Knight Inlet - Day 2

5AM. No, I didn't get up this early on purpose.
It's been a rainy night, and it doesn't look good for mountain viewing in a fjord.

So we dawdle, and by 10AM the clouds have risen a bit, and there are even bits of sky peeking.

We don't have to go far before the color of the water changes, dramatically.
Knight Inlet collects lots of glacial melt.

We had many chances to watch dolphins! They are very difficult to capture on camera.
For more info: http://www.dolphins-world.com/pacific-white-sided-dolphin/

Spire Peaks, nearly vertical granite faces.

Cascade Falls, with Glacier Bay opening up behind the point.

 Try to imagine the above three photos as a panoramic: Green valley on the left, granite middle, Cascade Falls on the right. Everything opened up so green, I felt like I was on the set of Jurassic Park. It is a mile and a half to the beach, but I glimpse a huge splash. We grab binoculars and see that it is a whale! Most likely a humpback.

We have seen lots of logging sites, but none have seemed to be active. This one is! This is where we see the third of only 3 boats we have seen north of Glendale Cove leaving this site and crossing the inlet to the base camp on the other side. The other two boats were fishing boats, we believe were prawning.

Another 'milestone' -- crossing the 51st Parallel.

The window view at this point...

And the chart plotter view.

We have seen a pair of jet fighters previously. They fly over, circle the mountain on the right, and head back down the inlet.

I had a little better luck photographing them than the dolphins!

Gone in a flash.

Two rivers enter the inlet at the head. This is the Franklin.
The other creates quite a delta and is called the Klinaklini River.

Seals - I call them 'the girls' - sunbathing on a boom off a logging base camp at Dutchman Head.

This is as close as we'll get. Even though the chart says we should be in 30 meters (90 feet), we pass over an area where our depth sounder briefly said 5 feet. The sands of a delta are ever-changing! So we promptly turn south again.

As far north as we've ever been!

Our anchorage for the night - Wahshihlas Bay. There is a waterfall hanging on the mountain, the river branches over the beach, and the rocks on the right side are as big as houses. We don't anticipate using the dinghy for several days, so we pull it up on deck -- just before the rain really starts to pound. It rained through the night, and in the morning the river had shifted and we see logs going down the inlet.