A Place of Harmony

That is the translation for 'Sointula'. Founded in the very early 1900's by a group of Finns whose influence is still evident over 100 years later.

The marina is a busy place! Small boats in front, and a nice mix of cruisers in the middle,
with fishing boats mainly on the outside dock.

 There are loaner bicycles at the marina office, and it is 2 kilometers to town. It's been a LONG time since either of us has been aboard a bike -- I think about 20 years for me, and Al thinks it's high school for him! These are heavy duty one-speeds and we are grateful for mainly flat going with just one or two slopes to handle.

The former school holds the library and the museum. We just peek into the library.

The museum is small but interesting.

The sunshine makes everything beautiful, even a building that gives the impression of being abandoned,
despite the amount of things stored.

We ride all the way through town to a lovely beach,

And then come back to the bakery. There is very little left on the shelves at just a half hour before closing, but we have carrot cake and a brownie with coffee, and it was YUMMY! (Though we didn't sleep well that night.)

The table and view we shared.

At the ferry dock you can see why it is called a 'stiff' breeze, as the flag and windsock are held out.

The next morning was so calm and peaceful. Al and I got up before 5, after a restless sleep from our afternoon coffee the day before.  There are two eagles atop sail masts, and I catch this one as the sun tops the ridge and lights him up.

We are back at the bakery bright and early. We were looking for cinnamon rolls, but they are still in the works, so we choose breakfast pastries and a loaf of bread and settle in comfy chairs with coffee. The cinnamon rolls are done just after we have lingered and are ready to go. We'll save them for the next day's breakfast.

We visit the Burger Barn at the marina for dinner, then go to sailboat Maia to visit with Laura and Dick, who bought the boat in the spring and have cruised the Broughtons this summer, and are negotiating with their insurance company to be approved to sail down the west coast of Vancouver Island. They have been buddy boating with another couple we met in Viner Sound when they came to us by dinghy -- they were from Portland, and Viking Star had looked familiar to them! Anyway, we had a nice evening of conversation and Dominoes with the crew of Maia (including dog Ellie), and were happy to hear the next morning that they were approved and could continue with their cruising plans.

Cost to Cruise July 2016

July came, July went - and again we busted the $1K mark.  This time: Dead Dinosaurs.  Being our 1st time in the Broughtons / Desolation area,we spend a LOT of hours motoring around checking things out.  Rather than our usual pace of moving, staying for 4-5 days, moving, we often moved every 2 days.  Not really sure why, but we did.  Combined with the rather unseasonably cold and wet winter (more generator time, more heater time) in July we found ourselves having used about 2/3rds of our fuel supply.

Penciling things out if we indeed slowed down some, and if indeed the Sun finally came out, we might have been OK - or we might have been on the fence.  In the end we elected to take on 160 gallons of fuel.  To make sure.  But will tell you the Cheap in me still is in a huff over this.  $1.09cad per liter comes to $3.14us per gallon.  Significantly above what we pay in the US (Spot check just now, $1.95)  Sigh, well - the boat rides better with the extra weight.  When we fuel up this fall we'll see if that 160 gallons was really needed.

OK, enough.  The rest of the month was rather typical it seems.  Moorgage is up a little because we are purposely visiting each of the major marinas in the area, just to get a feel for things.  Future visits we will unlikely repeat this way.

OK, here is July:

Viking Star - Cost the Cruise July 2016

Towards the end of August we will start making our way back south.  We need to be out of Canada before October 8th, or plan on having a conversation with the Canadian  IncomeTax folks.  We are kind of figuring on hitting the 'rapids' which separate the Broughtons from the Desolation area after Labor day, then slowly work our way down by the end of September.  Hopefully we will have some sunny days these next couple of months!

Queen Charlotte Strait

Al is ever looking for 'new water', so when planning our route from Viner Sound to Port McNeil, he was scouting for places we hadn't been to yet. The weather was to be calm, so most anyplace should be fine. 

