C12 Family Adventures

We have come full circle this summer, and unfortunately our summer journey has come to an premature end. We are ending where we began – at the boatyard to address both anticipated and unanticipated issues. On the bright side, we are only cutting things short by a week. Read on to find out why, but I prefer to go in chronological order, so don’t skip to the end or you will miss the full dramatic build-up. (Throwing in some cute photos for those who are just reading this for the pics. For some reason, I did not think Paul would want to smile and say cheese while his hands deep into the poop tank.)

08/16/2024 One of our great friends from Virginia, Todd, told us he would be in Vancouver for work, so we changed directions slightly and headed to Vancouver. It was weird to pull up to a big city after we were used to small towns in Alaska and British Columbia. I am not sure I highlighted this fact before but several of the idyllic towns that we visited are only accessible by float plane or boat; they do not have any roads! Pretty cool. The marina in Vancouver told us they had room for us; they did not tell us that it would be a tight squeeze nestled within a foot of the boat in front and in back of us. I was so impressed with Paul; he did amazing, and I was happy to have the marina help us tie up and talk Paul through the distances (since I usually at least 1.5 to 2 times off of the actual distance).

We had a great lunch with Todd and then enjoyed a couple of beers while people watching and enjoying the great weather. The next day, we rented bicycles and rode approximately 7 miles around the Sea Wall, Stanley Park. It is a beautifully planned park: a splash park, beaches and a massive pool. Yet, it was not over-planned; there were plenty of places that you could just enjoy nature and the beautiful views. It was a beautiful, perfect day and the kids took full advantage of the sun and water.

We were going to leave Sunday but decided to stay due to the projected wind making leaving without a lot of buffer room a scary idea. It worked out because Hannah woke early (around 8a.m. – what?!) because her room smelled like a sewer – yuck. We pulled up the hatch in her room and found atrociously smelling, black liquid in the bottom – yuck. The bilge pump was able to suck it out, but in an effort to find the source of the water, we found water in the hatch in the master bedroom (we just have more vents that helped to relieve the smell). Paul called his cousin, Adam, who lives in Vancouver, to go to lunch, and he ran Paul to Home Depot to buy a pump. We had a great lunch with Adam and his family, and the kids and I rented bikes to go to the playground.

Todd stopped by and helped Paul pump out the water. It was clear – making Paul believe that it was not the black water (Poop tank); maybe the gray water tank (holds waste from every other source other than the toilets). Soon after pumping out the water, the air conditioner exploded – a surge of power from the marina fried our air conditioner unit – the smell of burnt electronics rivaled the effluent sewage smell. And then…the bilge in Kathryn’s room was running nonstop, so we (okay, Paul) looked for the source of the water and he found a ruptured hose bleeding out our freshwater system in another hatch in the master. The next morning, Paul cut off the ruptured part of the hose and re-attached it, but noticed a slow leak from the pressure regulator. So off went the water – no flushing toilets, no washing hands, no water to drink after the Brita was drained. Time to throw in the “wet” towel and head back to Philbrooks Boatyard in Sidney, BC. (Thanks to Phillbrooks – apparently we have reached the monetary value spent required to get full on the water support, and they helped us several times during the summer.) But first, a quick lunch at Roche Harbor in the San Juan Islands, WA. Although anyone would want to visit picturesque Roche Harbor, why take time to get lunch when our boat was leaking water (who has been watching the news of the Lovebug in Maryland and the Bayesian in Italy?)? If we crossed back in the United States before re-entering Canada, we could not come in on a service visa and have to pay tax on our service done at Philbrooks.

08/20/2024 Philbrooks to the rescue – they were able to come the next morning at 10:30 and replaced the hose and removed the pressure regulator. So, at least we had water. The day proceeded without any additional drama thank goodness. There was enough drama to be had the next day.

