The next morning we found the dinghy full of water from a night of
rain and it had to be bailed out.
We had planned to make it to Bella Coola in one day, but after consulting the tides and our level of ambition, we decided to stay midway up Burke Channel in Cathedral Point Cove.
Shortly after entering the channel we were greeted by something we'd been looking forward to - a whale! We turned the engines down to idle and puttered after him, sitting still to watch for the next geyser. He stuck close to shore, which was still very deep and seemed to take his time, showing us his dorsal fin and tail. We ran up to the fly bridge with the binoculars and Alden's longest lens. You'll have to wait for pictures from the DSLR camera, unfortunately.
We saw several Pacific White-sided Dolphins as well, and plenty of harbor seals.
The cruising seemed to take forever and the weather was rainy and cool. We finally arrived at Cathedral Point and were happy to be finished for the day. Unfortunately the bay was fairly deep at 40-50 feet with little swing room between the rock cliffs and dangerous rocks at low tide. We ended up changing our mind about our anchoring and trying again, this time with a stern tie. This procedure proved to be a circus. Our stern line wasn't quite long enough - almost, but not quite. Alden was in the dinghy trying to bring the tail end of the line back to the boat and wasn't making any headway no matter how hard he rowed. The wind was blowing strong too, pushing the boat. We had to let out more anchor line, which involved me pulling in chain, snubbing it, pulling out about 20 feet of rope, attached to the end of the chain and securing it, before letting out the rope and chain again, all while Alden shouted instructions from behind the boat. The rain was pouring and it all felt rather impossible for a while, I was torn between laughing at our predicament and opting for a new plan. Finally it did come together with some trickery and brute strength and we felt secure enough to make it through the night.
We baked an apple pie to celebrate!
The cruising seemed to take forever and the weather was rainy and cool. We finally arrived at Cathedral Point and were happy to be finished for the day. Unfortunately the bay was fairly deep at 40-50 feet with little swing room between the rock cliffs and dangerous rocks at low tide. We ended up changing our mind about our anchoring and trying again, this time with a stern tie. This procedure proved to be a circus. Our stern line wasn't quite long enough - almost, but not quite. Alden was in the dinghy trying to bring the tail end of the line back to the boat and wasn't making any headway no matter how hard he rowed. The wind was blowing strong too, pushing the boat. We had to let out more anchor line, which involved me pulling in chain, snubbing it, pulling out about 20 feet of rope, attached to the end of the chain and securing it, before letting out the rope and chain again, all while Alden shouted instructions from behind the boat. The rain was pouring and it all felt rather impossible for a while, I was torn between laughing at our predicament and opting for a new plan. Finally it did come together with some trickery and brute strength and we felt secure enough to make it through the night.
We baked an apple pie to celebrate!
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