Laura Domela 
After a very hard rain early this morning, we woke to this: Just as we were pulling our anchor we noticed a black bear at the head of the bay, beyond Ithaka… …and then realized there were two! And on our way out through the narrow exit, one more on shore there munching on some grass, watching us as we puttered past. Those three, plus the two seen yesterday on … Read more
Up again at 4am (okay 4:30am) to check the 4am forecast and conditions for a Dixon Entrance crossing today. The Dixon Entrance East forecast for today looked about the same as last night: Last night at 7pm Green Island was reporting 5ft moderate, and the wind at Grey Islet was SSE 25kts. We were hopeful that things would mellow overnight. This morning, conditions seemed to have improved, except we were … Read more
Well, we made the call early Saturday morning to stay in Prince Rupert instead of crossing Dixon. Conditions weren’t bad, but the threat of the weather coming in later that afternoon sounded like it could make for a not-so-great experience. The Dixon Entrance East forecast was seas 2 meters becoming 1-2 meters. SE wind 5-15 but increasing SE 15-20 near noon, then SE 25 early evening. Maybe okay with the wind, … Read more
We left Lowe Inlet this morning at 7am after a very windy night at anchor and not a great amount of sleep. We turned north in Grenville Channel and had a couple knots of current against us for the first few miles, that eventually tapered off, as did the rain and gray skies. We had originally planned to go to Kelp Passage today to stage our crossing of Dixon Entrance, … Read more
Today was an early one and a long one. We departed Khutze Inlet at 6am for the 55nm cruise up to Lowe Inlet. It was gray and rainy the entire time, but the wind and waves were on our stern all day (as was the current!) so we had a very calm cruise and arrived about an hour before we thought we would! Most of our day looked about like … Read more
We pulled up anchor in Bottleneck Inlet this morning at 7am and headed out into Finlayson Channel for a four-hour cruise up to Khutze Inlet — one of our favorite anchorages on the northern BC coast. We wanted to arrive at Khutze early enough to leave us with plenty of time to explore. We had favorable current the whole way, and dropped anchor around 11am. It was a beautiful, sunny … Read more
The group departed Shearwater just after 8am. Conditions were great for the entire cruise today. Conditions at Ivory Island showed 1ft chop and a low westerly swell. Perfect! Conditions were so nice, that we changed the plan mid-cruise to go further than our planned stop at Rescue Bay today….and on to Bottleneck Inlet. This takes advantage of today’s conditions, and cuts tomorrow’s 43nm cruise to Khutze Inlet to about 29nm. … Read more
Our 18nm cruise over to Shearwater was calm, punctuated by Dall’s porpoises taking turns surfing each boat’s bow and stern wakes. Always fun! Shearwater is always a welcome stop. Groceries, beer/wine/liquor, a laundromat, water, fuel, a chandlery and a hardware store, and a place to dispose of trash and recycling…what more could we ask for? We all tied up on the north side of the dock and then disbursed for … Read more