole town turned out.  We found that at Klemtu you eat hamburgers with fries and gravy and chocolate cake!!  We four just had the burgers!

 

It was cloudy when we left Klemtu.  We were heading to Boat Inlet in Reid Passage.  The entrance to Boat Inlet is narrow and rocky so after we saw Puffin in there we knew we could make it.  At one point our depth was 12 feet from the water line!!  As we entered we heard sandhill cranes which are known to be here.

 

Yesterday we head across open water for awhile while we headed to Shearwater and the marina.  We have restocked our galleys and fueled up.  Our next stop will be one day closer to Cape Caution.

We left Wrangell to head down through Zimovia Strait to Frosty Bay.  The weather was nice however we did have to zig and zag through the gill netters.  There so many of them.  When we got to Frosty Bay it was sunny so anchoring was easy.

 

The next day we left LaMouette at Frosty Bay and went aboard Puffin to go to the Anan Bear Observatory.  I had read about the Observatory in a Sunset Magazine a few years ago and was anxious to see the black and grizzly bears.  We anchored Puffin and rowed ashore.  The first ranger met us with his rifle half way up the trail and told us what to do if we encountered bears!  We talked loud and sang many songs, clapping our hands and stomping our feet on the boardwalk.  When we got close to the platform to view the bears in Anan Creek, the  next ranger signaled us to stop.  There was a black bear near the boardwalk.   We waited until the ranger signaled us that we could pass.

 

We spent the next 4 hours in awe and amazement watching black bears catch salmon in the creek.  Later in the day the grizzly bears replaced the black bears for another round of awe and amazement.  There were eagles everywhere.  We cannot explain the feeling to be only a few feet away from grizzly bears as they were catching fish in the stream.  Within the next few days we will be posting the photos.  Like I said before Larry could not help himself in the last posting of pictures.  In his attempt to put the photos into smaller groups, i.e., whales, icebergs, glaciers and bears he removed from our blog the photos and in trying to replace them in those groups, he was denied access to adding more as he had exceeding our monthly limit.  Be patient and check out our blog in August to see the group pictures; i.e., bears, glaciers etc.

 

We returned to Frosty Bay to pick up LaMouette and went to Santa Anna Inlet to anchor for the night.  When we awoke the next morning, the sun was shining and there was blue sky.  We left the anchorage to go to Meyers Chuck with the sun shining.  As we approached Clarence Strait the wind picked up and so did the seas.  We entered the narrow entrance in 20+ knots of wind with 5 foot seas.  We were glad to see the dock.  Puffin arrived shortly thereafter.  After 5 weeks Meyers Chuck was a friendly and secure place to tie up the boats.

 

We stayed one night and decided to head to Ketchikan and headed out into Clarence Strait only to find the conditions a little worse than the day before.  After a short time we all decided to return to the safety of Meyers Chuck spending the day with old friends we had met along the way and new friends at the docks.  Larry baked cookies on the barbeque and they were shared with Puffin.

 

The next day was sunny and the weather conditions had improved.  So we headed for Ketchikan.  By the time we reached Ketchikan it was pouring down rain and it looks like we will be here for the next few days waiting for good conditions before crossing Dixon Entrance.  Alaska has exceeding all of our expectations.  Our adventure will continue as we head to Canada and home.  We will still be updating our blog so keep on checking in with us.

For those of you who are still with us, thank you for looking at all the pictures Larry put on the blog.  The sights here are so unbelievable that it is hard not to want to include all of them.

 

The new docks at Wrangell are not done so we are at the transient dock.  We are rafted to Puffin and most rafts are 3 to 4 boats deep.  There are so many fishing boats here.  Each one different from the next.  Some are in great shape and some are not.  On Saturday, we all spent the day in town.  This town is hurting for something other than fishing to bring in revenue.  We manage to keep busy and leave some tourist money here!  On Sunday we took a taxi to the pictograph beach.  There we walked the beach and the rocks to see the ancient pictographs.  They are not sure whether these rocks were brought here by glacial flow or whether the Indians here did them.  In any event, they took at least a day each of chiseling.

 

Tomorrow we head down Zimovia Strait to Frosty Bay where we will leave LaMouette the next day to travel to the Anan Bear Observatory.  We are hoping for good weather as it has be raining most of today.  Our next big stop will be Ketchikan in 4-5 days.