08/21/2024 Paul was preparing our tanks to be filled up when we get back to the Sea XII by pumping diesel from one tank to another. A worker on the dock started loudly knocking on the door and notified us that we had diesel pouring out what looked to be the bilge pump. Uh oh. We called the gas dock and they came over and we put out a boom to contain the diesel and threw “diapers” into the water to sop up the diesel that had spilled. Based on the levels of the tank, no more than 25 gallons of diesel had poured from the boat. We also had to call the Coast Guard. They came and looked at all the bilges, which were all clear. We really have no idea what happened for the diesel to pour out. At least the boat is in the right place for them to examine and hopefully fix any issue. And then, when Hannah went to take a shower (we are all showering in the Master bathroom; the pump on the shower in the guest bathroom needs to be replaced), she noticed more putrid sewage in the shower. The good news is when Paul checked the hatch in the bedroom, it was clear that at least one the leaks was coming from one of the gray water hoses). Add it to the list…

08/22/2024 So, here we are, on a ferry from Victoria to Seattle. We will fly to Newark tomorrow and will spend the weekend in New York City before heading to Rawdon (Montreal) for the family tennis tournament.

On Labor Day, we will drive to Maryland to spend a week with friends before visiting family in Ohio. We will fly back out to Seattle and ferry to Victoria for leg 2 of the Sea XII adventure. So signing off of the Sea XII blog for a few weeks. Join us mid-September for leg 2 – there will certainly be drama and new learning experiences with our sleep deprived 24 hours of boating down the coast of Washington and Oregon. Leaving you with some interesting numbers Paul put together from an overall successful first leg of our adventure:

3,000 miles/4,800 kilometers traveled, 58 legs; 14 dockings; 44 anchorages (no groundings besides with the Fournado…), 3 hospital visits, 1 mechanic on board, 13 calls for technical support, 3,500 gallons of diesel (don’t do the math; it is depressing), 3 guests, 100 gallons of gasoline (Fournado), 1 oil change, 1 TB of Starlink data, 2 fish/1 crab caught (ouch; that is embarrassing), 7 border crossings.

Wait, what? It isn’t the start of summer?

Actually, we did start the summer in Desolation Sound In June, but we decided to return to Desolation Sound and stay for a few days on our journey south, and we are finally gifted with sunny, warm days. Our time in BC/Alaska has warped our sense of heat – the 70 degree days have left us fanning ourselves and seeking out water to jump in.

Quick side – before Desolation Sound, we trudged through the alarmingly hot, sunny 73 degree day in Campbell River to a playground while waiting for the currents to be more favorable to our SeaXII chug. While at the playground, we saw a group of people with cameras, celebrating the retirement of Martin Mars water bomber – the largest water bomber of its kind, able to drop 25,000L of water on a fire. It was cool to witness.

Back to Tenedos Bay, Desolation Sound. We dropped anchor, and watched skiff after skiff, paddle boards and kayaks heading to the “beach” in the inlet. Hoping to find social connections, we abandoned school work loaded up our kayaks and headed into the Tenedos Bay, Desolation Sound Marine Park. We quickly wandered over to a stream, which was warm and found a great swimming hole with small waterfalls to swim.

A couple enjoying the area told us that there is a lake a 10 minute walk in, where everyone was heading to swim. Never wanting to miss a thing, we followed their advice and all enjoyed swimming in the warm, fresh water beautiful lake.

After swimming, we returned to the boat and took a exhilarating swing off the crane into the water before all cramming into the steam shower.

The next day, my kids were thrilled (rolling of eyes means thrilled, right?) when I announced that we would tackle the 4.7 mile scramble, out and back hike along the lake to Melanie Cove. Unfortunately in the 70 degree sweltering heat, we dropped like flies. Claire fell, so Hannah stayed with Claire and walked back to the swimming rocks to wait for us. Andrew and I hiked 2.6 miles (uh, I thought we were supposed to be at the half way point already?) and there was no end in sight, so we turned around.

