Travel Adventure to Alaska

Week 2 - (note: For those unfamiliar with the towns and villages on the Inside Passage, simply follow the links as they contain good information that would enrich your understanding).
June 19 - Thursday   Port McNeil       SUNNY
Hubby was up early this morning and went up to have his morning coffee at the coffee shop.   I was half asleep when I heard a big knock on the hull, calling out "AHOY, TANGLEBERRY". "Your reserved spot is wanted, you've got to move the boat!" It appears that the RESERVED spot is for the local passenger ferry, and at 8:00 am, the ferry has school kids from Alert Bay and Sointula ready to disembark. But where is hubby when I needed him???? I have to move the boat!   I already have difficulty parallel parking a car, never mind docking a boat that has to deal with variable wind and moving tides. "I can't move the boat!" The Captain of the ferry is now very furious. Our friend asked "Do you at least know how to turn the engine on". "Yes, I can."

It's a big responsibility to drive somebody else's car or boat, and our friend has no experience driving our boat. So, the two of us anxiously tried our best to move the boat to another berth. As we were leaving, Hubby came running towards the boat and shouted at the friend "Why are you stealing my boat?".   His wife, having just finished her morning shower, heard the commotion, looked up from the boat's window, also wondered exactly why her husband is taking off with another wife on a different boat.

We had a real good laugh after this, and had a lot of fun repeating this story to all our friends.

Port McNeil is a great stop for provisioning. We stocked up on fresh meat and produce. Hubby was able to buy a new engine battery. The young gentleman from the store personally delivered the 50 pound battery to our boat and took the old battery back. That's great service!

We did our laundry, refilled our fuel and water tanks, checked our email (wireless internet access is available at Port McNeil) and are ready to continue with our journey.

June 20 Friday    Port McNeil     SUNNY
Our travelling companions spent all of yesterday fixing the problematic watermaker on their sailboat, and did not get any laundry or grocery shopping done. They're spending another night at Port McNeil.

That's worked out fine with us, as we would like to visit Sointula, which was not in our friends' agenda. We took the local ferry to Sointula and spent the day exploring the island of 700 people. Sointula was the dream utopia for a group of Finnish immigrants in the early 1900. It is a most charming little place with many of the original buildings still intact. A trip to Sointula is indeed like a kind of time travel.   (Photo on left is a mural on the Sointula co-op store) Click here to find out more about Sointula.

June 21 Saturday   ROUND CAPE CAUTION Part I
(MILES INLET)    Thick fog
We are now facing the first stretch of open waters that runs 50-60 miles long. Rounding Cape Caution is not for the inexperienced boaters as this is a treacherous passage. "A very irksome and perilous situation" is how Captain George Vancouver dryly described his predicament when, on August 6, 1792, HMS Discovery ran aground. After hours of plying cautiously through thick fog obscuring Queen Charlotte Strait off northwest British Columbia's coast, the ship unceremoniously grounded on a bed of submerged rocks. The ebb tide was running strongly and within half an hour, the ship toppled on her broadside. By nightfall, she was high and dry. Captain Vancouver aptly named the place Cape Caution. See more on Cape Caution.

Your Ad Here

There was thick fog and we have only half a mile visibility. We have a radar deflector which allows our boat to show up on the radar screen, but our boat is not equipped with a radar. Our friends' Seabird, however, has a radar, so we asked their boat to lead the way. Slowly, we motored our way. It was cold and windy. We had planned to go all the way round Cape Caution, but had to stop at the nearest hideout before Cape Caution - which is Miles Inlet. All in all, we travelled 37 miles today, and was simply happy to drop our anchor and have our rest. It was 2:00 pm when we reached Miles Inlet, a most enchanting place. At this time, the fog had lifted, so in the end we had a beautiful sunny day. We got our dinghy out and enjoyed exploring Miles Inlet.

entrance to Miles Inlet

Our traveling companions exploring Miles Inlet with their dinghy

June 22 Sunday   ROUND CAPE CAUTION Part II
(Green Point Anchorage)   MORE FOG
Here we go again, today we continued our crossing of Cape Caution and took precautions. I put on a scopalamine patch behind my ear for seasickness prevention. (A little round patch like a band-aid, it is supposed to last 3 days).   The wind was light at about 10 knots. We travelled through patches of fog. One moment we're encircled by thick fog, next moment we're under the clear blue sky. At the worst bit, we had a 10 minute roller coaster ride. The rest of the journey went smoothly. We anchored at Green Point Anchorage. By mid-afternoon, again the sun burned off the fog, and we've got another sunny day in the end.

We enjoyed the company and the reassurance of travelling together with our friends on their sailboat. At the end of the day, we rafted alongside each other, shared our meals and stories.

June 23 Monday Kissamet Bay SUNNY and Beautiful
June 24 Tuesday Ocean Falls RAIN AND FOG
We had not intended to visit Ocean Falls, but our friends really wanted to. During their early career days, they always dreaded a job transfer to Ocean Falls, which once had the second largest pulp mill operation in BC. In 1973 Crown Zellerbach simply abandoned its operations and although the BC government took over, things did not pan out, and the government discontinued its operations in 1980. Since then, Ocean Falls became a ghost town and its population shrunk from 5,000 to 200. Read more about Ocean Falls.

It was exciting approaching Water Falls. From a distance, we could see that this was once a lively place. High rise hotels, lots of beautiful homes and buildings. We truly enjoyed Ocean Falls, with its majestic waterfalls, wild flowers, wildlife, and most of all, free internet access, water and fuel. There is no grocery store, but there is a local nursery providing fresh produce.

As we go further north, there is just simply more wildlife. We begun seeing eagles, and more eagles - the occasional sea otters and dolphins.

We met the sailboat "Plan B" who were on their 2nd week at Oceans Falls. They strongly recommend that we visit Eucott Bay, which was not on our agenda. We agreed to give it a try the next day.

June 25 Wednesday Eucott Bay Hot Springs
Today is simply precious. We had not expected to visit Eucott Bay Hot Springs, but a recommendation is simply not to be ignored and we were not disappointed. We arrived at Eucott Bay and were surprised that only one boat was there, and so we are about to have the entire place to ourselves. Eucott Bay Hot Springs is natural, odorless. The locals have erected a sort of a tub with boulders and concrete slabs. The tub can hold 6-10 people. It was 5 pm when we arrived, and we headed immediately to the springs for a most relaxing hot soak. see more about Eucott Bay.

Page 1 - The Boat and the Crew
Page 2   Provisioning for the boat
Week 1    Week 2    Week 3   Week 4 Week 6
Week 7    Week 8     Week 9 Week 10   HOME AT LAST

Home Immigrant Stories Resources Education Relationships Travel Special Features
About us Terms of Use Advertise with us Contact us
Copyrights 2007-2009 TML