MAY 20, 2022 – VIXEN INLET TO EXCHANGE COVE

Awoke to completely clear skies today and sun sun sun. Actually I woke up at 3AM and couldn’t go back to sleep so came upstairs and laid on the couch the rest of the early morning. It was already getting light and by 4AM it was sunrise in our little cove, so kind of hard for me to get back to sleep but I enjoyed the setting moon, and sunlit peaks in the bay. We pulled anchor at 7AM and headed off to Exchange Cove where we will stay for two nights. We’ve never been there so hoping it has a lot to offer. It’s set among a group of islets and inlets so good exploring opportunities. It’s 8:30AM as I’m writing this and so far we’ve seen two pods of porpoises and a couple of humpbacks feeding along the shoreline. I’ve started to adopt the mindset of not trying to capture these events on camera but to just enjoy the moment instead. Otherwise you miss the show. Out in Clarence Strait today there is a lot of wood in the water and more than once we were surprised by a log and quickly had to veer off course to avoid. Later we came across a whole gaggle (pod, herd, pack – don’t know the term) of Sea Otters floating on their backs in a large group of maybe 100? They are nasty creatures but they do look so cute floating on their backs with their flippers in the air like they are in a swimming pool in the tropics.

We arrived in Exchange Cove in time for lunch and were greeted by a humpback whale feeding at the entrance. The wind was blowing about 10 chilly knots but if you were out of the wind it was quite warm. The boys got to work on Shannon and David’s dinghy engine which still isn’t working, while Shannon and I did boat cleaning chores. Later in the afternoon we set out our crab pots although I am not too hopeful because there are sea otters everywhere and they’ve been known to clean out shellfish populations. Once again, we are all alone in this cove. We talk about how lucky we are to be seeing this part of the world from the water and how very wild this country is, definitely feeling that we are guests to the native wildlife who reside here and this pristine wilderness. Frequently I don’t even know where to point the camera because it is so astoundingly gorgeous wherever you look. The snow-capped mountains surrounding us may start to look the same to you, but each vista inspires me to capture the beauty of that perspective.

After a nice topside nap in the sun, John and I went for a pre-dinner cruise around the islets around us and immediately spotted a black bear feeding on the grass along the shore. We motored very slowly and quietly, but it finally became wary and turned back to the forest. She/he had the most beautiful, shimmering black coat, and looked very healthy. Many of the bays up here have massive shallows, meaning we are about 1/3 mile from the head of the bay anchored in 43’ of water, but about 30 yards away from our boat it quickly shallows to 12’ and the rest of the distance to the head of the bay gradually gets more shallow, even though at high tide it appears one could go all the way to the end. This evening it was 70 degrees and we enjoyed a quick cocktail hour topside on the Lucky Dog basking in the heat, as we know it will be short lived, as another rainy pattern is expected tomorrow or the next day.