Photo: Schooner Mary Hillyer rounding Cape Caution

We leave Blunden Harbour for Fitz Hugh Sound expecting more of yesterday's strong winds. What a surprise to find flat calm. We motor all the way around Cape Caution, past Egg Island and into Fitz Hugh Sound before the wind comes up enough to sail. We follow the schooner Mary Hillyer of Westport into Fury Cove in a group of islands called, appropriately enough, Schooner Retreat (aka Penrose Island Provincial Park). We've been here before and remembered it as a beautiful little cove with a view of the Sound over the rocks and never more than a one or two other boats. But today there are a total of 12 -- 6 sailboats and 6 powerboats. Rafted in groups of two or three they all seem to have high speed dinghies that are constantly going in and out of the bay and decks piled with crab traps, fishing poles, kayaks and other paraphernalia for having fun. This is a different crowd than the serious going-to-Alaska crowd we see in May.

I'm cooking dinner below when Steve yells, "There's a whale out there." In fact there are two whales and they are cruising back and forth in front of the entrance to the cove, spouting and bellowing.