August 20 - 21 -- Around Cape Caution Again
Our stay at the dock in Shearwater proves comfortable and useful, if a tad expensive. A brief squall blows through overnight, but we are well sheltered. Cliff does some maintenance jobs, I conquer laundry and grocery shopping, we fill up with fuel (we wonder why our tank takes 15 percent more fuel than it should and the 10 litre jug requires over 11 litres to fill?) and we are ready to hit the road again. Grahame and Shirley advise us that groceries and fuel are more reasonable just across the way in Bella Bella. Oh well.
We motor down Fitzhugh Sound in calm weather. A pod of humpback whales in the distance surprises us with a great show of huffing, puffing, and breaching. We motor all the way to Pruth Bay, where we turn right and travel an hour out of our way so we can enjoy some fishing in Hakai Pass and take the trail to the beach tomorrow.
Tomorrow dawns, we hear the weather forecast, and realize that this is the day to round Cape Caution. The next weather window is several days away, so we give away the west coast beach hike and turn on the motor at 6:00 a.m. to start heading south in thick fog.
The fog dissipates as the sun rises and is gone by the time we reach the ocean swells in Queen Charlotte Sound. The mainsail holds the boat fairly steady and we ride a roller coaster for a while. We see more other boats than we have seen for a long time. The flotilla is heading south now and we have caught up with rush hour. A couple of cruise ships appear in the distance, and we remark on how few we have seen during this whole odyssey. We had expected to be dodging them all the time.
Around noon the water smoothes out and we skim past Cape Caution. A whale surfaces very close to the boat – almos
t close enough to reach out and touch – then dips, surfaces again, and disappears before we have time to be concerned by his proximity. We decide not to cross to Vancouver Island, but stay on the mainland side of the Sound, and eventually after 81 miles, we reach Wells Passage where we find a snug anchorage, make dinner, and go to bed early.
We motor down Fitzhugh Sound in calm weather. A pod of humpback whales in the distance surprises us with a great show of huffing, puffing, and breaching. We motor all the way to Pruth Bay, where we turn right and travel an hour out of our way so we can enjoy some fishing in Hakai Pass and take the trail to the beach tomorrow.
Tomorrow dawns, we hear the weather forecast, and realize that this is the day to round Cape Caution. The next weather window is several days away, so we give away the west coast beach hike and turn on the motor at 6:00 a.m. to start heading south in thick fog.
The fog dissipates as the sun rises and is gone by the time we reach the ocean swells in Queen Charlotte Sound. The mainsail holds the boat fairly steady and we ride a roller coaster for a while. We see more other boats than we have seen for a long time. The flotilla is heading south now and we have caught up with rush hour. A couple of cruise ships appear in the distance, and we remark on how few we have seen during this whole odyssey. We had expected to be dodging them all the time.
Around noon the water smoothes out and we skim past Cape Caution. A whale surfaces very close to the boat – almos
t close enough to reach out and touch – then dips, surfaces again, and disappears before we have time to be concerned by his proximity. We decide not to cross to Vancouver Island, but stay on the mainland side of the Sound, and eventually after 81 miles, we reach Wells Passage where we find a snug anchorage, make dinner, and go to bed early.
posted by Cliff and Orma @ 9:38 AM
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