Paul and Kathryn made it the furthest but still didn’t reach the end point (did All Trails lie to me?). Kathryn was the superhero of the day; hiking like a pro at lightening speed that no one could match.

By the time we got back to the swimming area, Kathryn, Hannah and I were too cold to swim but Claire and Andrew had a great, refreshing swim. Followed by…..taco Tuesday!

All the toys were brought out!

The next day we decided to head out in the Fournado to Pendrell Sound – where the water was warmest due to a tidal “quirk” for a day of watersports. We had a blast tubing and swimming, but decided we were too cold to wakeboard.

Paul found a small town (no roads; you come in by boat or seaplane) to get ice cream at the general store, so we headed to Refuge Cove. True to its name, it was a quaint, adorable cove of about 15 houses that run the town as a cooperative and we decided to stick around and eat dinner at the unexpected restaurant.

Once again, I am a little tardy in recording all of our amazing adventures and have to look at my pictures to remember all that we have done.

We finally succeeded in getting some crabs at our anchorage in Captains Cove!

We wanted to wait to pull the trap for the kids to see the crabs when they crawled out of bed (usually not until 11a.m.; east coat time will be a harsh awakening!) and the trap door stayed open and a couple of crabs escaped. When we pulled it with the kids, we had three crabs left; one crab was too small to keep (we have to measure), one was a female (can’t keep the ladies!), so we only had one to feast on. Still a pain to pick (thanks for helping, Kathryn), but it was delicious.

Good thing that we caught crabs; we threw the trap back in the water at Hevenor Inlet (the salmon head bait in it seemed to be the turning point in our catching success), but forgot to pull the pot when we took off early the next morning. We have now lost two traps and it was probably a sad funeral for the crabs in the trap; at least they had a good last feast of salmon!

We then went to Bishop Bay Hot Springs, which was more developed than Baranof Warm Springs (not knocking Baranof; I loved the completely natural state of Baranof) – no slimy algae or smelly sulphur.

The only thing was, it was a beautiful day, probably in the 70s, and we were too hot to jump in right away. We decided to take a cold plunge into the ocean before the hot springs.

It felt wonderful, and Hannah and I decided that we would swim back to the boat when we were done at the hot springs (we went by kayak; Andrew and Kathryn paddled back). The hot springs were a wonderful treat, and it was a super fun day overall. I just wish we would have brought a memento to leave of the SeaXII visit.

From Bishop Bay, we had two more anchorages at Promise Island and Shearwater before our next stop was Hakai Institute. Hakai was a recommended stop on our journey north, but we decided to stop on our way south, when we had less time constraints. Hakai is a developed research institute in British Columbia that studies the coastal habitat. We kayaked in from the SeaXII, took a short hike to a beautiful sand beach. We all loved taking off our shoes in the soft sand. We had a picnic lunch, and Paul and I walked along the shore, while the kids built forts (houses – watch their tours on https://www.youtube.com/@fournado4) from the driftwood on the beach.

After a night of anchoring in Fury Cove, we arrived in Port Hardy – a small town, but they had a store and a pub! We celebrated Claire’s and Andrew’s half birthday with molten lava cakes and team games all planned by Andrew!

The next morning, I went on a slow trail run on the Fairy Trail – so cute and fun little loop!

We pulled anchor and headed to spend a couple of days in Braughton Islands. The thick fog in Braughton was relentless and forecasted to dominate the area for the next couple days, so we decided to pull anchor and continue south.

Wow! I didn’t realize how far behind I was in my blog! It took me forever and a day to put together a poorly constructed boat tour video (in all fairness, we did the tour videos July 6th, so the 4 days it took for me to do the video edits was nothing). The video link is below.

On the open ocean on the route back to Ketchikan, we discovered that Andrew is unfortunately prone to sea sickness (he got sick whale watching in Norway but shortly thereafter we all got the flu, so I wasn’t sure if he was sea sick or started the flu). We also discovered that all of our upholstered furniture is not good for kids in general, but is especially not great for scrubbing out smelly…..

