North to Alaska — well almost!!

Summertime and the livin’ is easy. Not. A mad scramble to finish off the must do things for our trip north. The Alaska thing is an "almost". It is more like an Alaska panhandle thing. If you stand on your tippy toes you can very nearly see Alaska across Dixon Entrance. It looks a lot like northwestern BC but they haven’t cut down most of their trees. But I am getting ahead of myself.

We made our Costco run for a few provisions. Mistake. Last year we took so many frozen items that there was no room in the freezer for fish. Swore that we would not do that again. Wrong. We must have thought that our boat was turning into an arc as it appears that we purchased two of everything. Again , no room for fish. We now have a couple of weeks to eat enough freezer food to make room for all the fine fish that we intend to catch. Costco graciously offered us the use of a Brinks truck that we might safely get our items back to the boat, but we declined.

Left Port Sidney noonish of Saturday the 17th, and poked our way to Nanaimo, timing Dodds Narrows for the flat. Dropped the pick along side Newcastle Island for the night. Next AM we pointed ourselves (and the boat) towards Campbell River. Now this is up the Strait of Georgia and Bonnie could tell a yarn or two about that little piece of water, but this trip was uneventful. Flat water and sunshine all the way. Twiddled our thumbs at Cape Mudge for an hour, waiting for the water to settle down a bit, before going into Campbell River. A lot of water tries to squeeze itself into a rather small channel, in its desperate attempt to head back to the Pacific, then changes its mind and reverses the process. Does this twice a day. Decisions, decisions, decisions. This passage is called Discovery Channel and carries you all the way to the other end of town. Campbell River that is. It then turns into Seymour Narrows. Now this nasty little piece of water can hurl itself through there at 16 knots on a big tide. No place for boats or people. Very prudent to wait for slack tide and current and thus avoid the whirlpools and other forms of cranky water. Now add to this, a lumping big stone parked in the middle of the channel, just below the surface. In the "old days" said stone used to delight in ripping the bottom off unsuspecting vessels, until man tunneled under the water and stuffed the hole with dynamite. In its day was the biggest non nuclear explosion and no more stone. Didn’t time this one too well, so overnighted in Gowland Harbour, across from Campbell River.

The morning of the 19th saw heavy cloud cover accompanied by frequent rains, but the trip through Seymour was perfect. Trundled our way up Johnstone Strait with a destination of Port Neville. We had made plans to meet our good friends Art and Janice there and not only that, but a fine meal was already prepared for our arrival. They had spent several days trying to catch the elusive fishy, but were not having much luck. After a libation or two, Art and I convinced ourselves that we were at least as smart as most fish and if indeed there were fish about, we would have them boated. Oh well, had a great time.

Will keep this posted with new and wonderful events as they transpire. Take care of yourselves.
T