CODVILLE LAGOON TO SHEARWATER TO BOTTLENECK TO KHUTZE INLET

Sunday, May 24^th

Our destination today actually started out to be Shearwater for one night, pretty much the last marina on our route before hitting Prince Rupert in 6 days, and was only 17 miles from Codville Lagoon. I was running low on ½ and ½  for my coffee, and Abells needed to top off their fuel anyway. Enroute John and I did some weather research and it seems that today is a better day to do our short crossing of Milbanke Sound (our nemesis from the past) which is an open to the outside waters. Today the waves are predicted to be 2’ with 13 second spacing which is about as good as it gets. Tomorrow the waves are predicted to be up to 8’ with 11 second spacing which is way too sporty for us. So we made the decision to power on past Shearwater once Abells were fueled up, our new destination being Bottleneck Inlet. While Abells were fueling I jumped in the whaler in my rubber rainsuit and motored over to the dock in search of the few items on my grocery list, and Lorraine needed limes to keep the margaritas flowing.  She makes the best as I’ve previously mentioned, so we support that cause! The store however turned out to be a complete bust. Rotting produce, many bare shelves, and virtually no dairy or eggs to be had. The best I could do for coffee were 2 cans of condensed skim milk, which sounds terrible but maybe it will work. While in the store another boater said “be careful outside and don’t go around the back of the building, I just scared off a Sow and her Cub” – yikes, bear warnings already!  Once back to the boat and Abells all fueled up, we continued on. One of the things in boating is that you always have to keep weather in mind and be willing to adapt your float plan to fit.

Bottleneck Inlet has a beautiful little keyhole entrance to a long skinny picturesque bay and is one of our favorite stops. However, as the morning stretched out I discovered that another flotilla was on the same trajectory as our group, and we watched on the Garmin as their flotilla of 7 boats filed into Bottleneck. Part of the wonder and beauty of this experience of traveling the Inside Passage is the remoteness of it all. We decided to skip Bottleneck and hopefully get ahead of the flotilla by a day so we could enjoy that remote feel, so off we went to Khutze Inlet, another 30 miles beyond. Enroute, the boys decided to test their navigation skills and chose a narrow passage to transit that was showing depths of 12’ on the chart in places, apparently to shave off some travel time. We actually got down to 7’ at one point! But everyone successfully made it through. I think the boys like this sort of technical challenge from time to time.

It poured all day today, and I mean POURED. On the radar it was a dense dark green island of rain on top of us. Our travel time was nearly 12 hours but if one adopts the mindset that these long days are sometimes necessary to “get there” to Alaska, then you just suck it up and go. It is a very long time in the captain’s chair though, and John and I switch off from time to time, him doing the majority most days. We finally arrived at the head of Khutze Inlet around 7:30pm and did some recon on where to anchor. I don’t think we’ve been here before or if we have, it’s been a long time. This is a very deep fjord surrounded by towering mountains with snow on top! Cascading waterfalls are everywhere, the most dramatic one being at the head of the inlet. There’s a river and estuary at the head of the inlet nearby which it is best to anchor but one has to be aware of the very dramatic depth change where the sandbar from the river stretches out – and the charts are not very accurate we’ve found! I think it’s because these sandbars change constantly and continue to grow as silt is deposited from the river. Anyway, it is STUNNING back here, even in the pouring rain. We found anchorage in 80’ of water but as we swung around we saw depths of 140’ so that tells you how fast it drops off. The winds are predicted to be very calm, so we should be fine overnight. I whipped up some teriyaki chicken rice bowls for dinner, which we finally sat down to eat around 9pm. Far Niente is anchored separately from us, and UnforgetAbell rafted alongside them, so tonight was a night off for us from group gatherings. Lorraine is hosting tomorrow’s dinner, so we will all be together tomorrow. As we got into bed I opened our porthole window so I could listen to the waterfalls all night, our very own organic white noise, so peaceful.

Even through the rain and mist, the view at the head of Khutze is stunning, this is the view from our anchorage

Big Eagle atop the dead tree at Shearwater 

Shearwater  Uplands

The narrow passage we navigated

Nice view of UnforgetAbell leaving Codville this morning

Derelict ship on Denny Island near Shearwater

Not a lot of visibility for our flotilla

One of many beautiful waterfalls, this one on opposite shore from Bottleneck

New Bella Bella, view from the water

PRUTH BAY TO CODVILLE LAGOON

Saturday, May 23rd 

This morning I heard my Eagle friends chattering about so wrapped myself in a blanket and sat outside with my coffee and binoculars and watched the nest a bit more. At one point both Eagles flew from the nest and perched together on a branch nearby. I hastily got my camera and got a picture! I love the wildlife. 

