Sunday, June 29 – SUNSHINE at Bishop Bay Hot Springs

What a difference the sunshine makes! Now we can see the magnificent mountains, snowfields, and waterfalls. We motor by Butedale, another ghost town once an industrious cannery, and are shocked by the dilapidated ruins falling into the sea. The location is gorgeous, next to a beautiful waterfall, but only a resident caretaker lives at the site. We wonder what there is to take care of! We take pictures of our boats in front of the waterfall, then continue on to Bishop Bay Hot Springs.

We have the place to ourselves at first, so we tie to the government dock and sprint over to the hot springs. Today for the first time the sun is hot and we don’t need to be warmed up, but the water temp is just right and we have a long soak, enjoying the beautiful surroundings.

More boats arrive until there are six of us tied to this little dock for a very sociable time. Cliff and I take the fishing rod in the dinghy over to a nearby waterfall, and have fun catching rockfish for crab bait and a ling cod for us.

Late in the evening, we sneak back up the trail for a late night hot tub. We are starting to really notice the lack of darkness at night, and it’s only going to become more pronounced as we go farther north. I don’t think we will be enjoying any asteroid showers or northern lights on this trip. We draw all the curtains and shut the doors to make it dark enough to sleep. Fortunately, the nights are cool.

At three in the morning, the wind picks up and I lie awake wondering if the dock can hold all these boats. Then we hear a horn blast and leap out of bed to see Grahame standing on deck trying to attract the attention of the folks in a little sailboat, which is dragging anchor. He had been up checking the docklines when he noticed the anchored boat moving across the bay. Eventually the boaters wake up and reset their anchor, and the rest of us try to go back to sleep.