20 July 2014
Shearwater, British Columbia

We left Prince Rupert last Thursday and had an easy trip down to Lowe Inlet on the Grenville channel. It was a long trip (59nm) but we left early and arrived at Lowe Inlet early afternoon. There was no one there so we anchored close to the falls. I started fishing to try to catch another Halibut. All I caught was a Cabezon and two ratfish. Both disgusting fish. However, we then spotted two bears at the falls fishing! The one on the left caught two large salmon in short order. We watched him pull it out of the falls with his paws, the take it in his mouth. He walked off into the woods, presumably to eat it. He returned about 15 min later and caught another one! The one on the right wasn't as skillful or lucky. He got none! Before the day ended two other boats arrived to spend the night.

On Friday, we departed for Butedale in rain and low visibility. We arrived in Butedale early afternoon and were met by Lou. Corey showed up a few minutes later. Lou recounted his story of losing his boat, spending night in woods cold and wet, and recovery by RCMP the next morning. He looked no worse for the wear, but said he had lost some feeling in his toes. Again, we were the only boat there for the night.

On Saturday we decided to got Klemtu for fuel and then on to Rescue Bay. We arrived at fuel dock around 2 pm and no one was around. We called on radio and got no answer. We went up to the Band Store, and lady there told us the fuel operator had gone fishing! We then thought about going another 40 miles to Shearwater instead of Rescue Bay. After we left fuel dock we spotted empty slips on the public dock, so we decided to stay there instead of going further. About an hour after we tied up, we got a knock on the boat, and it was manager of the fuel dock, and asked us if we still wanted fuel. We said yes, so we moved back to the fuel dock and refueled. We then moved back to the dock and spent the night. We went up to the Band Store (grocery store of the local band of Indians). It was well stocked and we purchased a couple of things we needed.

On Saturday, we got underway early to go to Shearwater. It was foggy, but water was flat. We turned on the radar and proceeded slowly down the Klemtu passage to open water. The fog lifted and waters in Finlayson Sound. Was calm. We decided to go straight to Shearwater via Finlayson Sound and Seaforth Channel with was about 8 nm shorter than passage through Oscar Channel and Reid Passage. We arrived about 1:30 and moored at the dock in Shearwater. We will stay here until Tuesday morning, then head to Namu for the night. We plan to be in Dawson's Landing on Wednesday and will wait for good weather around Cape Caution.

For Mike: we plan inside Vancouver Is on return trip. Have done outside and it was great. May go with you next year! If you want a buddy boat, that is.