It is hard to leave this beautiful place, but we are on a mission to get to Alaska and it takes daily progress to get there. It’s nearly 700 miles from Seattle, and we are about halfway there now. Our destination today is Codville Lagoon, about 30 miles away, or 3 hours. The entrance to Codville Lagoon is very narrow. Last time we were in Codville, just as we reached the narrow entrance, a pod of 3 Orcas was making their way out of the lagoon. There was nothing we could do as we were already in the narrow passageway so John put the engines in neutral so they could safely pass. It was one of those moments where you just had to soak in the close encounter, pictures would never do it justice! Many a wildlife moment is diminished by attempting to take pictures instead of just being in the moment and filing it away in your brain. Anyway, moving along, we made our way to the very back of Codville Lagoon and set our anchors, Abells rafting up with us because Connie is cooking dinner for everyone tonight. Greg and I decided to put out some crab traps to see if there was any crab life in the bay. It was rocky where we were anchored so we ran the pots to the opposite end of the lagoon where it appeared on the charts to have a remote chance of crab. We will see. There’s actually a nice but technical hike through the woods to Sagar Lake which has a beautiful sandy beach, and we’ve done this hike before, even seeing wolf prints in the sand. However, earlier in the day I had read a post by another boater who said they heard a cougar growl in the distance while anchored in Codville! Wolves, while intimidating, don’t typically bother humans. Cougars on the other hand, will stealthily stock humans and that scares me more than any bear or wolf! Luckily it was raining so I didn’t have to appear a wimp by opting out of the hike because of cougars. Dinner tonight was on our boat at Connie’s request and she served up some delicious chicken enchiladas in green sauce, accompanied by a Mexican chop salad that I made, topped off with brownies for dessert. Lorraine wasn’t feeling well so John had retrieved Bill from their anchorage to join us for the evening. We taught him how to play 5 Crowns and had a fun evening. Prior to cards, Greg and I went back to our pots and discovered exactly 1 baby Dungeness crab in one pot, and 1 baby Red Rock Crab in the other, neither of which were keepers. OH well, you don’t catch if you don’t try!

Mom and Dad Eagle having "date morning" maybe discussing their eaglets, or what their harvesting plan is for the day, or hatching a plan to dispatch those pesky ravens who keep threatening the nest.

Codville Lagoon views from our anchorage

Looking the other direction in Codville

More Codville views

PRUTH BAY AT ANCHOR

Friday, May 22nd

Surprisingly, John awoke at 6:30 and went fishing with Greg and Bill. It was a quick trip though, they came back just two hours later pretty chilled to the bone. I spent the morning cooking in the galley, and made a macaroni salad and a big batch of clam chowder for future meals, it always tastes better on day 2, so maybe it is tomorrow night's dinner? This was my first major cooking project in the new boat, and I am loving my new galley, so much more space for my creations. Our plan today was for a lunch time weenie roast on the beach, a tradition that Shannon started years ago, and is something we try to do every stop here. Shannon and David had originally planned to be here with us, and Shan was in charge of organizing the weenie roast. Since they peeled off earlier than expected, Shan passed all the supplies to Connie so that we could carry on her vision. 

Pruth Bay has the most GORGEOUS beaches on the west and north sides of the island, they are like a beach you'd find in the tropics, sweeping half moon bays with white sand beaches. They are absolutely stunning! So after gathering the troops on our dinghy around 11:30, with everyone bundled up (it was overcast and chilly), we motored over to shore to the docks at Hakai Institute, a marine research facility that's been here for a long time, formerly a fishing lodge. Hakai Institute is privately funded by a multimillionaire and his wife through the Tula Foundation. They are doing amazing things so it's worth reading up on them. Upon arrival, we unfortunately learned that beach fires were prohibited this year, a first, so disappointing! But also understandable since there is no way to fight a fire on this small island, and it would be devastating. BC and Canada/US overall have had a terrible time with wildfires the past 10 years, so we are guessing there is a moratorium on all manmade recreational fires just to be safe. After a short hike east to west across Calvert Island we came to the first beach "West Beach" and everyone that had never been here before just gasped when it came into view. It is nothing like you'd ever imagine seeing up on the rugged coast of BC. Then we did the rather technical and challenging hike to "North Beach" equally gorgeous with so much sea life. It was a really low tide so we hiked to the tall rocks at the water's edge and viewed the plentiful sea life - mussels, anemones, starfish, periwinkles, and all kinds of shell life. On the beach we found gobs of abalone shells, beautiful mussel shells and polished rocks and wood. As the day wore on the sun came out and warmed us all up while the wind died down, making us shed our layers and enjoy this unexpected gift of a beautiful day! 

