Rescue Bay

Day 8 - May 18, 2008
Woke up to another drizzly wet morning. Tom says that the weather is preparing us for Alaska.
Hung around Shearwater until much of morning was spent on the phone (in the hotel) trying to figure out why cell phones and phone based internet service has not been working as planned/purchased. End result – Nextel system is useless. Turns out Nextel had added ability to call Europe from Gig Harbor to Chris’s plan. Not what they had told her or what she’d asked for. They now admit that there is no (or extremely limited) Nextel service in Canada and Alaska. So Chris and Liz will be putting their phones in storage. Tom is on Verizon system which so far seems to be the best. Glen is on AT&T which has not been working but after todays call we hope to have at least some service. This has been very frustrating to say the least. Left Shearwater 11:40 am headed for Rescue Bay. Just outside Shearwater saw first whale of trip. Actually 3 of them. Appear to be Humpback. Stopped for night about 4:15pm at Rescue Bay. There are patches of snow at about 1,000 feet elevation. Put out crab and shrimp pots, went for dinghy ride to scout out passage for the morning. Books all say Jackson Narrows is a narrow and shallow area … not from what we found at mid tide. Pretty area; with a rocky beach. We’ve noticed that there are very few ‘beach’ area’s around. Most places have rock walls down to the water. Only two other boats in the bay both sail boats from Port Angeles. Had a lovely dinner on the back deck of Magic, and then Tom, Chris and Glen went for a kayak outing. Sophie (Miner’s dog) and Liz stayed back and read.