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.