We left Foggy Bay around 6am on Friday and had perhaps the most chill crossing of Dixon Entrance ever. It’s possible that due to it being our 18th (!!!) crossing we’re a little more chill ourselves, but it was SO so calm and felt quite short!
We saw quite a few different groups of whale spouts in the distance as we approached Dundas Island.
Look how calm these conditions are!
After a few breaches, this one laying on its back with its pectoral fins in the air…ahhhhhh:
We stopped in Prince Rupert at Cow Bay Marina for one night, got groceries, had some sushi for dinner at Opa, but took zero photos. In the morning we left the dock around 7am in some light fog which cleared eventually and even let a little sun in later in the afternoon!
We anchored in Captain Cove (on the south side behind a couple small islands) with the plan to wait out the front coming through on Sunday (forecast for S/SE winds gusting to 33kts and tons of rain). This spot seemed like a pretty good bet.
On Sunday morning, as promised, the rain arrived with the wind, and though it feels like we would be protected from a southerly/southeasterly wind in here, we’ve had some stronger gusts (mostly in the 30s and low 40s, but surprisingly, a couple of gusts up to 54kts in the early evening).
The wind seems to be wrapping around and coming over the land and at us from the west, but other than those occasional crazy gusts and a bit of wave slap and pelting rain, we just sailed a little bit on our (much-loved) Ultra anchor and had a nice productive day inside. The wind died down late evening and we slept great!
This morning (Monday), we left Captain Cove around 8:30am and decided to press on for longer than planned…heading for Saycuritay Cove on the southern tip of Pitt Island, rather than stopping in Ire Inlet for the night — figured we’d rather make miles while it’s gray and rainy.
Most of today’s cruise was pretty but boring, but as we neared the southern tip of Pitt Island we noticed a handful of humpback spouts in the distance. We’ve seen much whale activity here in past years, and…well, MORE bubblenet feeding today! Awesome! (The whale activity this summer has been fantastic!)
They weren’t the most dramatic bubblenet feeders (kinda low in the water) but that’s okay…we’ll take it! 🙂
We noticed a few times though, as we drifted and maintaned a good distance from the group, there was one individual who seemed to stay near us, and not with the feeding group. It looked like there may have been two calves with the group, so maybe this is the designated protector. I never could get a photo of its fluke (I don’t think it ever dove), so I’m not able to get an ID from happywhale.com, but maybe someone might know it from the markings on its hump.
I managed to get a few decent fluke photos for IDing the whales.
Cute mama and baby (I think) diving in tandem:
Here’s a closeup of the fluke of the one on the left in the photo above (I think it was the mama). She was identified as Ebony, ID BCX0695, sex unknown, first spotted in BC in September 2004. I couldn’t get an ID on the calf’s fluke…too low in the water and too dark.
This one is a male called Smiley, ID CRC-21257, first seen in January 2002 in Nayarit, Mexico:
The guardian continuing to stay between the group and us:
We continued on eventually to an anchorage we’ve not been in before, called Saycuritay Cove (kinda funny, spelling out the way you pronounce “sécurité). Just outside the entrance, there was a large group of sea lions that looked like they were bubblenet feeding too! Complete with birds overhead and lots of splashing. Once they spotted us I was able to snap a few photos of them as we made our way into the cove.
Kevin took a few overhead shots. Here’s what it looks like in here:
Kevin made an aerial video of the Saycuritay Cove anchorage:
Tostadas for dinner tonight, and in the morning we’ll head down to Racey Inlet!