July 15th – 26th 7 Days in Nootka Sound and Esperanza Inlet furthest
point north. Make that 11 days due to “gale wind warning in effect”
With only weak cell coverage for my phone hotspot, I will have to add photos later for this post, maybe not for another week or so.
I feel like I have written a book for this segment given
that we are here longer than planned. Meanwhile, I finished reading my book, “Voyage
to Crusoe,” by Leif Beiley, his first novel.
We met Leif and Lisa years ago when we cruised from Mazatlán to Barra de
Navidad off the coast of Mexico. We
befriended each other along the way. When
we got off “Captain Bligh’s” sailboat (another story into itself) they and another
cruiser bought us rounds of drinks while having us explain how we had been able
to survive on Captain Bligh’s boat for so long.
We stayed in touch, and they had us over for dinner when we were in
Costa Mesa looking at sailboats. We told
them we thought we had found our next boat and proceeded to tell them about the
38 Islander Freeport that we were going to make an offer on. Leif showed a slight, shy grin and said, “I
had a little bit to do with that boat.”
It turns out the Leif was the engineer for Islander Yachts who worked
with Robert Perry in the design of the Islander Freeport cruising model. Our s/v ExTerra is officially an IF38C, 38’
Islander Yachts cruising design sloop. Modest
Leif did not expound on his expertise but it is fun for us to know that someone
we know and have come to enjoy visiting with had a part in designing the boat
we call home a couple of months a year.
Pam and Lisa stay in touch via Facebook and she will let Lisa know that,
as planned, she enjoyed reading Leif’s first novel while swinging on the hook
and looks forward to his next novel. They still enjoy boating, land cruising,
design work and hopefully, writing.
Leaving Santa Gertrudis we head on up Nootka Sound to our
next stop, Bodega Bay just off Princesa Channel, above where the Tahsis Inlet
comes into Nootka Sound. We plan to hit
the highlights of this northern area and then start our return to the
south. In this area we actually tie up
at local docks to help support these distant areas and have a couple of
favorite anchor spots.
We see the Uchuck III.
It is a converted mine sweeper that now serves as a critical link ferry
service between Gold River, Nootka, Esperanza and Kyuquot Sound, bringing
supplies, kayakers, sightseers, and others to very remote locations in this
northern island area. It even goes
through the narrow, crooked Princesa Channel, something that would be
interesting to see.
We see our first bear, who manages to use its powerful
paws to turn over gigantic rocks along the low tide shore, looking for all
kinds of delicacies. Bodega Bay is
peaceful, easy to enter, and offers us a wonderful spot to simply sit, read and
watch the tide ebb and flow. Carl sets
the crab pot and we will have crab in the pressure cooker in the next day or
so. We explore with the dinghy, doing a
little fishing and using our phone “chart” to document an uncharted rock at the
entrance to Bodega. We will provide the
lat and lon to appropriate folks so that hopefully it becomes common knowledge
that it is there, guarding the entrance.
A real treat today as well, we have Sun! and blue sky and
Pam finds the Oreos finally! She has
been searching for them for days and unearths them when we decide to move our 3
containers of stainless-steel nuts, bolts, etc., to the port side to help
balance the gimbaled stove.
After 8 nights on the hook, it is time to drop a little
money at a few places further around the “circle.” The West View Marina at the head of Tahsis
Inlet is our first stop. Once a booming
logging town there are now very few residents and amenities. With use of the complimentary car from the
Marina we are able to stock up on some basic groceries and also take in the
local museum that we missed the other times that we have been here. Tahsis at one point, was a thriving town,
proud of their young athletes be it the swimmers or the ball players. They mix cultural history of the First
Nations people along side the history of the white settlers and timber barons
and the small museum is a very nice stop.
This was the summer home of Maquinna, Chief of the Nootka who met with
Captain Cook when he ventured into the area.