We traveled the narrow passages between Baker Island and Davies and Insect Islands to the 'crossroads' or 'four corners' area, as Al called it. Just west of there is Sunday Harbour, the anchorage that M. Wylie Blanchet writes of being blown out of in 'The Curve of Time'. And we dropped our anchor.

And though our weather was vastly improved from what she and her family experienced, we WERE there at low tide and then felt the ocean swells as the tide rolled in.

We didn't find the shoreline particularly interesting though, and we had excellent internet there, so you can guess where our attention was. The next morning. at LOW, low tide, I notices several areas of whiteness beneath the water. I asked Al - what's that? Rocks? How much water do we have? 

He stepped out on deck and said WOW, and came in to check the depth sounder. We had 12 feet of water and could see these white growths clearly (I've previously looked them up, but couldn't find what they are at this time).

 Being so calm, we decide our route will head out into the Strait for a ways, traveling to the north of Malcolm Island, and then hook around to Port McNeil.

The view west, toward Foster Island. So smooth and calm.

The view south. This is a 'sunny' day in the Broughtons. I DO have my shades on.

Viner Sound

Heading for Viner Sound, even though it is dark and dreary, we have a good feeling about this place.

We get situated in the cove on the north side. The trees reflect in the still water, and everything is emerald.
But, something that catches my eye IS a bit foreboding. Look up at the rock cliffs.

I'll zoom in to make it easier. It looks like a tetris game in reverse? I wonder where the missing pieces are?
This might be the answer to where SOME of the 'sugar cube' rocks come from....

Got woolies? August in the Broughtons.
Added benefit? Al sweeps the floor with his feet.

We can hear water running, and we think there is a creek somewhere. As the tide lowers, we can SEE it.
There is a lagoon behind the 'bar'.

Not sure, but they may be Bonaparte Gulls, or Sabine's Gulls. They are very loud and squeaky!

Can you find the bear? He's there.
And we learn that bears DO have good hearing -- our cabin door rattling startled him away.

Next day we go for a dinghy ride at low tide. This is the second little cove on the right as we head out.
And more interesting rocks -- pyramids this time.

I work up my brave. And step foot ashore...

...to climb THIS rocky bar. I do not see any with a quick scan,
but I raise my voice and tell Al we need to talk to the bears.

The babbling outlet for THIS lagoon.

Now we are back in 'our' cove, and we've come up to the large rock-strewn bar here. It looks like a long scrabble across mud and rocks, and I don't want to chance it in my boat shoes. Besides, we are very near where we SAW a bear the day before. Al wants to go explore, though, so I send the camera with him. And I stand in the dinghy and constantly scan the shoreline. Twice I call to Al -- yes, to call him back, but also to make noise for any bear that may be lurking in the woods.

And Al DID find bear tracks!

On our second morning, the bear were up early and so was I! I saw two different bear on our inlet, and two  across the way again. No good pictures, however, because it was so early and dark. We just enjoyed through binoculars.

A little later, this red tug Emma, lets go of the mooring buoy in our cove and heads to the other side. It looks almost like they are against the rocks, but this bear isn't frightened! (Zoomed all the way, and through the rain.)

We both agree that Viner Sound is one of our favorite stops. And it is one of the last places we hadn't visited yet. But it's been a month and we have another bare to worry about. No, I didn't misspell. It's a description of our cupboards, fridge and freezer. We need to move in the direction of town.

Burdwood Group

We motored past the Burdwood Group over a month ago, and Al has wanted to go back ever since. The anchorage is quite deep, though, so we wanted settle weather for our visit. (Another reason for staying in Shoal Harbor for so long.)

This is a first! A casual observer would not understand the significance of this photo. So I will tell you. Normally you would see our anchor chain over the wheel on the right. The fact that it is ROPE coming out from below means that we have deployed ALL 400 feet of chain, and we are nearing 'the bitter end'.

Evening dinghy ride, day 1.

I have been fascinated by interesting shapes of rocks. This one I call Sugar Cube.

We haven't yet gone far, but when Viking Star comes back into view my first thought is 'Home!'
(Oh, see that little island just beyond the boat? It doesn't exist on our chart)

It is delightfully calm in the center of this group of small islands.

