Bottleneck to Lowe Inlet (May 7)

Another early start from Bottleneck.  We entered Finlayson Channel before 5:30 and found the water to be smooth as glass.  Lots of waterfalls along the route.  Drove past Butedale and were greeted by Lonely Lou (the caretaker) who stood on the dock.  We did not stop as we still had many miles to cover before reaching Lowe Inlet.
Arrived at Lowe just before 5 (after 12 hours of running).  Anchored in Nettle Cove at the base of the waterfall.  We had the entire anchorage to ourselves.  Something about early May.  Dinner on the stern deck beautifully warmed by the setting sun.

Shearwater to Bottleneck (May 6)

A leisurely start this morning.  Our download of charts completed overnight while we slept.  Went for a walk on shore and found a very pretty trail - the Spirit Walk.  Very serene and much work went into building the boardwalks.  Bought fresh veggies and eggs at the store.  They get a delivery every 2 weeks but had a nice selection and not tooooo expensive.  So now we have raw eggs in addition to the hard-boiled ones we were allowed to bring over the border.
Set out as the ground fog was lifting.  Weather is fabulous - almost no wind on Milbanke Sound.  Very little boat traffic.  Passed by the Canadian Coast Guard that was headed south in Finlayson Channel.  Also in Finlayson watched a logging operation with much interest.  They were using a helicopter that flew with a long chain from the shore to the clear cut on the mountain.  A ground crew attached the chain to two logs at a time (as long as 100 feet) and then the helicopter flew back to the shore and dropped the logs where they were being collected into a log boom.  Each trip took less than 5 minutes!
Tucked into Bottleneck Cove for the night.  We were alone save for 5 crab pots.  At dusk a small outboard motorboat came and collected the catch.  Don't know how many they kept but do know that they threw a dozen back.
Sat on the foredeck enjoying the end of the day and to my amazement, Duffy strolled by my feet not once but twice.  Guess he was getting his exercise!  Brave kitty!

Miles Inlet to Shearwater (May 5)

The beautiful full moon was still up when we arose just before 4.  Started water for coffee and listened to weather.  Sounds like a good crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound.  Just to be prepared I stowed all the loose items and fastened the boom to keep it from swinging.  Ready to go and the engine doesn't want to start.  Barrie correctly diagnoses the problem to be the interlock switch and adjusts it.  Five minutes later the anchor is up and we are making our way slowly down Miles Inlet.  Wonderful anchorage - would certainly recommend it.
Entering Queen Charlotte Sound we find ocean swells but a very pleasant ride.  Soon there is a bright rainbow on the horizon and then a double rainbow.  Eventually hints of a triple rainbow can be seen to the east.  We cross Cape Caution at 7:10 and find shelter behind Calvert Island at 9:30.  Hit the "easy" button.  The water is soon as smooth as glass.  Barrie starts the generator and we make water and do a load of laundry.  Water maker was at 800 lbs and made 16 gallons an hour.  We have almost 80 gallons of great water!
Arrived in Shearwater at 5:35 and had dinner ashore.  Also used their new upgraded wifi to download charts.  Stayed on the dock and met two more boats headed to Alaska.  Both Mosey and New Adventure are home-ported in Anacortes.  They are bigger and faster than we are but we will likely see them again.

Allison Harbor/Murray Labyrinth/Miles Inlet

Last night we were shooting for Murray Labyrinth but came up short by a mile.  Really, we were just too tired to try to figure out the entrance at low tide - so - we took the safe route and dropped our anchor in Allison Harbor.  Very nice anchorage.  Got up this morning and listened to weather -- not great but not awful.  Still enough wind and wave forecast to cause us to go back to bed!  And we were ready for a day off. 
Got up again around seven and used the day to putter.  The list of things requiring fixing is remarkable short.  A light in a cabinet, a light in a shower, ignition on a stove burner.  You have to admit we are talking about small stuff.  All day the weather changed from rain to sun to more rain.  We contemplated taking the dinghy out to explore the area and then the rain came down.  Late in the afternoon the sun came out and we decided to explore the area in the BIG boat.  We found our way into Murray Labyrinth - what a charming place with a challenging entrance - but once you are in - well you are snug.  We then decided to explore Miles Inlet - so we retraced our steps out of Murray Labyrinth and headed north 5 miles.  The seas were rough enough that we were glad to have opted for a layover day.  Dropped the hook around 5:30 in Miles Inlet - another stunning anchorage that is very sheltered.  Poured a glass of wine and watched Otto the Otter play for almost 2 hours.  What fun!  Quiet night at anchor.  Looks like the weather should be nice tomorrow.

