We left Rescue Bay around 8am this morning…another sunny day with clear blue sky! Feeling pretty lucky the past few days with the weather.
Today’s 8am departure saw us through Jackson Narrows about an hour after low tide, so still nice and skinny (for the fun) but plenty of depth under our keels. Airship saw 13ft at the shallowest, and we had a beautiful glassy cruise through Jackson Passage over to Finlayson Channel.
Ron on Sound Waves sent over this shot he got of the humpback they spotted in Finlayson Channel. We only saw a spout, but the boats further back got a better view.
At Hiekish Narrows we had about a 2.5kt push through, as well as some sea lions playing/fishing in the current. The wind picked up a bit as we continued north in Graham Reach (15-25kts from the north), but died down nicely as we turned into Khutze Inlet.
There were two boats already in here, and we opted to raft the other Nordic Tug 44 Turnagain with Airship to save some room (and since they’re basically the same boat, easy!)
This spot is over by the waterfall is beautiful, but tricky to anchor in. We usually need to drop in 100+ feet, then back toward the shore and we occasionally end up backing to 12ft and have to do it again. We got it on the first try this time, trying to leave the shallower spots and more open space for the others.
We eventually all got out in the dinghies and headed up the southern estuary to see if we could find some bears.
The water wasn’t deep enough to get too far, but we got some good looking birds:
And then ahead a ways (past where we could get to by dinghy…too shallow) we spotted one brown bear in the grass.
And then, up popped a cub!
They pretty quickly moved around the bend where we couldn’t see them, so we headed back to Airship and Turnagain to start our dinner.
We grilled burgers, brats, and chicken, and sides were a big salad, tater tots, BBQ beans, fresh watermelon, and a veggie platter. Carrie from Ranger Tug IF made an incredibly delicious blueberry galette that took (according to her) a frustratingly long time in the boat oven they’re still getting used to, but WOW was it delicious and hopefully the amount of praise everyone heaped on about how amazing it was helped dissipate some of that frustration. Boy was it good! Tomorrow it’s DeAnne and Dave’s anniversary, so we did a little early celebration for them, and tomorrow we’ll stay put here in this gorgeous place. We’ll head back up the estuaries tomorrow closer to high tide to see if we can find more bears. What a fantastic day!