Complete the Circle - What day are we on???

Its a small world, you know... Jeff was doing laundry in the Port McNeil laundromat and a colleague of his from Pierce County was there! Jill Guernsey and her husband were on their way back from Alaska on their sailboat. And even smaller, she knows Tom very well from his days at the Sheriffs Dept. It was a nice visit while doing chores and on the boat later that night.
While in Port McNeil, we saw Ethereal - a 190' sailboat! Its usually in the Med but had been chartered over here. Pretty unbelievable. We googled it, of course, for more information.



Across from Port McNeil




Ethereal dwarfing Tom

We had a cold, wet transit to Hope Island yesterday. This is the "staging area" for boats that are going around Cape Scott. It was deserted... Later that evening, another sailboat came in and we left with them this morning. We are a bit bigger and go a bit faster but they are now tied up behind us at Winter Harbour.

Bull Harbour on Hope Island is First Nations owned and has 1 small dock. Quiet and incredibly beautiful.



We left earlier than planned becaused weather has been so calm and we crossed Nawhitti Bar with just some swells. I read that it would either be the scariest, most exciting crossing or completely uneventful. It was the latter. We rounded Cape Scott with no issues and motor/sailed the rest of the 58 miles. Its a strange thing to look to starboard and know its only the Pacific for thousands of miles. We had 8' swells the second half of the day and they must have lulled Jeff and The Colonel to sleep.








Jeff with Cape Scott in the background.

We are now in fishing nirvana, mind you that is not MY nirvana. Winter
Harbour is much smaller than I thought but the fish are much bigger! One guy brought in a 160 lb halibut! Huge fish were everywhere on the dock. Tom is going to troll a a line tomorrow off the boat and is hoping to catch a salmon. I'm guessing we will have a trail of the gigando kelp hanging on to his line... Just fine with me.

We round Brooks Peninsula tomorrow. Another big day and end up in Kuyout. We have 4 days of anchoring in small bays or First Nation villages ahead. Its REALLY isolated out here!

The weather is cold and showery and it looks like more for the next few days. Argh....

Until we have internet again!

Chris, I can't believe that somewhere today we had cell coverage and my phone said I missed your call. Darn! Glad you are following us on SPOT. Much better than following us on Denali, ha!


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Location:Winter Harbour, West Coast Vancouver Island