Johnstone & Queen Charlotte Straits -- Perfectly Placid

McDuff woke me at 4:20.  Perhaps he knew that the alarm was set for 4:30.  In any event, we were all up before the alarm went off.  First order of business was coffee and biscotti.  Next a check of the weather -- forecast is for 10 -15 mph winds in Johnstone building this afternoon and we will be on an ebb tide.  We know it will be calmer than last night but the question is how much calmer.  We decided it was worth a look.  Barrie did a quick WOBS and it was anchors away before 5:30.
We cautiously headed out of Forward Harbor just as the sky was becoming bright.  (Speaking of bright skies - the full moon is incredible!).  As we peeked around the first bend, we were surprised to find a very large log boom and tug boat that must have come in late last night.  Still plenty of room for us to work our way back into Sunderland Channel.  To our surprise, it was dead calm.  Really, dead calm.  We rode the ebb tide and made terrific time down Johnstone Strait.  Passed the spot where last year the engine alarm went off signaling the start of many days of head scratching trying to figure out why and how the engine was losing coolant.  But this year a completely uneventful transit.  Our original plan was to duck out of Johhstone at our first opportunity and go up Havannah Channel into the Broughtens to find calm waters.  But Johnstone was calm -- really dead calm -- so we kept going and instead headed north up Blackney Passage into Blackfish Sound.  We had read that Blackney could be snarky with lots of current but our impeccable timing had us arrive at Blackney at Low Water Slack.  We worked our way north through the passage and soon found ourselves in Queen Charlotte Strait.
Now, everyone knows that Queen Charlotte Strait can be a rough patch of water but not today!  For miles the water was pure glass.  So perfect that Karen first sat on the back deck sunning and then on the foredeck watching the scenery!  It was simply amazing.  And we had the Strait almost all to ourselves.  We have seen fewer than half a dozen ships including a couple of fish boats.
With beautiful weather and perfect conditions, we changed our objective from Blunden Harbor to Murray Labyrinth (near Allison Harbor).  We will end the day just 12 miles south of Cape Caution.
In some ways, it is hard to rush through these beautiful cruising grounds.  But this year our goal is to get to Alaska and spend our time exploring the far north.  So far, the weather seems to want to help us reach our goal.

Yuculta, Gillard, Dent & Greene Point Rapids

Brought up the anchor for the first time at 6:15.  Barrie wanted to make one more adjustment to the controls so we dropped it back down.  Five minutes with a screwdriver and we were again ready to go.  Brought the anchor up for the second time at 6:30.
It took just under three hours to reach Yuculta - so we had a half hour to wait before starting our transit through the rapids.  With Low Water Slack occurring at 10:30 at Dent, we were still on the last of the ebb tide and got a bit of boost heading through Yuculta.  The transit went just as planned arriving at Dent Rapids at slack and then we fought the flood as far as Shoal Bay.
We pulled into the Government Dock at Shoal Bay around noon and spent an hour enjoying the grounds of the "resort".  Well, this far north in the islands it is considered a resort.  They have a community picnic area and the owners Mark and Cindy put on a pig roast four times every summer.  They also have a licensed pub (that was not open this early in the season) and a u-pick vegetable garden with an honor system for paying for fresh fruits and veggies.  Again, we were very early in the season and there were plenty of onions and the rhubarb was coming along nicely but it will be several weeks before anyone is picking lettuce and beans.  We had a bite of lunch on the boat and then set off to "run" the final rapids on the High Water Slack Tide.  We arrived at a Greene Point about 1 1/2 hours before slack and had no trouble with the transit although there were plenty of whirlpools around us.  Speaking of whirlpools -- we next ran Whirlpool rapids which brought us out at Forward Harbor.  This was our planned anchorage for the night but with a bit of time to spare, we decided to see how the weather was in Johnstone Strait.  We got about halfway down Sunderland Channel and the winds were picking up and white caps were building.  We turned around and went back to Forward Harbor.  Here we found the same boat - Midtstov V - that had followed us though the rapids in the morning.  Pete and MaryLou already had their anchor done and Pete was rowing to shore with their dog.  Which reminds me, McDuff (the cat) is doing well.  He spends most of his time under the covers but bravely sunned on the back deck while we had a glass of "heart medicine" and ate supper.
Our plan is to tackle Johnstone Strait in the early morning when the winds should be calm.

Crossing Strait of Georgia

Day three of our journey to Alaska started at sun up as we nosed out of Kendrick Bay into Gabriola Pass.  Weather forecast for Georgia Strait called for strong winds but as we entered the Strait all was calm.  We started the morning with seas with a 1-2 foot chop but the swells were nicely spaced and the ride quite smooth.
There was lots of traffic in the Strait and we were grateful for clear weather but also enjoyed using the AIS information that was available from our new radio.  We spent time guessing how far a ship was from our position and then checking it with both radar and AIS.  Everywhere we looked there were ferries and tug boats and freighters -- certainly a busy place.
After a couple of hours of travel we found ourselves in bright sunshine and almost glassy water.  Just amazing.  We opted to go north on the outside of Texada Island.  We then debated the merits of positioning ourselves to take Johnstone Strait or to continue with our original plan of running the rapids on the backside.  Weather forecast for Johnstone of 25 mph winds helped us make up our minds.  We headed for Squirrel Cove so we would be well-positioned to run Yuculta, Gillard, Dent and Greene Point Rapids.  I got out the books and determined that Low Water Slack was at 10:30 at Dent and we would need to be positioned to transit Yuculta at 10.
With that we headed into Squirrel Cove and were planning to stop at the Government dock to use the local Wi-Fi but just as we were approaching the dock, the Morse control came loose from the helm and our ability to control the boat was seriously compromised.  Using one hand to hold the Morse control down and the other to shift, we were able to drive away from the dock and find a perfect spot to anchor.  Once the anchor was down, Barrie was able to make repairs and even took the time to adjust the cables.  A very quiet night at anchor - that is the good kind!