We left Shearwater and continued heading an a northward direction toward Alaska.. Our destination for the evening was Mouat Cove. On the way there I fished again. This time I caught our dinner, two fairly large rock fish.
Rock Fish for Dinner
Wind came in off Hecate Strait and
blew right down Seaforth Channel, allowing us to sail. We beat into the wind, with a partial rolled
out jib, the last 5 miles to our anchorage. Had 14 to 17 knots of wind across the deck.
The next day we headed up the long
channel, known as Graham Reach. Our
destination was Butedale, an old cannery site.
The place had been cleanup up a lot since my 2018 trip up this way.
Butedale Today
Butedale in 2018
The next day we continued on and
headed northwest, up Frasier Reach. We
eventually turned north and headed up Ursula Channel. The wind came up from
behind, allowing us to sail to our night’s destination, Bishop Bay.
In the bay is a hot spring called
“Bishop Bay– Monkey Creek Conservatory”.
We had a nice soak in the spring.
It was also probably time for a hot bath anyway. Heather said I was
getting a little stinky.
At the spring, people leave their
calling cards, or should I say something hanging from the rafters that notes they
were there. I found my bumper calling
card, with my boat name on it, from my 2018 visit was missing. Therefore I made a new dangly thing, out of a
4-inch teak circle, and hung it from the rafters. If you happen to visit the
hot springs in Bishop Bay, please let me know if my calling card is still there
or not.
Soaking in the covered Hot
Spring at Bishop Bay
The next day we exited off the
busy waterways of the Inside passage. We
decided to explore the less traveled channels, passages, and inlets up this
way. We headed eastward up Verney
Passage and spent a night in Kitsaway anchorage, then headed up Gardner Channel
the next day. The channel has high snow
topped mountains, with cascading waterfalls meandering down the granite cliff
faces. Couldn’t see much because it was
raining.
We spent the night at another hot
springs, called Shearwater Hot Springs.
Or what the locals call Europa Hot Springs.
Shearwater / Europa Bay Hot
Springs
The next morning it was calm and
not raining, plus there was no wind, so we zipped over to Kiltuish Inlet in the
dinghy. This inlet was very narrow, and
shallow. A very impressive inlet, with lots of waterfalls, more high granite
walls, and snow topped mountains above.
Kiltuish Inlet
After our morning dinghy ride, we headed out. Pull our two prawn traps and got 5 prawns. Just enough to wet our appetite. Once at the mouth of Gardner Channel, we turned right and headed up Devastation Channel. We spent the night in a small cove on the south side of Lorretta Island.
We are
now really off beaten path of cruising boats. We have only seen one cruising boat since
leaving Bishop Bay. Really like these places that most cruising boat skip by as they jet to Alaska.
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