7/31/24 I have been enjoying finding trails to run to and then doing hikes/jogs on the trails at all of our stops, and I explored the Carlanna Lake Trail in Ketchikan.

It was slightly drizzly, but cleared up later in the day and the kids and I headed out to do a scavenger hunt (Roam app) before Paul met us for dinner. The highlight of the day was watching the resolute spawning salmon (who haven’t eaten and were probably lacking in energy!) in what looked like an impossible quest to run upstream and smacking head-first into the rushing waterfalls. The salmon, most likely pink salmon, return to the same stream where they were born to lay eggs.

8/1/24 The next afternoon, the kids and I went to the Lumberjack show, which was very entertaining, before setting sail. Andrew won the chair the lumberjack was attempting to carve into a bunny (all part of the show).

After one night of anchoring in beautiful Foggy Bay, we made it to Prince Rupert – a cute, clean town full of bright colors and fun character.

8/3/24 Prince Rupert is called the Cow Bay area for a load of cows delivered to the area for the start of a dairy farm in 1908. The shops were cute and colorful, and I enjoyed a delicious latte from Cowpuccinos after finding two trails to run – Rushbrook Trail and McClymont Trail.

Paul successfully changed the oil and shockingly discovered that he does not love fitting in tight spaces:)

8/4/24 We continued to make our way back south and found two beautiful anchorages, Captain’s Cove and Hevenor Inlet. Paul was able to make his comeback and row the Kita! So far his butt is holding up:)

Check out our video tour! Maybe not LA quality video editing, but Paul said it is a lot better than the video tour I did in Victoria, oh so long ago.

I am writing this post because a) it was an interesting experience for us and b) in case any other ignorant boaters are googling the area, maybe they will happen to come upon this post. I was at the helm on route to Sitka and entered a place with a lot of whirlpools all around us…uh oh. As we learned with Hole in the Wall, these whirlpools are not usually a friendly welcome. They may look like calm, swirly pools, but they can throw our boat around. Paul took over (I decided to let him to make him feel good…haha) and we teased our way through, rocking side to side, until we came upon a narrow channel. Paul called down that he didn’t think we could do this, and I came back up to the pilot house to see rapids rushing out of the channel and one of the channel buoys knocked on its side. Nope; I don’t think we can. We start googling the channel – this caught us completely unaware. I could not find anything about the dangerous currents/tides and it being an area that had to be timed to the current (not the tide in this circumstance; the current turns at a different time than the tide, so the current must be timed). We decided that we had no choice but to wait for the current to changet at 3:19p.m. Paul didn’t think that we could anchor; it was too deep and the current was too strong. Luckily, because it was a channel, one of the buoys had a current reading on it and we could look at the tide and current in the channel. Indeed, it was reading about 7.5 knots when we got there; way too strong for our boat to navigate through. Around 3:10, the current slowed to 1.5 knots, and we successfully made it through, to find several other boats on the other side waiting to navigate through as well; apparently some people knew about it!

We made it to Sitka around 7p.m. and rushed to get ready to go to dinner (Mike and Christine kindly offered to treat us to dinner, and I was tired of cooking!) We found a small, cute restaurant and my black cod tips were delicious. We then hit up the Mean Queen for some delicious drinks and crawled back to the boat close to midnight. We had to say goodbye to Mike and Christine the next day, so we went all went to the WildFlour Cafe and Bakery for an amazing sandwich (the avocado toast was scrumptious!) before they hailed a cab to the airport, and I found a scavenger hunt of Sitka for our family. While the scavenger hunt did not lead us from one place to the next, it offered points and trivia questions for various destinations around Sitka. We visited the Russian Bishop’s House – a free museum that gave great information about the Russian occupation of Alaska; we took a lot of silly pictures for points; we visited a fun playground (that was not part of the hunt but was a fun playground); we did a totem walk at Sitka National Historical Park; and probably everyone’s favorite, we visited the Sound Science Center, which offered an incredible touch tank and an extremely interesting tour of the salmon hatchery. We were pretty dead after all the walking and found a great place to get burgers and local beers before heading back to the boat.

