We haven't had reliable internet for quite a while so this post is out of order.

On Sunday we headed the 43 miles (7 hours) up through the fjords of Jervis Inlet where we didn’t see more than 3 other boats. Jervis Inlet cuts back into the mountains where there are no roads, no phones (land or cell), no radio and no homes! The mountains kept getting higher and the depths kept getting deeper. There’s nothing quite like having nearly 2,000 feet of rock above you and nearly 2,000 feet of water below.

Princess Louisa Inlet sits almost at the top of Jervis Inlet. You have to go through Malibu Rapids to get in. Yes, rapids! There can be as much as 9 knots of current going though which can be a real problem if your boat can only go 7 knots! Twice a day the current changes direction and lets up enough for boats to pass through. Timing in critical. We heard stories of people trying to enter only 20 minutes ahead of slack tide and got flushed right back out. Malibu Rapids is narrow and rocky so we wanted to be careful.

We arrived at the Rapids about 20 minutes early and had to wait. 4 50’ charter boats had been waiting to enter for about 2 hours. By the time they all got up the courage to pass through, we were 10 minutes late! We had no problem though.

People wonder why we do what we do. Princess Louisa Inlet is one of those reasons. You can only get there by private boat or float plane. It’s worth every effort we made. There were too many magnificent water falls to count! Check out our photo gallery and look for the album called Princess Louisa Inlet. Pictures don’t do the place justice but hopefully you’ll get an idea of the beauty of this place.

We spent a few days at the dock near Chatterbox Falls where we hiked up the mountain on unmarked trails for about an hour. I was uncomfortable about finding our way back so I started marking our way with strands of toilet paper. Hey… why else would I carry TP in the woods! Ken didn’t understand why I was doing this and was giving me a hard time. Once we turned around and started heading down, we met an Australian couple. The man said “Are you the ones leaving toilet paper?” I immediately felt bad because I thought that he was mad that I fouled the forest. When I sheepishly said yes, he said “good, leave it there” About half way down, we started goofing around and lost our way (guess I didn’t leave enough TP). It took us 20 minutes to find the trail again. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being lost on a mountainside in no mans land when nobody knows that you’re missing.

We spent the afternoons tootling around in the dinghy, getting right up to the base of the ice cold waterfalls. I know they were ice cold because Ken kept insisting on nosing the dingys bow (where I was sitting) into the spray.

Although there weren’t many people who had made the trip up, we sure did meet some nice ones while there. It was great to trade stories, compare boat upgrades and get information on futures stops that we plant to make.

During the 7 hour lonely trip back down to civilization, we spotted a huge bear! It was black with a brown face. We took the sailboat over to the shore where he was feasting on oysters and he climbed right up the side of the rock mountain!

Princess Louisa Inlet is now on my favorite places in the world list. Too bad they limit your stay to 72 hours or we might still be there!