The rain is back with a vengeance.  The skies look like it will never stop, with one rain cell after another marching in. 

In between cells, however, I managed to get a couple of paddles in without getting too soaked.  The wind was actually more of a factor than the rain.  Although the wind was pretty calm in the anchorage, the wind and seas were pretty ugly out in Spiller Channel.  So, I got up early each morning, hoping to find some photo ops before the wind and seas got too much for me. 

On my first morning, I came across this red throated loon.

 

 

 

While I was gone paddling, Al went out to set our crab trap.

 

 

On my second day, I spotted this pair of loons fishing for breakfast.  The skies were black and ominous, making these photos look like black and whites.  These loons weren’t skittish at all, so I was able to take lots of photos, most of which were out of focus, because the seas were so choppy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I got back to the anchorage, I spotted this merganser hauled out on a nearby rock,   doing a bit of preening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Al pulled his crab trap, all he found was one female, no keepers.  Luckily, we still have crabs from Ocean Falls in the freezer.

 

Al wanted to check out Emily Lake Cove, in Briggs Inlet, which is just an hour from Troup Narrows Cove.  We’ve never been to Emily Lake Cove, but the cruising guide made it sound very interesting. 

The first narrows in Briggs was a bit squirrelly, since we didn’t time it for slack tide.  Consequently, the whirlpools were almost as bad as Whirlpool Rapids, in Cordero Channel.  We found Briggs to be as pretty as described in Don Douglass’ cruising guide.  However, the beauty of the anchorage was spoiled by this landslide and the remains of an abandoned cabin

I paddled around for a couple of hours without finding any wildlife.  As soon as I got back to the boat we decided to move on to Nash Narrows.  By now the water in the narrows was slack, so our exit from Briggs was uneventful.

It only took us 2.5 hours to get to Nash Narrows, and the scenery was so much nicer. 

.

I was up and out on the water by 0715 hrs this morning, hoping to beat the heat.  Paddling along the shore, I spotted the only sea star I’d seen in this cove.  It  really caught my eye, perched as it was on the end of a submerged, barnacle-encrusted tree branch.

 

 

 

Also out for an early morning paddle was this lady merganser.

 

 

While heading back to the boat, I spotted something moving along the shore of one of the little islets, so I paddled over to investigate.  I found this mink feasting on the mother lode of mussels.  He was in such enthrall that he didn’t notice me at all, even though I was only about 20 feet away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When he finally did notice me, it didn’t even slow him down, he just kept on stuffing his face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was starting to look like the dog that ate the ham.

 

 

He finally wore me out.  I couldn’t take another shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was 87 degrees yesterday.  I know that doesn’t sound like much to people at home in Redding, California, where it’s been over 100 degrees lately, but we were miserable. Hoping to find a shadier anchorage, we decided to head for Troup Narrows Cove, just an hour up the passage.  What a lovely spot.  I was anxious to check it out, so I launched my kayak as soon as we arrived.

I discovered beautiful creeks and waterfalls….

 

 

 

 

 

 

And,  interesting wildflowers, none of which were listed in my reference books.

 

 

 

And, I came across this merganser and her little ones.  They saw me coming a mile away and started paddling for all they were worth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s supposed to be hot again today, so I was out paddling by 0700 hrs this morning.  The light was beautiful, and it was only about 65 degrees….. nice.  Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one up early this morning.  I paddled and paddled looking for photo ops, and  was only able to catch this common loon.

 

This evening, we had a lovely sunset.

 

 

 

 

Since there didn’t seem to be much wildlife at Kakushdish, we decided to head for Discovery Anchorage, in Troup Passage.  We still have wall-to-wall blue skies, and the temperature has been up in the 80’s!

It was only an hour-and-a-half run to Discovery, so I was able to get in a paddle shortly after anchoring.  With temperatures up in the 80’s, and not a breath of air, I took a chance that I wouldn’t capsize and only put on 3 layers of clothing.

I was paddling very slowly around the first point of land, trying to stay cool, when out of the corner of my eye I saw something pop up about 20 feet from me…..scared the living you know what out of me.  After my initial shock, my first impression was that it was a turtle.  But wait, there aren’t any turtles around here and turtles don’t have whiskers.  Maybe it’s an otter I thought.  Whatever it was continued floating along, completely oblivious to my presence.  In the meantime, I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, while getting my camera out of my jacket.  When I finally got my camera zoomed in and the white balance adjusted, I realized it was a seal, floating on his back, soaking up some rays!  I have never seen a seal floating on his back before.  About that time, the seal realized he wasn’t alone, made a huge splash, and a hasty retreat.  Luckily, I was able to get this one shot. 

