July 20th Butedale

We left Hartley Bay on an incredibly low tide. The tide have been really low and really high. It's that time of year. We were so close to the breakwater. We had about 10 feet under the boat and not much room to move around!  

There are not many places to anchor along the "Inside Passage". And it is a long passage for a boat that does only 7.5 knots so we can't travel the whole way in one day.

 

The BC ferry -- The Northern Expidition traveling south as it goes past us. 

It is a very narrow passage with great high mountain peaks on either side. The passage is a deep as the mountains are high. And the shore is just straight up rock and trees right at the tide line. There are only a couple of places to stop.  Butedale is one. Butedale is a former cannery sight that has fallen into disrepair. 

Khutze Inlet is another place to stop and anchor up. It is very deep, and about 5 miles in to the anchorage. 

Butedale has been purchased by someone who is hoping to get it cleaned up and have an "Inside Passage Marina and Eco tourism" business set up there. 

From this photo you can't tell there is actually a useable dock there. 

A couple of boats pulled into Butedale and tied up at the dock just before us. We went in for a look around and contacted the caretaker on channel 66A. It looks a bit of a mess but the docks themselves were pretty stable and good enough to tie up for the night.  The other two boats stayed for a bit and then left to go to anchor in Khutze Inlet. 

Phoenix Hunter at the dock -- kinda useable! 

The caretaker's house. 

Cory the caretaker had a dog named Buddy. Who really wanted to play with Jenny. And Jenny!! With her bad knee decided she really wanted to play with Buddy -- an un-neutered male. 

And Cory had a car named Tiger - an un-neutered male.   Tiger serenaded Lilly with the most wonderful sounds and songs for quite some time before he stopped singing and just settled on the dock to keep watch over Lilly as Lilly kept watch over him through the a porthole in Jenny's stateroom.

And the the swallows!  Dozens and dozens of swallow under the big wharf. Lilly watched them all night too. There were so many birds she didn't seem to know what she was supposed to do with all of them!  

And then there was Ed - the kayaker. He was 70 years old and was planning to Kayak from Shearwater to Prince Rupert along the Inside passage. He had come to realize that it was not a good idea - there was no beaches to camp along the way - the current was too strong and the tides too high.  His iPhone had died and his VHF radio was able to receive but he couldn't send. He was the kayaker that the coastguard had been checking on the previous day.  He was saying that he was hoping he could continue but by the time he got to Butedale he had come to realize he was not able to keep going.  He was hoping to get to Prince Rupert in 14 days and he had been already been travelling 8 days and would never make his 14 day goal. He had maybe traveled less than 1/4 of the way. He had a story where he could not find a spot for his tent and was able to get on to a bit of shore and string his hammock up between two trees. He was making a video for his wife and as he crawled into the hammock one of the cedar trees crumbles and broke and fell on top of him!! He looked pretty exhausted and even a little confused. 

He was looking for a way back to somewhere that he could connect with the next ferry to Port Hardy which was where he left his car.  We were able to send a Delorme message to a friend and found out the ferry schedule. The next ferry left from Bella Bella in 3 days. We were heading that way and thought we could take him with us but it would be 2 days before we would get to Bella Bella/Shearwater travelling at 7.5 knots.  

Luckily a small tour group from the Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu arrived by boat for a short tour of Butedale. They offered to take Ed to Klemtu. From there he could take a water taxi to Bellla Bella and catch the ferry on July 22nd. Jim helped get his kayak on their boat. It was a small aluminum water taxi boat that would go 20-25 knots. They would be in Klemtu in under 2 hours.  We think it was a very good idea for him to get back to somewhere he could sleep in a bed and have a good rest and a hot shower.  So off he went with the group from the Spirit Bear Lodge in Klemtu. 

And we finished the night off with BBQ'd salmon thanks to Kyle!  

Jim took a few photos of Butedale as we were leaving in the morning. 

A lovely waterfall right beside the buildings. I think they get hydro power from there. 

I know I have fallen behind!

We are home!  

Unfortunately I have fallen behind with my blogging. We started having trouble getting wifi in Ocean Falls and Pruth Bay. And then Jenny injured her knee in Pruth Bay. And was hopping around on 3 legs. 

So we decided to make a quick run back home and get her in to the vet.  We stopped in Port Hardy to get some more Meloxicam and some Tramadol for her. 

We've been home for a few days. Jenny has been to the vet. She has a partial tear of her right "knee" ligament.  But she has had that for about 3-4 years now and it is not any worse. So she must have just "tweaked" it a bit. And she is now back walking on all legs. 

So we have been busy since we got home. And I will get back to the rest of the trip soon!  

How about a couple of photos of Lilly and her favourite spots to hang out on the boat. 

First the pilot house - 

One of her favourite places is the helm chair when it's in the sun. She is a bit of a heat seeking cat. 

Of course the helm gets lots of sun! 

And a window for watching birds. Nice photo of the compass cover. This is Port Hardy and there was a lot eagle activity going on out there. 

It was quite a cool - grey - rainy trip this summer. And Lilly became a bit of a heat seeker. She would go to Jims chair the moment he stood up. 

Or Jim's lap 

Or anywhere on the chair 

The galley 

Gotta try out the cupboards! She worked really hard to finally make it into the small cutlery cupboard. 

We have no idea how to keep her off the galley counter. 

The Guest state room shelves 

The washing machine ?  

She loved to be out in the cockpit when the weather was nice. 

The skiff. 

And even occasionally her bed!  

Or our bed

Lilly has decided she really likes Jim, and his head rubs. 

And Jenny keeps asking - why are you taking all these picture of That Darn Cat?? 

Hartley Bay - July 19th

Hartley Bay. 

On the map you can see Hartley Bay is #9 

Butedale which is #7

Klemtu is #6

We decide we were going to do the southern half of the "Inside Passage". The half we didn't do last year. Last year we went down Grenville Channel when we were travelling south from Prince Rupert.  

South of Hartley Bay you travel south along the east side of Princess Royal Island. This is the route the BC ferry -- Northern Expedition takes from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy. 

We left Weinberg and traveled north east through Otter Channel to Hartley Bay to spend the night at the public dock there. We had heard good things about Hartley Bay. 

We had a nice trip - very little wind and lots of whales!  Whale spouts everywhere we looked and we didn't hit a one!  One came very close to a sailboat we were passing. 

As we were going into Hartley Bay we were listening on the VHF radio as the Coastguard was discussing a kayaker who was older and in a bay in the area and there was some concerns expressed so the Hartley Bay auxiliary coastguard unit was going out to check him out.

Hartley Bay 

  

Hartley Bay has a fairly small dock and when you go in you just find your own space to tie up. The space we started to pull into bow first - was apparently already occupied by someone, just off for a few minutes getting water. So Jim had to back up and around the end of the dock and back into the space on the other side. It was quite the tight spot as the breakwater was right there as well. We are getting pretty good at this!  We docked nicely - only one loud -- STOP - needed.  If I must say so myself it was quite the successful docking. 

The boat that was in the other space returned. He was a resident named Kyle. Very nice guy. He liked that space because he got the village wifi best from that spot. 

Kyle had two dogs. Snowy a beautiful Husky and Puma a spaniel of some kind. 

Lilly was most interested in the dogs and kept watch over them all evening. 

Hartley Bay is a very nice little village. We went for a walk about and chatted with a few women who were busy picking berries and currants for jam. The village is all set up on a board walk. 

The door at the community hall 

There is power on the dock. A gas dock but no store. 

The most exciting thing about Hartley Bay - Kyle gave us a lovely sockeye fillet!!  One whole side!  Thank you Kyle!!