Since we weren't able to have our beach fire and weenie roast we decided to come back to the boat and execute lunch here. The boys had to move the boats out to deeper water this morning before our hike. As we were eating lunch in our new location, we spotted a huge eagle's nest on shore and that was another hour of entertainment as we watched Mom and Dad Eagle take turns sitting in the nest and guarding the nest. There were ravens nearby on neighboring trees that we surmised were waiting for an opportunity to steal the eggs or baby eaglets. Now we are all spent for the day. Too late of a lunch to make dinner, so now we just have to stay awake until a reasonable bed time hour! What a great day. 

The iconic scary tree at Pruth Bay on Hakai Institute land, carved directly into the tree in the 1980s

Greg and Connie awaiting "Boober" (Boat Uber, our dinghy) to pick them up for our trip to shore

Another boat in the bay, but the picture was about all the seals atop mostly submerged rocks in our bay

Wolves!! We didn't see any of them but if you haven't seen the documentary "Island of the Sea Wolves" it's directly related to wolves carving out a habitat and existence subsisting on marine life. It's on one of the big streaming services. 

Hiking the well developed trail through the gorgeous woods

Love the patterns in the sand

Kelp Art

The tangled coastal woods probably ravaged by severe weather over time

A swamp but a pretty swamp

A couple of toads in the swamp

Connie arriving at North Beach on Calvert Island after our strenuous hike

Just another beach panorama

Sea Life - starfish, sea anenomes retracted of course for the low tide, mussels in the background

BIG group of Mussels

Such interesting rock formations 

John exploring tidepools

I thought this was funny, looks like a duck sticking out of the sand (it's wood)

Giant Tree Fungus

Just In Case.....

Lorrain and I on the beach, John  photoboming

First view of West Beach from the trail, taken by Connie

Our Eagle Family behind the boat, one is in the nest and the other guarding the nest, perfect perch

PORT McNEILL TO PRUTH BAY

Thursday, May 21st

Off the dock this morning and underway by 5:30am. We tried to watch a movie last night but both of us were nodding off at 7:30pm, so we went to bed and I think both had a pretty good sleep. Today is a very long run, about 90 miles, crossing Cape Caution which is the largest body of open water we will face on this trip (unless we go on the outside of Chichagof and Baranof in July, which John is hoping to do, me not so much!). Crossing Cape Caution we are exposed to the mighty Pacific for about 3-4 hours, so it has to be fairly calm. Today the swells are predicted to be 4' with 10 second spacing, and the wind is predicted to be no more than 10 knots, so we are hoping the weather Gods cooperate. John does extensive research and planning, utilizing many sources to determine whether it's safe to cross. Then all we can do is hope that the forecasters are right! With the spacing of the swells it should be a ferris wheel ride of slowly going up and down. Will report back later when we have finished today's journey.

UGH, first sea otter sighting just outside Port McNeill. For those that have read my blog in the past, you know how I feel about them. Yes they are cute, but they demolish the shellfish populations, prawns, crab, clams, everything. The otter populations are out of control, and headed for the San Juans next.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: We had a great crossing after a  little bit of a rough start. The waves began building and white caps appeared about 2 hours into our journey and we hadn't even reached the open water yet. I was hoping that it wasn't going to escalate. Thankfully, as predicted, the water smoothed out over the course of the morning and we had a really pleasant transition past Cape Caution and on to Pruth Bay, on Calvert Island. We tucked back into a nice protected finger off of the main bay, where Abells anchored on their own and we rafted (tied the two boats together) with Bryans on one anchor as an experiment. Combined, our boat and Bryan's boat is collectively about 250,000 lbs so quite a bit of weight on one anchor. Our hope is that in settled water that the three boats can raft together over the summer, as it is infinitely more fun when we are tied together. Since it was the very first time that the Bryans and Abells had crossed Cape Caution, it was time to celebrate and toast the accomplishment! We all gathered on our boat for cocktails and snacks around 3:30, which stretched into a several hours, many cocktails, and no dinner. We all know how that goes! What a fun afternoon! Happy to be across the Cape and on to our next leg of inside waters for the next week, except for a brief trip into Milbanke Sound as we round the corner to dart back inside. BONUS: We were greeted by many eagles upon arrival, their distinct chatter music to our ears. 

