laura cove

Laura Cove was a beautiful stop - small with only 2 other boats anchored with us - it's one of the bays in Prideaux Haven, so it was nice to find a quiet area in such a popular place. There was a great hike to Melanie Cove (much busier) which I wandered through on my own while Jason took a nap (the 1 hour motor from Tenedos Bay was hard work). It took me a little longer to hike than I expected (losing the trail will do that to you), and by the time I got back, the tide had come up about 5 feet. Not a problem, except I didn't drag the dinghy up the beach far enough - so there it sat in 4 ft of water, now tied to a submerged rock out 20 ft from shore. Fortunately the water was warm. Unfortunately, jellyfish love warm water. I got away with only a few stings - not bad considering the density of jellyfish was higher than the density of water in some places in the cove...




Yeah, those are all jellyfish.

50°08.810'N 124°39.919'W

tenedos bay

We're a sailboat! We sailed the entire way from Powell River to Tenedos Bay on S and SE winds. Great downwind sailing. We pulled the whisker pole out for the first time and ran wing on wing for much of the day. We also ran preventors port and stbd. We made 5 knots most of the day in around 7 knots of wind. Fun! We dropped the hook once and couldn't get it to set before dropping it again and setting it while running a stern line to shore.



We laid over in Tenedos Bay and had our section of the anchorage to ourselves most of the day. We kayaked over to Urwin Lake trailhead and hiked up to the lake. Once we found the trail to the west side, we had a fabulous time - went swimming in the like which was incredibly warm then laid out on the rocks relaxing. Came back to the boat in the afternoon for laundry out of a bucket (with a plunger - we'll just let you imagine that for a while...)

50°07.57'N 124°42.35'W

powell river

"So, you're going up north in a sailboat?"
"Yup - hopefully to Alaska!"
"Hope you don't want to do any sailing..."

Yeah, they were right. We've been doing a LOT of motoring. Winds almost always seem to be on the nose, but that's just our luck. Note our famed trip to Kingston. So of course, we're going through a bit more fuel than our budget allotted for ($150/month) - and once again, we needed to make a stop - this time in Powell River. There weren't any anchorages around, so we got fuel and stayed at the public dock for the night - even found a trusty Safeway with good ol' wifi (caution to any boaters who want to go to Safeway in Powell River - it's at the top of Cardiac Hill. We were a little concerned about this name until we walked up "Cardiac Hill" - it is a hill, but even Jason, who is old, made to the top without a problem).

We woke up at 6:45 in the morning to an unidentifiable metalic noise that seemed to coming from either our boat or very close by. I emerged to find a fishing boat had parallel parked between us and another boat - they didn't quite fit and our anchor was hitting their hull - in which they didn't seem the least bit concerned. I mentioned it to the captain, who looked to be about 17. He mentioned back to me that this was the fishing part of the public dock and when were we leaving? Oops. We had been told of this transgretion the afternoon before, but also told it would be fine for a night. We left soon thereafter.

49°50.12'N 124°31.8'W

eggmont harbour

After spending a long day retracing our steps out of Princess Louisa Inlet, we tried to hit Harmony Islands, another BC marine park, but after attempting to anchor at least 3 times in 3 different spots were unsuccessful and our faithful Rocna wouldn't set, so we headed across Hotham Sound to Eggmont to stay the night on a public dock. Public docks in BC are great - you can stay up to 3 hours on the dock for free, and to stay overnight is relatively cheap in comparison to a marina ($0-$30/night - yup, some are free). The docks are barebones - no power or water - but they serve our purposes - mainly a safehaven if the anchorage doesn't work out and we're running out of light. Eggmont had a great trail to Skookumchuck Narrows which I hiked in the morning. The rapid wasn't running full speed, but I still wouldn't want to be out there in anything but slack water. In case you're wondering, here's what the narrows look like at their meanest - when kayakers instead of sailboats frequent them...

49°45.02'N 123°55.75'W

princess louisa inlet

Princess Louisa Inlet has been on our radar since we first defined this Inside Passage shakedown trip. We've seen pictures and read accounts, but none of it compared to the actual thing - the fjord was littered with waterfalls gushing with the snowmelt in nice weather and Chatterbox Falls at the head of the inlet was just blasting with water. We stayed for 3 days enjoying the sounds, the views, the hiking and the great neighbors. We docked at the public dock just below the falls (free) and met a great group of people. We hiked to a trappers cabin 1500 ft up and to yet another waterfall - well worth it no matter what the guidebooks write. We've been told that this is the best there is - so far, it's been great - but we're still looking forward to the rest...

50°12.26'N 123°46.15'W