We came into Echo Bay with the plan to anchor out in the bay. There turned out not to be enough room for swinging around the bay. As we were deciding (arguing) about what to do a pretty little bird landed on our lifeline. A sign of good luck?? There was a lovely marine on our port side so we called them on the radio and asked for a slip assignment. What a great place to mistakenly tie up for a night or two! We were greeted on the dock by Pierre and Mike with handshakes and introductions all around. When we went up to register at the store, Faye was kind enough to take the time to explain all that the area has to offer and even handed us a nice paper that answered all of my questions (where is the laundry facility, how much is it, what are the store hours, how do I access the internet…) How nice it feels to have people actually care that we are here for the day!

Here’s where the helpfulness of this place REALLY counts… We have been having battery problems again. The house batteries, which are a month old, wouldn’t hold a charge. After growling and trying to figure out what to do we mentioned our problem to Jerome. He lent his load tester and helped us confirm that we probably bought bad batteries back in Vancouver. We were trying to figure out what to do. Leave in the morning and take the 8 hour trip over to Port McNiel? Deal with the bad batteries for a while and just continue to charge them with the generator? Hmmm….. Jerome told us that Pierre was making a provisioning trip to Port McNiel in the morning and that we could just order new batteries through him and he’d pick them up for us. What a deal!! Pierre returned early this afternoon and Ken installed the new batteries. Unfortunately, when tightening down the last terminal clamp, the darn thing broke! No spare on board and none for sale in the store. Ken and Jerome went on a hunt for a solution but couldn’t find a spare so Ken asked Mike if he had one and he did!! I love how boaters help boaters.

Jerome, Mike and Pierre are our heros! Thanks guys!

After the installation was complete, Mike came over to check on our progress. Ken had noticed that Mike had gone out fishing by himself the day before and had caught a 32” Ling. Ken asked if he could join him and Mike said sure! They are going to head out at 7 tomorrow morning. Good luck to you both!

This morning as we were waiting for parts, Ken and I hiked over to Billy Proctors Museum. Billy has been collecting stuff for most of his life and has it all displayed in a small building. It’s a collection of odds and ends from bottles, to native arrowheads, to old logging equipment. It was fun to look though the artifacts. He’s even built a one person loggers cabin and has it authentically furnished right down to period magazines and newspapers.

I know that it’s worrying my mom so I’ll try to make this the last time I mention bears but after we returned to the boat a couple who had gone over to the museum by dinghy (instead of by trail) saw a bear swimming across the bay. They turned around and came back to the marina. Don’t worry Mom, bears are common around here. Problems with them aren’t. We’re aware of them, we make lots of noise on the trails and they are very fat and happy.

On a less threatening note: we had a mink walking around on deck last night. We woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of little feet running around. They kind of hop like rabbits so it was obvious that it wasn’t a bear! Ha ha. Sorry, Mom. He made a circumnavigation of the cabin top and then moved on.

Even though we’ve had a hassle with the battery problem, Pierre’s has made our stay a stress free and happy event. The 5 pm cocktail/bullshitting sessions on the dock help too!

Oh! And Ken just reported a patch of blue sky. I hope that patch grows because I'm tired of the grey!