 

Around the next point of land, I spotted something moving in the shade on the beach.  It was hard to make out what it was, until I zoomed in and discovered it was a doe and her fawn.  The tide was very low, so they were quite a ways up the beach, staying close enough to the trees so that they could dash for cover should they encounter any “unfriendlies”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the rain stopped.  So, by 0630 hrs I was on the water, paddling for the river near the entrance to Kakushdish.  We have a low tide this morning, so I was hoping to get some photo ops.  Unfortunately, the tide was so low that there wasn’t enough water for me to get up the river.

 

And, there wasn’t much to photograph.  I don’t know where all the birds are, but they’re not in Kakushdish.  After paddling for almost three hours, all I saw was crows, a couple of yellowlegs….

 

 

 

 

and, this darling mink, who stuck around just long enough for this one shot.

 

 

 

 

 

We were up at 0600 hrs this morning, and underway by 0630 hrs, headed for Shearwater, where we would get rid of our trash and do some reprovisioning.  Can’t wait to get some fresh fruit and veggies.  The only fruit I’ve had for the past two days has been prunes. 

The dock at Shearwater was busy, so we felt fortunate that they let us tie up just long enough to get our groceries.  We were able to pick up fresh corn on the cob, spinach, radishes, red potatoes, onions, zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, beautiful asparagus, pears, apples, bananas, mangos,  kiwis and avocados.  Not bad.  No broccoli or kale, however.  Oh, well, we’ll manage.

We were in and out of Shearwater in about 90 minutes, headed for Kakushdish, where we would anchor for a couple of days.

 

 

We learned that some changes have been made in Ocean Falls.  Darkke Waters Lodge went into foreclosure and was purchased by a young family who are in the process of refurbishing it.  It’s now called the Ocean Falls Fishing Lodge.

The owners of the houseboat, which has been docked in Ocean Falls for years, have purchased the old Ocean Falls Fishing Lodge (located in the original CIBC bank building), and have renamed it the Old Bank Inn.  But, most importantly, the Old Bank Inn does laundry for $1 a pound!  Now, that’s exciting news.  I was able to have our laundry done for $22.  And, I couldn’t have done it better myself.  Yay!

During the winter, Ocean Falls suffered a huge storm, with winds hitting 90 mph.  Some of the docks west of the marina were totally destroyed.  The outer float of the marina was ripped from the shore, pulling out all of the electrical connections.  Consequently, beautiful top of the line electrical boxes have been installed on the dock. 

The Canadian ferry system is going to start running a bigger ferry into Ocean Falls.  So, over the winter, the government installed this new $5 million dock to accommodate the bigger ferry.

Unfortunately, the WiFi connection at Ocean Falls is even more worthless this year, so I wasn’t able to upload my blog.  Bummer.

It’s still raining almost non-stop, and it’s windy, so I didn’t put my kayak in the water.  We did launch the dinghy, however, so that Al could put our crab trap out.  He made two pulls.  In the first pull, he only had one keeper.

 

On his second pull, there were five keepers, which was an improvement, but nothing like the good old days, when we caught our limit, and more, on every pull, keeping only the largest crabs.  These crabs, however, were just as delicious as always, so we can’t complain too much.

I had to kill some time waiting for my laundry to be done, so I set out looking for photo ops.  I didn’t have to go far, because the wildflowers in this ghost town were in abundance and gorgeous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has been a recored year for hummingbirds.  We’ve had hummers at almost every anchorage.  We’ve never had much luck attracting hummers at Ocean Falls, until this year.  At one point, we had hummers at every hole in the feeder!  The rain didn’t discourage them at all, so they offered non-stop entertainment.  We had to refill the feeder every day!  They were thirsty little beggars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last sunrise this morning was spectacular.

 

 

With a three-hour run ahead of us, we got an early start, just in case the wind came up.  Once again, we were rewarded with perfect traveling conditions.  There was only one transient boat at the dock, so we were able to tie up in our usual spot at the East end of the outside dock.  Within a few hours, however, the dock started filling up, and by the end of the day the dock was full.