As late as the late 1980’s the lumber mills put out 2 million board feet
of lumber per day. Today, no mills
exist. The last operator modernized the
mill but then closed it completely due to lack of close timber, a casualty of
their own practices.
West View Marina is a bustling small fishing boat marina
that hits all of our checkpoints.
Laundry, showers, a good burger, fresh water, book exchange, cell and WIFI,
and of course, ice cream.
Alas, no dark
beer but we make do.
Lunches both days
are our fresh crab, cooked in the pressure cooker from memory, thankfully,
since I don’t seem to have brought the right cookbook.
We chat with staff from Paris, southern France and
Mexico, all happy to be here. We watch
the fisherfolk come in with their boatloads of fish and the cleaning station
along the café is a very busy place! The
bald eagles enjoy all of the fish entrails that are collected and placed at the
far end of the breakwater.
Frustratingly, a crow has decided to snatch a fish carcass and use
ExTerra’s deck to leisurely make quite a MESS!
We may never get the stains out of the nonskid. We watch the Coastguard cutter “Cape Kuper”
and the RIB search and rescue craft go in and out daily. We use the WIFI to
update the blog and get in touch with Carl’s eye doctor as Carl is having
trouble with his right eye. Emails back
and forth and a call to an advice nurse, all indicate that it would be better
if Carl could check into urgent care and have his vision examined. We explain our dilemma indicating that the
closest urgent care is at least a week away and most likely longer, given the
consistent, persistent gale force warnings between here and there. We leave a message for the ophthalmology
nurse but she does not call during our window of opportunity and we are now out
of any cell range until the gales cease and allow us safe passage south. After a couple of nights at Tahsis it is time
to head out.
Next stop, Esperanza Mission fuel dock in Esperanza
Channel. Two folks from the docked
research vessel help us tie up. They are
aquatic biologists researching a variety of aquatic related critters in the
area. We always get our diesel here as
it is one of their fund-raising opportunities and they are very welcoming people.
They still operate as a mission with overnight “camps.” This week they hosted
young people who took off in canoes headed for Friendly Cove. There is also ice cream and sometimes fresh
produce. No such luck this time on the
produce. Pam enquires about a photo
print that we had purchased here years ago, called “Nootka Sunrise.” The one on our boat has been misplaced and we
had hoped to find a replacement. They no
longer have it available, but they are able to give us the name of the artist
and it turns out he is in Portland so we will check in with him upon our
return.
Tanks topped off and the nice ladies help us untie and we
go down the Hecate Channel and up the Zeballos Inlet to Zeballos, another tiny
burg. Zeballos was also heavily timber
dependent as well as mining, gold and iron ore through the 1930-1949s. Each time we come here more and more of the
small amenities are closed. This time it
is the restaurant closest to the dock.
Last time it was the second small grocery.
With an ear to the weather regularly we opt for the
failsafe anchorage in Queen’s Cove. Along
the way, with Pam on the wheel she happens to spy out of the corner of her eye,
whale spout with water spouting over our BOW!
A quick turn to starboard, boat shift to neutral but not before hitting
the throttle the WRONG way. Needless to
say, Carl is up off the settee in a hurry and Pam is checking the depth finder
to see if the whale is under us or not.
Thankfully we did not hit her as she skimmed across the top of the
water, nothing showing but a tiny dorsal fin and thankfully, a spout at just
the right moment. Well, a spout 5
minutes earlier would have been much more appreciated! Climbing back down off the ceiling now.
