Aug 22 – Day 112 Cape Caution

Aug 22 – Day 112    Cape Caution

Woke up early, and the water was flat and reflective and the sky looked to be the start of another sunny day with some clouds.   

 

Looking toward the passage into this well protected bay.

 

6:30 am

Okay spoke to soon, by 6:40 it was raining.  But by 7:30 the sun was coming out in force and there is blue sky up there.  

 

At about 8:30 we pulled anchor and headed out for our crossing of Cape Caution.   Glen saw one whale during the crossing.  I saw nothing as I was hunkered down on the couch avoiding the waves, and somehow I’d pulled a muscle or something in my back and thus was unable to move much anyway.   

 

We pulled into Skull Cove after a successful crossing.   There was one other boat in the cove.   In the afternoon we went for our usual exploratory cruise.  We went through every little inlet that Glen could find, most lead to nowhere.  We went over to Allison Harbor which is another popular spot for stopping after a crossing or maybe stagging before a crossing, there were five boats in there.   It appears to be a bit more protected and is much larger than Skull, but not as pretty.  

The only wildlife in these anchorages were seagulls, and humans.

Aug 21 - Day 111 Millbrook Cove in Smith Sound

Aug 21 – Day 111     Millbrook Cove in Smith Sound

We cruised south.  The tide changed on us and the last hour and a half or so was quite lumpy.  Lumpy is an understatement.  I heard Glen talking to Steve about some of the waves/swells being 9 footers.   No wonder I did not feel good.  

We heard from Willard and Diane and they made it through the border and are racing north to meet up with us to cruise back south with us.   They had so wanted to do the 2021 Alaskan adventure with us but life and family stuff took precedence and took it out of the cards.   They’ve known all summer that once their schedule cleared and if they could cross the border that they were heading north to join us for some fun on the water.   We expect to see them in a couple days.

 

The evening ended with going outside and viewing a full moon and Jupiter.  Fantastic.  With the high-powered binoculars, we could see lots of details of the moon and could clearly see three moons of Jupiter.   Tried to use Shawn’s trick of taking a photo through the 14 power stabilized binoculars with a phone but failed.  Shawn is the expert on that trick, wish he had been with us.   I’ll have to do some practice. The purchase of those binoculars was well worth it, they are great. 

 

That small dot in upper center is Jupiter with the moon below at the edge of a cloud – cell phone photo

Big camera didn’t want to take the shot.

 

The pictures in my head from viewing through the binocs are much better.

Aug 20 – Day 110 King Island

 Aug 20 – Day 110      King Island

Dave and Jane decided it was time to split off from the group today to head south.  They hope to get across Cape Caution today and to start moving for the barn.   They want to get back to Seattle, do a few boat chores and put Bidarka away for the winter and head back to Phoenix.  Before their next big adventure, they have some boat projects – new refrigerator, one that does not freeze everything when it wants to, heating system rework (it’s new but did not seem to want to work properly), finicky autopilot, … and of course, the big one – a new engine for the dinghy.  They have been dinghy-less since the Baird glacier incident.  But as we all say there is safety in traveling in numbers and sharing toys.   We wished them well and safe travels southward.   

 

We left Shearwater mid-morning and went to Kisameet Bay on King Island.   Today’s excursion included trying to find a trail to the lake.  First we found what we believe to be the sight of a new mineral mine.   We had talked to a gentleman in Shearwater who had spent much of his life as a gold miner, who is now starting up a mine for minerals (he did not say exactly what types) over on King island.  We think we found his site.  There were a couple platforms with locked storage areas, and as lots of things being gathered for a project - Chain link fencing rolls and piping, large plastic (water?) tanks.   There was a large hole, covered by tarps which looked to be a dig site. 

 

There was no trail to the lake in that area so we went to another section of the bay and found a river that must bring lake water down to the bay.  There were downed trees across the river so we could not explore by boat.  So found a spot and went ashore.  No clear trail.   

Moved to another spot to go ashore and look.  No clear evidence of a trail at the beach but Steve and Glen decided to search farther inland. We expected the guys to come back and tell us they found a trail but they didn’t so Michelle and I stayed on the beach in the sun playing with whatever we found.   

