July 21st

Khutze and Klemtu -- Whales and bears - Oh My! 

We left Butedale earlier than we normally depart - around 7 AM.

The falls at Butedale as we were leaving.

The plan was to go up Khutze Inlet and see if we could see some Grizzly bears. The people from the Spirit Lodge said they had seen Grizzlies up there on the beach at the head of the inlet. It would be about a 2 hour side trip to go up and down Khutze. We thought if we liked what we saw we might even spend the night. 

Khutze Inlet 

We got to the head of the inlet about 9:30 am. It is a beautiful spot. There were a number of boats anchored up though. Too many for us to stay. 

The falls at the head of the inlet.

We toured around a bit and took some photos. As we were getting ready to head out I was in the cockpit taking some photos and I saw a couple of bears stand up tall in the long grass just above the beach. They were a bit far away but we were able to watch them through the binoculars and get a few photos. They briefly came onto the beach. A sow and two cubs.  That was pretty exciting. 

We left around 11:30 am and carried on to Klemtu. When we arrived in Klemtu we motored past the Spirit Bear lodge and there was Ed's kayak on the dock.  We were not sure if he would spend the night in Klemtu or go directly to Shearwater. He was not sure what he would do when we last saw him. 

We went on to Clothes Bay - not a boat at anchor yet and it was about 3:30 pm. We dropped the anchor and Jim took Jenny in to shore. 

When he came back - about 4:30 or so we decided to take the skiff over to the Spirit Bear Lodge - which was about 3 minutes away by skiff and see if we could say hi to Ed and see how he was doing. He had seemed a bit discombobulated the day before. 

When we got to the Spirit Bear Lodge dock there was a young woman going for a swim from the  dock.  We chatted with her a bit, we asked her about Ed.  She said didn't really know much about him but she had seen him at the lodge. She said she was not a guest but wasn't an employee of the lodge. She started to take us up the dock to the lodge. She said we should come up to the lodge. Everyone is so friendly! The lodge is beautiful! 

As we were heading up the dock a man came down the dock.  We now know who the man was. He was pleasant enough in that sort of - we don't want you here - kind of pleasant. He said - yes - Ed was here, he was doing well and he would pass along our message to him, thank you and so long -- hmm. I guess everyone is not so friendly. The woman had disappeared! 

Ok. So we are leaving - we get into the skiff -- it will not start. Oh no!! We walk it down to the far end of the dock. Trying to be inconspicuous and try to start it. Nothing. The skiff has never done this before. We start to panic a bit.  We have 3G so Jim calls Eric. We are FaceTiming Eric -- taking off the engine cover. Fiddling with things. People come out. The man who doesn't want us here comes out. A few people even try to help a bit. We are frustrated. Eric is frustrated!  Sounds like the engine isn't getting fuel.  We have now been on the dock about 1/2 hour.  

But -- then Ed comes out. He saw us from the lodge - no one gave him our message.  He was very happy we came by. We chatted with him. He looked great!! 100% improvement. It was good to see him so much better. We had a nice little visit - even though we were worried about the skiff. Then a group of 3 killer whales swam by in the channel -- so close. One was a new calf of the year!   I tried to get a video with my phone but it didn't really work. It was quite sunny and the sun was in our eyes. 

So we said our good byes to Ed and decided we would paddle with our one paddle back to the boat. The 3 minute ride took 55 minutes of paddling. Jim did most of the paddling but I did spell him off a couple of times. 

There was a current and a bit of wind. Now we know how Ed felt!  And he had two paddles!!  He had offered to lend us a paddle but we didn't know how we would return it. 

We needed to get back to the boat so Jim could get some tools and see what was going on with the engine. Jim was anticipating that he would need to replace the spark plug.  

So after our long and arduous paddle back to the boat I look down to discover that the "kill switch" is lying at our feet!  Yes. It's lying at our feet -- not engaged and therefore the engine is not able to start!! Jim puts it back in -- starts the engine and....  we go have a beer and potato chips for dinner!!  Too tired to even cook!!