I was immediately sold when Paul’s sister Sophie recommended visiting Baranof Springs; natural hot springs in this state of perpetual cold?! It sounded amazing. The kids and I have been trying to figure out where we can fit a small hot tub on the SeaXII, but a natural hot spring, right next to a waterfall? Always a better option. We pulled into an adorable “town” with approximately 15 total houses and a gushing waterfall and realized that we would not be able to use the town dock, so we anchored out and lowered the Fournado (our davitt/crane has been a little irritable lately, but thankfully it was working. After being stuck up for more than four hours after Dawes Glacier, Paul called Doctor Philbrooks.

We walked approximately 1/4 mile up to the hot springs, located next the water fall. The water was hot and it took a while to ease into it. The pools were natural, filled with a lot of slippery,slimy algae. There were two large hot spring pools and if you walked to a small pool by the waterfall, you could experience the polar plunge part of the experience – brrr! We ate a picnic lunch and then walked further up to Lake Baranof – so pretty!

Cold pool!

Andrew and Mike were twinning in their pink flamingo trunks – flamigos forever!

Walking back to the dock, we decided to check out the bath house with three rooms, each with a deep tub with piped in hot water from the springs. The sulphur smell was pretty strong, but it was clean water, perfect for boaters with limited water supply or no showers on their boats. Kathryn, Andrew and I tried the baths out before getting back on the boat and then drained, cleaned and refilled the tubs as requested.

Clean and ready to voyage to Sitka!

After departing Juneau, we headed to Fords Terror. Fords Terror was high on Paul’s list on a place he wanted to visit, an obstacle he wanted to conquer. Fords Terror is in Tracy’s Arm, where we visited in early July; however, due to the rainy forecast and tightened schedule because of Paul’s medical “situation” (he loves to tell everyone about it; don’t ask unless you want to hear all the details…), we decided to wait to go to Fords Terror on our way back south.

Fords Terror is a shallow and narrow inlet that has a tidal rapid that can reach speeds up to 12 knots (we go 8 knots at best without current pushing against us; odds are not in our favor). Fords Terror was named after a naval sailor who paddled his dinghy into the inlet in 1899 (at what we now know was slack tide) and was unable to exit the inlet for 6 “terrifying” hours until the next slack tide. Timing is essential. We had to time our entrance and exit to high water slack tide to make it through. As there is no real-time way to monitor the day-to-day tides, we relied on the closest tidal station in Juneau and added 15min to 1 hour (not very exact when the slack tide lasted only 30 minutes). On our way in, it was cloudy and overcast; not the best visibility. Paul did great, and while the boat still rocked side-to-side and we could appreciate the skill required to navigate the inlet, we made it through with a gold star. We boated to the end of inlet, surrounded by majestic granite walls and beautiful waterfalls and dropped the anchor. Despite it being a great place to see bears, we did not get to see any (Claire keeps reminding me, “no hugging the teddy bears!”).

The next morning, Paul called out his coworker and our guest, Mike, to Mike’s assertion that he was going to water ski. I volunteered to take pictures; too cold for me. However, the peer pressure was too great and after Mike (who hasn’t skied in 10 years and couldn’t remember what foot he skied in front) couldn’t get up, I said I would try skiing on our next go-round in the afternoon. The counter pressure worked, and we both made it up our first try!

Our polar ski club:

While waiting for slack tide at 4pm, I also got in a long kayak ride and we tied Kathryn’s aerial silks to the boom for a beautiful performance.

Andrew couldn’t be outdone and decided to take the polar plunge, no wetsuit needed!

