Our last stop was in Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island. While there we had to re-acquaint ourselves with the current Social Distancing practices including Virtual get-togethers.
Here we joined our monthly book group meeting online, and enjoyed seeing the faces of some of our friends.
The next morning we left all this behind and headed off into the wilderness – which could be defined by those areas without cellphone coverage. It would be a week before we received another cellphone signal.
The Pultney Point lighthouse on the west end of Malcolm Island just west of Port McNeill. From here we crossed to the north side of Queen Charlotte Strait on a nice calm day.
In Blunden Harbour we paddled up to the entrance of a large lagoon to have a look at the tidal rapids.
A bit further up the coast, we are out exploring the windswept shores of Bramham Island.
Jan takes an action shot of Harald playing in another set of tidal rapids.
After sitting out a day of bad weather, we rounded Cape Caution, with it’s diminutive navigation light structure. This part of the coast is open ocean so we were rocking around in the ocean swells and were exhausted by the end of the day.
Jan took this picture of me taking pictures. You can see that it’s been a while since I had a haircut. My excuse is that I’m just trying to blend in with the locals!
What was I taking pictures of? Well, on really calm days you can spot rock totems, like this one.
We went up Rivers Inlet to find this pictograph, which is featured in “Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time”, This is probably the most artistic pictograph we have seen – a humanoid figure with a ‘copper’ for a body and a stylized bird (Raven?) head.
We have explored several river estuaries looking for bears. Most of the time we just had beautiful scenery, but one day we came across several Grizzly bears. When bears come out of hibernation, the first thing they eat is grass.
This is a happy Grizzly bear in perfect bear territory. Lots of grass to graze in the spring. The blooming crabapple trees behind the bear will provide fruit in the summer and in the fall the river will be full of salmon.
When life is this good, sometimes you just have to have a snooze.
We were actually surprised to share this anchorage with a couple of other boats. This is the first time we have shared an anchorage since the first couple of nights of the trip. The green patch on the left covers a midden from a former Native village site.
Another loaf of bread comes out of the oven, and soon after there is avocado toast.
Whenever we get out to the outer islands, we try to get out in the kayaks. We love paddling in the ocean swells and the rugged beauty of the coast.
When we came across this group of sea lions, they were lying close together in the waves, sound asleep. Jan snapped this picture after they woke up. They are craning their necks, looking at us curiously and wondering who or what we are. They followed us like this for a while before they all dove and took off, no doubt to find another wave to nap on.
After the sea lions, we needed a break so we stopped in at this outer coast beach. It was a beautiful spot and there was a nice stream at one end but the weather was far too cool for bathing!
Morning light in an anchorage. Forest right down to the high tide line, and jewel green seaweed.
Another beautiful river estuary with no visible bears (were they all napping?) but instead this group of elegant Sandhill Cranes.
We passed by Namu for a look on the way by. The abandoned cannery, formerly a vibrant community, continues to crumble into the ground.
First halibut of the trip! This will feed us for several days. Fresh halibut is the best thing going!
Crabs like fresh halibut too! Using the halibut carcass as bait, we pulled in a record 38 crabs. Unfortunately, none of them were big enough to keep.
We pass by the Native village of Bella Bella, which is currently closed to visitors.
Raven Song at the far end of the dock at Shearwater, where we have stopped for a day for re-supply. When we were last here, two years ago, Raven Song was dwarfed by the large cruisers that filled the dock. Now, there is very little going on here. We had to phone in our grocery order and it was delivered to the dock. The laundry is open, which is a good thing, and we had take-out burgers from the pub for lunch. Tomorrow we will head back out, continuing slowly up the coast for more cruising adventures.
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