What do you get when you combine blue skies with 25 to 35 knot Northwest winds? The answer is a happy crew aboard Polar Mist. We are sailing south in great sailing conditions—heavy wind from behind. We are usually at hull speed of around 9.5 knots and have seen the boat over 10 knots several times. Each night we anchor in a beautiful cove and we have seen bear, deer, and lots of eagles and other birds. There are a few other boats around, but it’s not crowded and we sometimes get an anchorage all to ourselves.

Since leaving Coal Harbor, we’ve anchored in Klaskish Basin, Columbia Cove, and South Cove in the Bunsby Islands. We had some fog and light winds above the Brooks Peninsula, but at Cape Cook, we sailed out of the fogbank and into great wind and we’re going to ride this pattern as long as we can!

The fish continue to elude us, but it would be hard to land a fish anyway when you’re surfing at 10 knots. We’ve had a couple of silver salmon on, but none have made their way onto the boat yet. Last night’s halibut turned out to be a big dogfish (sand shark), so the filet knife hasn’t left the scabbard yet.

Today we are tied up in Walters Cove, a small town just outside of Kyuquot Sound. Walters Cove is not connected to anything by road. Yesterday the local supply ship, the Uchuck III pulled into the wharf directly behind us. The quiet town came to life—covered tables appeared on the wharf for the “Kyuquot Public Market”, pallets of supplies were offloaded onto the wharf on the port side and directly onto skiffs on the starboard side. The full garbage dumpsters were picked up and replaced with empty ones. Passengers got off and headed to local inns and B & B’s. And all the while, two sea otters dove for clams and floated around the harbor, yards from all the activity. And—Walters Cove has turned out to be a great fishing spot—one of the locals we were talking to went out fishing and brought us back three nice Ling Cod!

Kyuquot store hours are posted in the photo….they’re open 12 hours a week. Guess we’ll just have to reset our clocks to “Island Time”, so instead of leaving today at first light, maybe we’ll leave at 2 in the afternoon….or 3…..or maybe we’ll spend another night!

All is well on Polar Mist!

Humbly submitted,

Capt. Rick