 

 

Sometime later the guys reappeared.  They had found a trail of sorts marked with surveyors tape which they followed clear to the lake.   It apparently was not an easy trail and for them to say that must mean it was gnarly.   They found a waterfall about 6-10 feet high with fish jumping trying to get up to the lake.   Steve got some good video with his phone.  Glen always forgets to take his phone, for him it is the adventure, not the photos of the adventure.   

 

I always carry a plastic bag for berry picking or whatever else I find.  I asked Glen to pick berries.

Glen’s idea of berry picking

 

 

We have about a gallon of Blueberries and Huckleberries washed and ready for baking.   

What should we bake?    

 

Dinner on the deck of Magic

No baking tonight, it was too hot

 

The dot in the sky is Jupiter – taken with my cell phone

Aug 19 – Day 109 Shearwater

 Aug 19 – Day 109       Shearwater

That is not us, but a 150-footer at the end of the dock.

Coming into port on a sunny day

 

What selling cars, a lot of cars for a living can get you!

.

 

Nelsea and Magic at the dock in Shearwater

 

We put on a little fuel, charged up the batteries, had lunch and dinner at the restaurant, some more ice cream for Magic’s freezer, and picked up a couple parts for Nelsea’s leaking steering pump. All in all, a great day of restocking.

Shearwater is now owned by the Bella Bella Community on the next Island. The sale started a couple years ago and just finalized this spring. The facility was busy and the dock crews were very helpful fulfilling all our requests and wanted to make sure we enjoyed our stay.  They said that this was going to be great for the Bella Bella people as now there are lots more job opportunities.   They even had a couple young people just out of high school whose job was to just walk the docks and talk to people, help them with whatever, and basically just make everyone feel welcome.   This was good for these ‘kids’ too as they got to interact with lots of people.  Neither had been outside of the Bella Bella area in their lives and were headed off to college in the fall. 

Aug 18 - Day 108 phone service Klemtu

Aug 18 – Day 108  phone service  Klemtu

 

I asked for phone access to participate in my NSP National Board Meeting this afternoon. Glen picked the target of the village of Klemtu which we knew from past experience had cell coverage.  A nice bay just south of town gave us a suitable anchorage and I made the meeting.

Klemtu wanted all to know that visitors were not welcome by posting 4’ x 8’ signs at each docking area proclaiming that only locals could tie up under their Covid protocols.

Aug 17 – Day 107 - Bay of Plenty

 Aug 17 – Day 107  - Bay of Plenty

Morning harvest count – zero crab and about a dozen prawn.

We headed out down the Laredo Channel and cut back in at Laredo Inlet headed for the Bay of Plenty.  We made a change and decided to anchor in Alston Cove and do our exploring in the smaller boats.

 

 

 

After anchoring we went search of the Spirit Bear.  Our target was the Bay of Plenty and the river where we saw one in 2016.   Spirit Bears are also called Kamodal bears.  They are black bears which are white to brown in color.  The white ones are not albinos, just white in color.   To our knowledge they are only found on Princess Royal and Gribbell islands.  

We did not see any today.  Rats!

 

 

Here is a photo for reference.

Aug 16 – Day 106 On to Surf Inlet

 Aug 16 – Day 106   On to Surf Inlet

Harvest count – zero

 

Old power plant

 

 

Lower falls are natural, the upper is a manmade dam and falls which fed the powerplant

 

 

 

Man-made section of the falls.  Notice logs sticking out over the edge.

 

View from the top – logs sticking out over the falls

 

Lake above the falls

Per the books the abandoned Belmont Gold Mine at the other end of the lake, about 8 miles up from the falls.  It must have been a large producer of gold to warrant building a power plant.  

 

 

Steve brought Michelle a bouquet

 

Pictograph or Petroglyph ????   We sent our scout Steve ashore north of the powerhouse to investigate

Pictographs are images drawn or painted onto the rocks.   Petroglyphs are images carved into the rock.

Steve reported not carved but also did not appear to be painted.   We’ll say a pictograph.

 

One of many waterfalls in the area