We tie up in the tranquil, well sheltered, very large Queen
Cove anchorage and settle in. When last
here we had a mama bear shoo her two cubs up into the tree while she spent
considerable time foraging not far from our boat. This time the mama bear comes in the form of
an angry woman trying to defend their anchor spot. We have been here about an hour when she and
her captain pull into the anchorage, head for our boat and go in front of
us. Carl is off in the dinghy so Pam
heads to the bow and waves and then points out where our anchor is. With hand signals Pam indicates that they
need to move their shallow draft power boat further in, plenty of room to do
that. They don’t heed the hand signals
so I go down to the VHF radio and try to hail them. They do not reply. They basically turn broadside to us and hover
and she finally comes out on their deck, hands on her hips and fuming. “We were here last night! We expected to anchor right here again
tonight” (then perhaps you should not have left?). I look around. Nope, I don’t see any floating sign that says
“anchorage reserved for the angry lady in the powerboat.” “We like this spot. We want to stay.” Count to ten, well at least 5. “We like this spot too,” I say. “Maybe we should have left our dinghy
anchored.” Well, maybe you should but it might have been moved….as my thought
processes begin to deteriorate. I
finally tell her, “You are right over our anchor, you should move in
further.” They opt instead to huff off
further into the (very ample) moorage and anchor 100 yards or so from us. ExTerra occasionally swings us around to see
their boat, one time showing dark brown liquid sluicing out of one of their
discharge vents. Lovely. Next swing, she is shaking out a black
garbage bag into the bay. Wonderful.
To add insult to injury, Carl sees an Oregon tag in their window (not on
the hull as required) and we are sorry to say that this poor excuse of a
cruiser is from our home state. They
roar off fast and close making sure we get a good wake. Hours later they roar back in and thankfully
anchor much further away from us. The
drone of their generator will not be heard this evening. Next morning, they roar out again, never to
be seen again thankfully, hopefully.
Again, listening to the weather, the gale warnings are
still in effect with potential for 40-50 mile per hour winds. We had hoped to actually try the Nuchatlitz
anchorage but given the wind predictions we opt further in. We decide to head for another storm hole,
Mary Basin. We pick our way through the
reefs that line the entrance to Nuchatlitz Inlet in some pretty sloppy swell,
glad when we make it through the rock entrance and move up into Mary
Basin. We see 7 kayaks as they come up
the inlet and then transit over to Laurie Creek. We visit briefly with them as they come back
by. They too have been listening to the
weather. They plan on leaving Monday, if
the weather allows. As we settle into
our routine, off comes the dinghy, out goes the crab pot, Carl is happily
paddling around the perimeter while I am here in the cockpit catching up on the
blog.
Having, thankfully, the gifts of patience and time we
once again relax through many tide cycles.
We watch off and on, a group of at least 100 Tufted Puffins, a real
treat. We usually only see 1 or 2. At any given time 20 or so disappear as they
dive below to forage. Up they pop en
masse as another group dives. This keeps
us busy for a while. We also do a short
dinghy excursion up Lauri creek to the beautiful multi-tiered waterfall.
As Pam lays in the chain Carl rinses the chain and anchor
with the washdown pump system that he installed years ago. It is a great addition to the boat. We choose to “lay in the chain,” with Pam
below at the chain locker neatly crisscrossing the chain until Carl thumps on
the cabin top, “anchor up.” Pam then
returns to the helm. This makes the
anchor chain (we are all chain) sing out of the locker then it is time for Pam
to drop the anchor next time. This works
well in all settings except if there is imminent danger of a nearby rock or we
are in a crowded anchorage. Hardly ever
an issue. Off we go to Port Langford.
Port Langford is simply the name of the body of water, no
“port” to be had. It is a decently
protected anchorage closer to the mouth of Esperanza Inlet, setting us up for a
departure two days hence, as Tuesday it looks like the gale will not be upon us
for a brief time. Here we watch bears at
the head of the inlet and read. Fishing
is closed in this area and the crab trap has been empty for days, given the
number of sea otters we continue to see.
Tuesday morning listening to the 4:00 AM weather report
and glory be, NO GWIE (Pam’s acronym for Gale Warning in Effect). We pull anchor and head out for our 10-hour
journey outside, along Nootka Island, passing Estevan Point and then back into
Baseball Cove, Sydney Inlet. This
northern chapter is closed!
