We left Fury Cove on the incoming tide and headed north on Fitzhugh Sound along the east side of Calvert Island, stopping to fish along the way (protein provisions). The weather was cloudy with a SE breeze and we flew our jib for a while to carry us along. Today, we are headed for the Hakai Beach Institute, located on Pruth Bay on the northwest corner of Calvert Island. This stop is important for us, because daughter Julia spent several years as an Institute Fellow doing her thesis research there. Her presence there provided an excuse for buying Destination over a decade ago. Clearly, we needed a boat to visit her – something that sadly never happened because our work lives got in the way.

We motored along the east side of Calvert Island and at its northeast corner, turned west down the Kwahshua Channel, between Calvert and Hecate Islands. This channel is quite wide and deep on its eastern end and as we motored down the center of it, we noticed humpback whales swimming along the southern shore. We slowed to watch them and it quickly became clear that they were “bubble fishing” - diving deep, while releasing a curtain of bubbles to surround a herring ball, then swimming up through the ball to the surface, eating a substantial portion of it. It was a spectacular sight and went on for quite a while as we slowly motored up the channel, several hundred yards away. As we moved along and the depth of the channel decreased, the whales disappeared then reappeared headed straight for our boat, blew then swam under us, then came up on the other side blowing again. A little “howdy” from a couple of locomotive-sized friends as they swam to the north side of the channel and headed back out.

Shortly after our whale interaction, we arrived at Pruth Bay, dropped anchor, and went ashore at the Institute. Visitors are welcome there to learn more about the work they are doing and Julia had contacted Christina Munck, co-founder of the Institute to let her know we were coming. We explored the beautiful gardens there and walked though lush forest to West Beach, one of several stunning ocean beaches near the Institute. We enjoyed a brief conversation with Christina and spent the night anchored in the bay.

Thursday morning we left Pruth Bay and traveled north in calm, partly cloudy weather, rejoining Fitzhugh Sound, which became Fisher Channel, and arrived on a sunny afternoon at Codville Lagoon Marine Park, a beautiful quiet anchorage on King Island. The birding here was wonderful – several families of Harlequin Ducks, at least one loon, a pair of Common Mergansers with 8 very young little ones, and a pair of Sandhill Cranes visited by Janet on her paddle board. Of course, the ever-present bald eagles, crows and ravens. Quiet night after fish curry dinner with Steve and Joannie, fresh from a swim in a nearby lake. Onward today to Shearwater and Bella Bella for fuel, water and provisions.