We packed up to head to the entrance of the inlet to wait for slack tide. We kept watching the rushing water and icebergs rapidly coming out of the inlet; nerves bustling. Finally, about 30 minutes after Juneau slack tide, the water looked to be slowing down, and we headed in. Maybe a bit too early. Paul put the boat into gear with a look of determination to conquer the narrow inlet. We were doing great, until we were pushed hard by the current. Paul tried to compensate but then we were pushed by the current on the other side. The boat listed 20 degrees, sending drinks and bottles flying. Paul had a terrifying flash picture in his mind of slamming into the rocks on the side (we weren’t that close, thankfully), but the boat righted and we were able to forge on and make through successfully. He earned his diet Dr. Pepper and oreos:)

We went back and forth whether or not we wanted to take the time to go 30 miles (15 miles each way) out of the way to visit Dawes Glacier, but knowing it would probably be our last glacier and wanting Mike and Christine to see a glacier, we decided to go. It was worth it. The glacier was beautiful! It is hard to describe the amazing azure color or the glacier. The minefield of icebergs was light enough that we were able to navigate the SeaXII up to the face of the glacier, and since we were the only boat, we had time to put the boat in neutral, set silks up for Kathryn and send Mike out in the kayak to get glacier ice for cocktails. Not only that, but we were rewarded multiple times with watching and hearing the glacier calf and feeling the huge waves that resulted from the calving.

Our adventure resulted in a late night. We didn’t drop anchor until 11:30pm, in the pitch black of the night. We are super thankful for all of our electronic guidance, the radar and infrared were indispensable, but our hearts were beating fast.

We left Glacier Bay and made it back to Juneau on the 20th to drop Sophie off. We had a great time exploring Glacier Bay with Sophie and appreciate all that she taught us about bears and fishing!

We had a gorgeous day in Juneau! We took the Goldbelt Tram up Mount Roberts and then hiked to the top. We were all so hot in the 70 degree weather (lol!) but thankful for the beautiful day and beautiful view!

Sunday was a cleaning day and then we went to see Inside Out 2 at the Juneau movie theatre (mixed reviews, but I am easily entertained, so I enjoyed it!) We had friends, Mike and Christine, come Sunday night to join us for a week. We had an epic Monday, taking a helicopter tour to Mendehall Glacier (North Star Helicopter Walkabout Tour).

No chance Andrew was going to be too cold. The kids have have the layers down pat.

The helicopter ride was extraordinary; I can’t even begin to describe the beauty obreathtaking beauty of Tongass National Forest, the Juneau icefield and Mendehall Glacier. Mendehall Glacier is approximately 3,000 years old and 13.6 miles long. We flew over a medial moraine line, formed when two glaciers meet, by the Mendehall rocks and Suicide Basin.

https://youtu.be/QqlEEb_-tto

We landed in front of a beautiful glacier waterfall, donned crampons and a hiking pole and literally walked-about the glacier. They gave us resealable cans that we could fill up with fresh glacier water – delicious! We put on some glacier We walked to a cool crevasse, and took a lot of pictures.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, but we consoled ourselves with king crab legs from Tracy’s – yum!

When I heard we were coming here, I was skeptical; could Glacier Bay National Park really be that much more spectacular than the Inside Passage and British Columbia? But it is. This is the first time that I have been super thankful to be on my own vessel and not on a fancy cruise liner with pools, hot tubs, entertainment, food prepared for me, etc. Two cruise liners can come in each day – and book it to John Hopkins Glacier and Margerie Glacier and then leave. It is such a rushed visit, they do not get the time to stay overnight in a quiet cove with grizzly bears, kayak around serene inlets, take the time to view the whales, sea lions and otters, and hike to glaciers. That being said, if you do a cruise to Alaska, try to make sure you get on a cruise that comes to Glacier Bay – each moment is a gift.

On our way up to the bay, we got a call from another boat about mountain goats and bears. We did not see either of those, but we did get to see a whale breaching. He was having a heck of a time, frolicking, waving his fins in the air and jumping in the air. He reminded my of a teenager goofing around. We missed the breaching picture but have a great picture of his tail.

