10 Jul 22

We woke up to a drizzly, low overcast morning, but it was at least warm, by West Coast standards. We pulled out of Critter Cove at 11:30, determined to catch our limit of salmon today. We both fished the Wall, Camel Rock, San Marcos Point, Hoiss Point, and Coopte Point, in my case, without so much as a nibble. John had a couple of fish on the line, but one got away and the other was too small. After Coopte Point, I decided to call it a day, pulled in the gear and motored to the south end of Strange Island, turning north into Kendrick Inlet (between Strange and Nootka Islands). We sailed all the way up Kendrick Inlet to the entrance to Bodega Cove. On the way, we saw 3 or 4 humpback whales heading south in Kendrick Inlet and then saw a black bear just before we pulled into Bodega Cove. We had thought to anchor in the outer cove, but there was another boat (a Grand Banks 49? - “Aquila”) at anchor in there, so we moved on back to the inner cove, where we found another boat (a Nordic Tug 32, “Nordic Saga”) already anchored. I decided there was room for all of us in the inner cove, so we anchored in 7 m of water. After we got set, I rowed over to “Nordic Saga” to say “hey” and make sure they did not feel crowded. Turns out they were from Victoria, members of Royal Vic YC and knew Dick and John Readshaw. After “Massilia” got in, we invited Tony and Coryn Gooch, from “Nordic Saga”, over for Captain’s Hour and had a good hour chatting about the round Vancouver Island experience, etc. They are headed south (i.e., CCW), left Victoria in late April and have already been up to the Fjordlands, north of Bella Bella. After dinner, I cut off the first 3 feet of rode (after the chain) and redid the rode to chain splice; the old (original, from 2013) splice was looking a bit worn and I thought it would be a good idea to replace it as we are anchoring in deeper water this year and have been deploying some of the rode more frequently than normal.

Log = 12.1, Sum = 376.2; 49-44.329’N, 126-38.490’W; Eng. hrs = 3.2, Sum = 2947.9

11 Jul 22

We were up at the crack of 08:30 and enjoyed a nice, warm breakfast. This was designated as a stay day, so we, well, stayed. While we were enjoying breakfast in the solarium, we spotted a bear on the drying estuary to the north, turning over rocks and scrounging for breakfast. After our breakfast, I unlimbered the kayak and the girls went for a long, 2-hour paddle out through the estuary and around Bodega Island (the wrong way, as they had 15 knots of wind against them out in the inlet). John and I stayed aboard and did a few boat chores; I also read a few pages of “The Gates of Europe”, but I have to say it has been heavy going so far. In the afternoon, I played guitar a bit and the girls worked on Laurie’s knitting project, while John went fishing in the row-boat, with no result. It was beautiful and sunny, dare I say “hot”, even, all day, but clouded up a bit late in the evening. There is a front approaching and the forecast for tomorrow is NW 15-25, going to NW 25-30 in the afternoon, so we are watching the weather closely, although we should be fine going up the channel to Tahsis tomorrow; we will not make the final decision until tomorrow morning. We are in a bullet-proof anchorage for tonight, so there is no worry there.