15 Jun 23

Having gone to bed early last night, we were both up at 07:00. It was cold and overcast with occasional light rain showers, so we decided there was no point in hanging around. Rather than buck the flood tide all the way down Behm Canal, we decided to take a side trip over to Klu Bay. And we are so glad we did, as on the NE side of Hassler Island, about a mile NW of Pin Pt., we saw a humpback whale feeding in the channel. We stopped and shut down the engine to watch and he fished in a circle all around us, surfacing numerous times and giving us a good chance to video his feeding patterns. We just drifted for about 45 minutes. He finally moved off to the NW and we carried on to Gedney Passage, where we first turned to port into Shrimp Bay, where we had a good look at the beautiful twin waterfalls dropping from Orchard Lake, and then up into Klu Bay, where we found “Denali Rose” lying peacefully to anchor. While in the bay, we checked out the unoccupied USFS mooring ball and found it to be in very good shape with at least 10 m of water all around, just in case we pass this way again. Klu Bay is beautiful and has a nice estuary on the east end, with some old logging roads that will probably offer some good walks. After a quick look around, we headed back west on Gedney Passage, turning SW into Behm Canal at about 12:15. At 12:30, we were suddenly able to pick up the weather forecast, which was not encouraging: gale warning, with SE 10-35 predicted for early afternoon - WHAT THE F*#K?!?!!. At that time, we were showing ETA Helm Bay at 15:20, which sounded later than “early afternoon”, although the wind at the boat at the time was SE 5. We carried on for a few more miles, while considering various bail-out points, including Marguerite Bay and Port Stewart. At 13:20, the wind was up to SE 15 and I decided to head to Port Stewart, which was 4.5 N-m away, and downwind, which was a factor in the already lumpy seas. We threaded our way into Port Stewart and had the hook down at 14:05, just in time, as the wind hit SE 18 inside, probably SE 25 out in Behm Canal. This is the first time this year we have had to abandon our course and duck into a hidey hole because of a sudden change in the weather. If we had picked up this forecast 30 minutes earlier, I believe we would have turned tail and run back to the USFS mooring ball at Klu Bay, but we did the right thing coming into Port Stewart; we would not have made it to Helm Bay before the “fit hit the Shan”, so to speak. I set the anchor-riding sail as soon as we were anchored. It rained and blew a hoolie (with the wind howling in the rigging) for the rest of the afternoon as we cowered down in the cabin trying to keep warm, wishing we had a diesel heater.

55-43.672’N, 131-51.243’W; Log = 31.0, Sum = 1017.1; Eng. hrs. = 5.2, Sum = 3274.1