27 Aug 18

It was cold and foggy early, so we hunkered down inside and did not get the anchor up until 11:15. We motored and later sailed (goose-winged in up to 22 kn of following wind) all the way to the head of Smith Inlet, where we anchored off the mouth of the Nekite River at 15:15. After anchoring, the Admirals went kayaking and I sailed in “Swallow” around Jap Island. We went by the Great Bear Lodge for a close inspection, but neither the owner nor the guests were very friendly; they seem to be concerned that we will disturb the wildlife and disrupt their 5-star wilderness “experience” - as if their flying in on float planes and taking 150 HP launches up the river to their viewing blind does not disrupt the wildlife (1 %-ers). Lamb chops for dinner; early night.

51-22.830’N, 127-06.905’W; Log = 21.2, Sum (2018) = 765.2 N-m

28 Aug 18

It was cool, with low overcast at 08:00, when we got up. John spotted a grizzly bear up in the estuary, just after the lodge boat went roaring up the river. He was hunting for fish and crabs along the shoreline and on the shallows of the Nekite Creek. Later, we saw 3 more bears, including 2 young (1 or 2 year olds), who wrestled in the shallows not far from our anchored boats for more than an hour. About half way through our viewing, the two Great Bear Lodge boats were headed down the river (returning for a gourmet lunch at the lodge, I guess), when they saw these two bears and pulled in right in front of us, much closer to the bears, with their cammo-wearing tourists and ruined our photo-ops; arrogant 1 %-ers!! I ran the generator for 1.1 hours to charge up the batteries, loaned propane tank #2 to “Massilia”, who had run out of propane, and changed from tank #1 (which was empty) to tank #3. As the tide came up, the bears moved back into the bush or up the river and we did not see any more of them in the afternoon.