Bella Bella and Shearwater

We had a pretty easy time of it crossing Queens Sound back from the Goose Group. The swells were low and not too uncomfortable. 

We were able to secure dock space in Shearwater early in the day. A number of boats came in after us. Because it was a Saturday I was concerned it would be quite busy at the dock. As it turned out Sunday was a much busier day.

Greeted by this eagle in the tree at the top of the dock 

The Shearwater Marina 

We wanted to take on some fresh water in Shearwater. We had heard that Bella Bella was not giving boaters water. We had heard the water was better and faster at Bella Bella but it seemed that the only place giving water in the area was Shearwater. 

There is a pretty good pub/restaurant at the top of the dock. We had two dinners and a breakfast there. The Halibut burger I had the first night was really good! 

Nice to have 3G cell service again. The service is Bella Bella is really good - it's the faster LTE service. And the cell service covered quite a large area. Nice to talk to people again. The Hakai Institute offered free wifi to the boaters - 100 mb a day. Very generous of them. So we were able to iMessage and email but not much else. So we hadn't had 3G since leaving Port McNeil. 

We did two large loads of laundry on Sunday - a busy day at the laundromat. The place was jumping! 

On Sunday we took the 1:30 Seabus to Bella Bella and got a few groceries in the store there - some fruit and cheese and milk. All the dairy products were half price. It was a good little store and the prices were pretty good. The town has nothing else that we could see. A little shop at the top of the dock that had native art items that were made in China. We took the 2:30 Seabus back to Shearwater. It rained pretty hard off and on all day on Sunday. 

Lilly watches it rain from the pilothouse. One of her many spots to hang out on the boat. 

We also bought a few groceries in Shearwater. It was a pretty good little store as well but not the size of the one in Bella Bella. There is no public dock in Bella Bella. So boats dock in shearwater and then take the Seabus or their dingy to Bella Bella. 

We spent two nights there and then Monday morning we had to move the boat up the dock to get water. There are a bunch of hose bibs along the dock but none of them are potable water - only one at the top of the dock was potable. We were able to fill the tanks but the water flows so slowly through a very narrow hose and we couldn't change it out for our larger hose. A normal fill takes maybe 20 minutes. We were filling for well over an hour. Not a good setup there. They have all these big stainless steel boxes along the dock with power outlets and hose bibs and signs on the boxes reading - Not Potable water - No boat Washing. So I want to know - what is the purpose of that water? The taps do work I turned one on and water came out. I don't think we'd go back there for water. Too much of an event to get and too long to fill.