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!!  

Weinberg Inlet

July 17th and 18th. 

In McMicking Inlet we were anchored in the most northern part of the inlet.  We had hoped to anchor in a small cove on the east side but it was occupied when we arrived the first day. The most northern cove is open to south winds. And there is a rock/reef ( as the debate continues) right in the middle of the anchorage which needs to be avoided and managed. 

The Rock was some distance behind the boat when we first anchored. And then when the wind changed from Southeast to Northwest, the rock moved a little closer. Never too close. But we watched it. 

Weinberg Inlet 

We decided to travel the short distance of about 10 miles to a little inlet north of McMicking - still on Campania Island.  We had heard it was a nice little spot. 

It was a quick trip and we finally got to see some Orca Whales. First sighting we've had in a couple of years!  

Weinberg Inlet is a lovely little spot. And we were able to anchor up right where we wanted.  Which was a bonus!  

Just outside the inlet we noticed a few fish jumping so we decided to stay two nights and Jim could try his hand at fishing again.  No luck. The fish of British Columbia continue to live and swim free.  

We took a little dingy ride about the inlet. It is quite large and has lots of little islets and coves and such. 

Large granite hill in one of the coves on the south side of the inlet. 

Phoenix Hunter at anchor. Such a lovely spot. We would come back here. 

We noticed there were some commercial crab pots around so Jim put out the crab pot. 

We ended up catching a couple of small King crab. 

Too small to keep but the pots were re-baited for King crab in hopes of getting a couple of big ones.  No luck. 

We stay two nights instead of one.  A sailboat came in the first night and anchored around the other side of a little island. And then a couple of other boats came in but never stay - I think we were in "the spot". 

July 18th was my Dad's 80th Birthday!!  We had a lovely stir fried chicken dish and a beer in his honour! 

Lilly sitting down to dinner.  Happy Birthday Dad!!!  From all of us. 

McMicking Inlet

McMicking Inlet 

July 12 - 16 

Five nights in McMicking Inlet.   Jim said he wanted to spend more time here this trip. It is a beautiful spot - white sand beaches,  Mount Pender towering overhead - hemlock and cedar and spruce - all miniature and craggy and old. 

After the second night there was a gale warning for Hecate Straight - NW 30-40 for Friday.  We thought we would go back to Chapplel Inlet which is pretty much land locked and would be good in a gale. McMicking is pretty open to the south.  But we decided Thursday morning to stay where we were and see how it went.  We never did get 30-40. Friday evening we got it gusting to 20 for an hour or two and that was as windy as it got. 

We could have moved the boat to a spot around the corner - which was occupied when we arrived. But we have a very good anchor - Rocna - and all chain rode. And we have never had a problem with dragging - knock wood. So we just stayed put. We were anchored up in the very far south end of the inlet. There are a couple of spots close by there to take Jenny to shore. McMicking is a large anchorage and there was at most 4 boats in there at the same time as us. 

We had some beautiful sunsets. 

Some great trips to shore.  The first couple of days it was grey and drizzly. 

And then the sun came out. 

We had a picnic on a beach - sitting on a log beside some wolf tracks. 

 

We ate some beach peas. Well Jim ate them. I tried one. We never died!  

Rides around in the skiff 

Phoenix Hunter from the skiff with Mount Pender in behind. 

Jim caught some rockfish. 

Happy Hour on S/V Koukla with Donna and Cosmos. A beautiful old 56ft sailboat. 

Jenny did a bit of a tweak of her knee running around the beach!!  She was hobbling around on 3 legs for a couple of days but we gave her some Meloxicam and Tramadol and she is doing better. 

 

Lilly found yet another cupboard to climb into! One day I'm going to do a blog post just about all the places Lilly needs to go! 

It was sunny and breezy most of the time we were there. Beautiful. And the solar panels happily did their thing and we maybe ran the generator once or twice in 5 days.