Lorraine took this picture from her boat in 3rd position behind us and Abells as we headed out into the open ocean Cape Caution Crossing. 

Heading out to cross Cape Caution, Huntress in front, UnforgetAbell second, taken from Far Niente

Here's another one that Lorraine took a few days ago that turned out nice. 

 BLIND CHANNEL TO PORT McNEILL

May 20th

We had a wonderful dinner last night at Blind Channel, the menu is small but the quality is top notch. I had sablefish in a citrus butter over veggies, it was really good! Thank you to my travel partners for making it a special night for us. 

Today was another fairly early day because we had to time the Greenpoint Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids to get out to the Johnstone straits. Normally we go south out of Blind Channel for 15 minutes and hit the Johnstones immediately, but the group decision was to delay the Johnstones by going up and over. The entire cruise to Port McNeill was uneventful, maybe a humpback sighting, but that was the extent. The best news is that the water was calm today, at most some light chop at times, but it was a great journey up to Port McNeill. Port McNeill is a cute little town, historically a logging and mining town. In fact they have the largest quarry in the Northern Hemisphere, which I found out by googling this morning, I had no idea. But enroute north we've always passed by the large marine shipping facility just north of the town so I probably could have looked it up much sooner. We all executed our minimal errands in town then met at the Devil's Bath Brewing, a local craft brew pub, for a lively happy hour and send off for Shannon and David who are peeling off here to enjoy the Broughtons at a leisurely pace. They had planned to spend a few more days with us, but had to make the tough choice to play it safe. Favorable weather predictions for crossing Cape Caution have been spotty so they don't want to get caught up north waiting for a window to come back. We've personally traveled with them to Alaska twice before (2018, 2022), so we will miss them terribly. Safe travels to you two. 💕

Dinner at Blind Channel

Farewell to Shannon and David, on docks at Port McNeill

CAMPBELL RIVER TO BLIND CHANNEL 

Tuesday, May 19th

Today it's our anniversary as previously mentioned! 19 years of bliss, that's our story and we're sticking to it! Seriously, it's been a wonderful adventure in life with my love. 

Another early day for us, the captains decided we needed to be outside the harbor into the channel by 6:15, which meant we started to prepare around 5:45, for John that meant unplugging power readying the lines, and for me it meant slugging down the coffee just so I can function. Still having jet lag residuals. Our journey today started out uneventful, an easy cruise to meet our goal of hitting Seymour Narrows at slack water around 7:15. After that, things began to ramp up and by the time we hit the turn off to go up to Blind Channel, all the boats were taking spray over the bow, and sometimes even over the flybridge! It was all stirred up. The tides are huge right now which, when combined with current and wind, makes for a bit of a rock n' roll ride. Once we turned the corner the water settled and all we had were currents to deal with from there to Blind Channel. At this writing, we are all settled in on the docks and about ready to go for a hike in the woods on the beautiful trails they have here. 

After a little down time, we set out to hike up to the Big Cedar at Blind Channel. It is a Western Red Cedar that is estimated to be 800-1,000 years old, left standing by early loggers so people could enjoy this massive tree. It's a beautiful hike through the woods with the forest floor soft and cushy with needles and hemlock pine cones, and later in the summer lush with huckleberries. Tonight we are eating out (again!) at the Cedar Post Inn, the wonderful German restaurant here on the marina premises, owned by the Richter Family for over 4 generations. It is a meticulously well run marina, with the grounds neat and tidy and interior decor tasteful. Oh and cinnamon bus in the morning if one desires. Over and out for today. 

Hiked up to the Big Cedar at Blind Channel

L-R, UnforgetAbell, Far Niente, Lucky Dog, Huntress, docked at Blind Channel

Hiked out to the lookout point

Wedding Day, May 19, 2007 (yes we had a tropical themed wedding) - woah, that spray tan of mine!!

Just a couple of big kids on their honeymoon in Paris, 2007

SECRET COVE TO CAMPBELL RIVER

Monday, May 18th

Happy Anniversary to Connie and Greg! 41 years! Tomorrow is John's and my 19th anniversary, not sure we will make it to 41 but we hope so! Let's see, we'd be 87 and 89 so it's possible if our respective genetics play out, John's folks are 88 and 87, and my Mom lived to be 94, passing away just 2 weeks shy of her 95th birthday! Let's hope we are as fortunate. 

