August 15 - August 29, 2016

August 15 – August 29, 2016

Happy Birthday Tyler - August 15!!!!!!  We will celebrate your birthday when we get home - Love You!

The weather in Ketchikan is still awful so we could not take Josh thru Misty Fjords for his last day in Alaska with us.  We decided to have a farewell dinner with Chris and Tom and the 3 of us since Josh and Chris fly home tomorrow and Miner Debt, Nelsea and Spirit Bear will be crossing Dixon Entrance for Prince Rupert on the 16^th.

 August 16 –August 19

 Goodbye to Josh, Chris and Alaska!  Off to Prince Rupert we go and we had a beautiful day to cross the Dixon Entrance which was great to see since we have been in quite a bit of rain lately.  Steve and I stayed at the Cowbay Marina since they did not have room at the Prince Rupert Yacht Club for us  The Cowbay Marina is a new marina and it was great!  We had dinner on the Nelsea with Pete and Brad (guest on Spirit Bear) and Tom (Miners Debt) and we leave tomorrow for the outside passage thru Ogden Channel, Petrel Channel towards Estevan Sound .   We decided to go on the outside to see a different area since the weather is predicted to be good for a couple of days.  It is beautiful and very remote and we did not see any other boats outside during our 2 days before the weather started to change.  We spent the first night in Newcombe Harbor and the second in Monckton Bay. We had to leave Monckton Bay early in the morning since the entrance is narrow and shallow so we set our alarms for a 6am departure – oops – we woke up at 6 and it was pretty dark!  Forgot about checking for sunrise!  In any case we were able to get away at first light and were treated to sunrise about 5 times as we headed south along the outside and the sun kept going behind hills on our journey.  The water is predicted to get rough so we will head back inside at Otter channel, Wright Sound, McKay Reach then Fraser Reach heading for Khutze. We all decided that we would bypass Khutze next time because the horseflies and mosquitoes were terrible again and we ended up inside the boats in A/C because it was really warm but we could not go outside without being eaten alive!

August 20 – 27

 We continue our trek south with stops in Rescue Bay and Shearwater.  No room for us in Shearwater  – Tom found room on the log boom to tie up and wait and he went fishing in No Debt- he caught 2 Silvers while we waited on Nelsea since  we had anchored in the bay because the Harbormaster told us he was sure he would  have a spot open at the dock when a couple of boats left.  Wish he would not have told us that as we waited all afternoon for the spots to open – they did but he let another boat squeeze in which did not leave enough room for us.  We ended up on the breakwater with Tom when another boat moved off late in the afternoon.  Tom said fishing was good and unfortunately that would be the last of the good fishing!  We left Shearwater for Fury Cove – Secure Anchorage.  Our plan was to cross Cape Caution on the 23^rd  – the water was great but no visibility and we travelled from 7am until 2:30 in the solid Fog under Radar – only one picture during the crossing when we could briefly see Miners Debt ahead of us in the fog!  When we got to the Broughtons on our way into Sullivan Bay we were greeted by  Gary and Lenore (Noon Balloon) who  were fishing the channel in their fishing boat Nooner in the beautiful sunshine! We spent a wonderful evening in Sullivan Bay where we met up with Jim and Cheryl Matheson and their captain/cook Brian (Sea Jay) – appetizers on the dock and the last evening together for the 4 boats – tomorrow when we leave, Pete on Spirit Bear is going to Echo Bay.   Steve and I and tom  left on the 24^th spending one night in Lagoon Cove, Thurston Bay and on to Cortes Island where Tom is picking up a friend Bill for the journey home. We had very strong winds in Cortes 30+ knots and Tom spent a sleepless night spinning on his anchor in the bay – we were at the Seattle Yacht Club dock where we were secure to the dock but a restless night since it was very loud with all the winds and water lapping at the boat!  Bill arrived and the winds settled enough for us to head to Garden Bay to hopefully cross the Straits of Georgia.

August 27 and 28^th – Garden Bay – we had to spend 2 nights here as the winds on the straits were howling.  We had a potluck at the SYC outstation and it was fun to run into friends Rick and Kelly(SYC and RHYC members)  and meet several new members of SYC.

August 29 – The winds have calmed enough that we left Garden Bay at 7 for Roche Harbor.  The water was great so we decided to continue on the outside rather than waiting for the afternoon slack at Dodd Narrows so we only had  one rough spot entering Gabiola Passage – a huge standing wave created by Tom ahead of us and the current running against us at 5 knots.  Steve put the Throttles in high gear and we got thru and are now on our way to Roche with nice water! We had a 14 foot inflatable that followed us across The Straits - no idea where he came from but he followed Nellie and Nelsea for about  1 1/2 hours - when we first looked back we thought it was Glen!