7/16/2024 We cruised to Johns Hopkins Glacier – a 12 mile long, calving glacier named after Johns Hopkins University in 1893. With the snowy mountains behind and floating icebergs that we had to dodge, this was possibly my favorite glacier to visit.

7/17/2024 We anchored at Reid Glacier – not quite as pretty, but hey, we are anchored at a glacier1 Reid Glacier is a standing, stable glacier, meaning that it does not calf, and we could walk up to and on the glacier. On the way, the kids drank water from all the freshwater streams coming off the mountains and tasted the glacier ice (I still haven’t made a cocktail from the glacier ice, need to remedy that).

Our walk took longer than we anticipated, and we got back to the Fournado and it looked like this….uh oh.

It is 1100lbs (more with the full tank of gas), so there was no dragging it to the water. My kids turned on their Scout survivalist skills and started building shelters, trying to start a fire and even mushing barnacles for food. Andrew even tried his barnacle slop…yuck. (But he would not eat the wild strawberries that Claire and Andrew found with CioCia Zosia.)

A couple of hours later, after Hannah helped to dig out a trench and the tide started to come back in, we managed to finagle the Fournado back into the water and made it to the SeaXII for immediate snacks and a much-deserved dinner!

7/18/2024 We had a gorgeous day! It was sunny and clear and warm! We started the day with a visit to Margerie Glacier, by Grand Pacific – which looked like a planet swirled with ice (unfortunately, it was prettier from far away).

On the way to find a place to anchor, it was calm and pretty enough that I could not resist trying out acro with Kathryn from the flybridge!

We anchored in Sandy Cove and took the Fournado to see the seals. They were pretty lifeless when we pulled up, so I said, “hey guys, show some life”. All of the sudden, something (us? birds?) set them off and they started moving and loudly barking.

We finished the day with CioCia Zosia taking Hannah and Kathryn for another unsuccessful fishing trip, and Claire and I taking a relaxing and quiet kayak ride. We were rewarded with a delicious steak dinner cooked by Paul when we all got back!

We had a permit to enter Glacier Bay National Park 7/15/2024 to 07/19/2024. Permits are very serious and hard to get. We applied the first day that we could, and were successful to get the dates that we wanted. However, with only 25 pleasure craft allowed in day to day, they are much sought after. And thank goodness Paul answered his phone the night before to confirm we were coming; he did not know we had to confirm that we were using our permit.

Unfortunately it poured rain most of the day and the extended forecast looked pretty glum – rain daily for the forseeable future. On the way in to Barlett Cove, the wildlife was awesome with porpoises swimming in front of the boat and loads of otters back-floating along-side.

We anchored in Bartlett Cove and took the Fournado in for the mandatory orientation at 12pm. They talk about speed limits in whale zones (we don’t go that fast anyhow. In addition, you have to travel one mile from shore, as the whales feed close to shore.), what areas you are allowed to travel to and the rules for viewing wildlife. Despite it being desolate, they also have mandatory quiet hours in the anchorages that tend to get busier. They didn’t have much guidance on fishing to my surprise, although 0x0=0, so doesn’t seem to matter for us.

We grabbed lunch at the lodge and then headed out, much to the kids’ delight, for a 1 mile hike in the rain. We have realized that as long as you wear your rain gear and dress warmly enough, life is good.

It finally stopped raining as we were heading into Shag Cove to anchor, and Sophie spotted a mama grizzly and her three cubs. We grabbed binoculars and watched as mama waded into the water to fish. She pulled a mammoth fish (we now believe it was a porpoise) out and let her cubs feast, while she overlooked from the beach. They continued to stand guard and snack through the night and into the next morning, when the eagles tried to move in.

No rain the next morning, so Sophie and I got out for a beautiful kayak ride, testing our boundaries with the bears and paddling along with porpoises.