13 Jun 23

The sun was already out and above the ridge when we woke up to the sound of what we thought was our neighbor getting his anchor up. When I poked my head out to see what was going on, we found an American Queen Voyages (small) cruise ship, “Ocean Victory“, anchored a couple of hundred meters to the north of us. They proceeded to unload 5 of their 14 eight to 10 passenger inflatables, presumably for high-speed tours around Rudyerd Bay. It is a bit blowy and cool this morning, so zipping around at 25 knots in an open boat does not appeal to me, but I did not pay several thousand for a “wilderness experience”. They also offloaded 8 or 10 kayaks. Having already decided not challenge the lake trail, we got moving about 08:40 and, having given the “Ocean Victory” an extended blast with the horn, to let them know my intentions, we motored on out of Punchbowl Cove and turned back up into Behm Canal, against at stiff northerly breeze of about 15 kn. We could only make about 6 kn against the wind and the ebb current, but it was only 9 miles to the entrance to Walker Cove; we crossed the bar into the cove at 10:48 and motored and sailed to the head of the cove. It was beautiful, again, but as it was overcast and blustery, not as conducive to hundreds of photos like yesterday. After checking out the head, we turned back about 2 miles to the bight on the south side, which is the only anchorage in the cove, and which also happens to have a USFS mooring ball. As the ball was unoccupied, we took it for our own, tying up at 12:22; that makes 3 nights in a row that we have been able to tie up to a mooring ball - long may it last. We spent the remainder of the afternoon soaking in the beauty of our surroundings from within the comfort of our enclosed cockpit. No bears came down to the estuary at LW.

55-43.920’N, 130-45.277’W; Log = 22.1, Sum = 941.9; Eng. hrs. = 3.5, Sum = 3262.3