We can peek out and see Deep Sea Bluff. The 'super highway' of the Broughtons passes by here.

Loving this one. We are anchored behind the center green islands. Tribune Channel opens up behind.

It looks like a sandy beach, but it's a shell midden -- sign of an ancient native settlement.
Now, it is a kayak campground.

Home again.

Sunset, Day 2. Through the same narrow as previous.

The knot above truly IS 'the bitter end'.
Since all our chain is deployed, it is an EXCELLENT time to vacuum out the chain locker. Actually, it was in fine shape.
Al is appreciating the hose bib he installed to allow a freshwater rinse as he pulls the anchor up.

Several resources for the area say that 'charts may not be accurate'. THIS is one case.
We edited our screen for future use, to show the 'missing' island. There was no symbol selection for 'island', so we had to settle for 'large rock' (the large + surrounded by dots)

Shoal Harbour

The entrance to Shoal Harbor is just around the corner from Billy Proctor's place. It is a nice secure anchorage to hold up for a few days, during which some higher winds are predicted. That's alright. We don't mind relaxing for several days.

A couple families of mergansers

There are basically two arms to Shoal Harbor. If you go in, turn right, and anchor near the islet, that's where we were!

At the end of this right-hand arm, there is a a house in ruins.

The second is behind our islet. There is a third building at the end of the left-hand arm, beyond the log dump.
There IS a nicely kept float house near our anchorage, the only resident evident while we were there.

We saw bear on shore of OUR arm, but on our dinghy tour, this beach was around a corner.
He looked up at a big dinghy that got there before us.

He goes back to scrounging.

But, the added traffic, and the other couple's excitement and then voices apologizing to us for cutting in front of us
 obviously make the guy nervous. 

Though nearly every boat in every anchorage seems to put out a crab trap, many places are 'fished out'. Al got one keeper from our two pots. He calls that a snack.

If you've been following our blog through previous years, you know that we love the swallows and the swallows love us! After a big flock swooped and chattered around us for quite a time, this one got left behind. He was there, all alone, a good 15 minutes before he flew away. We figure he was a youngster that was tired by the pace of the flock. Hope he found the way home!

We noticed this shipwreck when we came in at low tide, but the day we left the tide was even lower.
Al says it looks like it has perhaps been 'run over'.

We enjoyed our time of rest and rejuvenation in Shoal Harbour. Except that the vacation from the internet caused us to miss friends heading south from Alaska. We learned later that they had gone right past the harbor while we were there. Darn! We even had the radio on a few days, which we don't usually.

Visiting Billy

Before setting out on this season's cruising, we bought and read the book 'Full Moon, Flood Tide' by Bill Proctor and Yvonne Maximchuk. Once we reached the Broughtons we also purchased 'Heart of the Raincoast' by Alexandra Morton and Billy Proctor, and 'Tide Rips & Back Eddies' by Bill Proctor and Yvonne Maximchuk. 

One of our top 'must visit' stops this summer was to meet Billy Proctor, icon of the Broughtons.

Billy's boat, Ocean Dawn, at the dock in Proctor Bay.

If you look closely, you can see the mouthful of insects Mama is ready to feed her quite patient babies.

They've still got some baby fuzz.

Up the ramp and to the left, and there he is -- holding court! He's even smiling for the camera.
His dog, Buster, is less impressed.

Billy has quite a collection! One of my favorites are the trading beads. I have never seen any before.

There is a fish pond out back.

And a logger's cabin Billy built from a single drift cedar log.

Inside. Spartan furnishings, but being full-time boat dwellers ourselves,
we can see there is room for everything that is necessary.

From here, we walk the trail to Pierre's Echo Bay Marina and fetch a few groceries. That is one busy place! There is a lot of traffic (people). Billy says 50-60 people a day visit him at this time of year. Still, since I saw a photo of a black bear at the doorstop of the cabin, I make sure lots of conversation takes place on the trail, just in case.