Whose idea was it to make Aviation cocktails last night? Oh yes, it was me, what was I thinking. I just had one but it kicked my butt, judging from the way my head feels this morning. Apple Fritters helped my brain fog a bit. Anyway, we cast off this morning at 6:45AM for the 6-1/2 hour run to Campbell River which is our first major provisioning and fuel stop. Now we can shop for fruits and vegetables, wine, and anything else we've forgotten. The water was like glass and the sun was bright for the entire trip, it was a great leg of our journey! We saw a couple of humpback whales very briefly along the way, but too far away to take pictures.

The wind was blowing at Campbell River, like it usually does. Everyone else made their way into the harbor while we did our usual routine of stopping outside the entrance to pull in our tender that we tow, and tying it alongside the big boat before proceeding into the harbor. After we accomplished that task while drifting backwards in the 5 knot current, I then proceeded to set up the big boat with lines and fenders to go into the harbor to the dock. I was outside walking back from the front of the boat, and inadvertently bumped a fender clip (or my clothing caught on it, not sure which) which released the fender into the swirling current! Crap! As I watched it being swept away, John abandoned his captain post and came back to help me get the tender untied so I could race over to fetch it, which I did without too much trouble. After docking and getting settled it was a marathon shopping trip to the Canadian Super Store (like a giant Walmart with groceries) to provision up, because after our stop at Port McNeill in two days, there are no grocery stores for nearly 2 weeks. We had a nice dinner out at CARVE, an absolutely excellent restaurant, celebrating the Abells' anniversary, then it was off to bed for our next early departure, 6:15AM.

HUNTRESS underway to Campbell River

Happy Anniversary Greg and Connie!

MONTAGUE HARBOUR TO SECRET COVE

Sunday, May 17

Happy Birthday to our darling granddaughter Emma who is 3 today and we are sad to be missing her birthday party! We love you sweet girl.

Connie and I started our day with another walk on shore; today we managed 3.5 miles and hiked through the campgrounds and woods surrounding Montague Harbour. Perfect start to the day! Once again we have a leisurely boat departure at 10:30 because we are trying to hit a particular passage by noon for slack water. Porlier Pass is one of the gateways into the straits and also through which the water funnels during tide changes, sometimes with swirling currents of up to 7 to 10 knots, so one is always wise to try to time that transit at slack. 

As I mentioned, we have a new boat this year. On our other boat, I was more of an active partner in pulling the anchor, releasing the tender for tow, and generally helping to facilitate. John would be out on the bow bringing up the anchor and we had a hand signal system to inform me if he wanted me to engage the engines, back up, go to one side or the other. We were more of a partnership. With the new boat, John now has what is basically a remote control for the boat, so I no longer have any active role in this process. It's a bit sad for me in some ways, but I will adjust. I still drive the boat quite a bit and navigate, and plan routes, so I am still involved. I also coil up all the lines and pull in all the fenders (most of the time, i have been forgetting a couple the last 2 days, have to get back into my routine). And I am chief cook, which is quite a bit of work actually. Unless we are onshore because the rule on our boat is if we are on a dock and there's a restaurant available....we are eating out! 

We hit Porlier Pass at 11:45 to a nothing burger, no currents or hazards, a smooth transition to the Georgia Straits. Then we set in for the 3-1/2 hour crossing to get across the straits to Secret Cove for the night, a small marina on mainland Canada. We had the most beautiful crossing in the glorious sunshine and eventually ran from the flybridge because it was so toasty, tunes cranked. Such a great afternoon! After getting settled in at Secret Cove we of course had to hit the little store on the dock to see what treasures we could find, and I needed lemons for my cocktail recipe for Aviations, a cocktail that dates back to the 1920s, and it is very good if you like gin. To be honest you can't even taste the gin after the other ingredients are added (lemon juice, creme de violette, and maraschino cherry liqueur). Shannon found a stuffed toy croissant with a mustache, and had to have it. I only found my lemons, some water, and apple fritters....which I had to have. Anyway tonight we had "appetizers for dinner" as a group and Greg blessed the fleet, which we feel is imperative. Greg blessed our last two trips to Alaska, and we had great weather and no calamities, so we are so thankful whether people believe it is just superstition, a religious or pagan belief, or dumb luck....it works for us, not gonna mess with it!  Crashed somewhat early because tomorrow we need to hit the water early to get to Campbell River for supplies and groceries, and we only have a few hours to accomplish our errands. As mentioned we had to shave off our second day in Campbell River due to weather delay. 

FAR NIENTE at anchor in Montague

Looking back to our following fleet

Close up of fleet, Far Niente nearest, and UnforgetAbell bringing up the rear. Lucky Dog ahead of us.

Beautiful Day on the water!

El Capitan at the helm

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!