Rescue Bay – Riveted

Airship to Alaska | Day 13 | Rescue Bay to Khutze Inlet

Laura Domela — Fri, 20 May 2016 20:33:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

We slept in this morning, had some breakfast, and then Kevin went to check the crab traps. (Two large keepers, woohoo!)

The wind had definitely picked up, so we opted to go through Jackson Narrows and head over to Finlayson Channel, and then poke our head out to see what the conditions were like. Gale warnings were still in effect, and the wind had definitely increased, but didn’t seem too bad. Finlayson Channel was white capping a little, the current was with us, and the wind was straight on our nose. The waves were still only about 2ft and not bad at all, so we headed north up Finlayson, with several spots identified as duck out spots in case the waves picked up. It was probably blowing about 15kts gusting to 30kts (we saw 33kts once), but the conditions stayed the same and just got better as we got further along. We headed for Khutze Inlet, where we stayed last year on our way south.

If you never poked your head out to see what the conditions were like where you are (or where you’re going), and operated strictly by the forecasts, you’d never leave your home or anchorage. It’s important to pay attention to weather of course, but it’s also important to know your bodies of water and the land structures around them and how things affect other things.

Here we are in those conditions:

We both showered underway and things were fairly calm by the time we turned into Khutze Inlet. Khutze Inlet is about 4.5 nautical miles off the channel, but so worth it!

We anchor all the way back at the end, near (but not too near) the shelf off of the bear meadow. Oh, and look! A brown bear sow and two cubs, just as we arrive.

They heard us and kept an eye on us as we anchored.

You can see how far we are from the bears in this zoomed out photo:

All of a sudden there was a big ruckus on shore when we weren’t looking, and guess what? GEESE were chasing the grizzly bears. And the grizzlies ran from them.

Kevin put out some crab traps (we haven’t managed to freeze any yet, but I know we’ll get tired of crab at some point). Tonight: crab enchiladas! Again!

There’s one other boat in here with us. There’s a gorgeous, really tall waterfall we can see and hear from the boat (light is not good now for photos). This place is just beautiful. (Ford’s Terror kind of beautiful.) Highly recommended. Just be careful about that ledge…we’re at low tide now and swung all the way toward the shoal and can see it from the back of the boat VERY clearly. It’s a steep drop off, but it feels a little close. (We’re good, don’t worry.)

Here are some drone shots to give you a better idea of the space in here:

After dinner we took the dinghy out to explore a bit. Airship with waterfalls:

Riverside abstract:

We headed up the river a little ways. Super pretty back in here (no bears).

Then over to get a closer look at the biggest waterfall. The scale doesn’t translate at all in this photo.

Tomorrow, Hartley Bay (we think). There’s cell service there and internet, so I’ll finally get to post Days 12 and 13!!

Airship after sunset:

The light was so pretty last night:

And then, the moon:

Today’s route from Rescue Bay to Khutze Inlet (44.3 nautical miles 6 hours 31 minutes):

Airship to Alaska | Day 12 | Ocean Falls to Rescue Bay

Laura Domela — Thu, 19 May 2016 19:50:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Today was the best day of our trip so far.

Our alarm went off this morning at 6:30am (I know, but stay with me here.) Time to pull the crab traps! We left the dock and motored over toward the dam, past the sleepy seals.

We pulled the first trap and there were quite a few Dungeness in that one.

We wanted to be underway by 7am this morning to meet the slack tide at Perceval Narrows, about 5.5 hours away. Our goal today was Rescue Bay. The weather forecasts have been iffy for the past couple days. There’s a low pressure system hanging out nearby, with a great big high pressure system right behind it. So there have been gale warnings for the whole area for the past couple days. So far though, we haven’t seen any sign of anything more than about 8-10 kts of wind, but we know this could change any time. Yesterday was rainy and a little windy, so we opted to head for Ocean Falls instead of going out into Seaforth Channel to get to Rescue Bay, since that’s an area that opens up to the Pacific and can be a little gnarly sometimes (like on our way south last summer!) Anyway, that’s the weather background. And now, back to the crabs!

Here we are heading out of Cousins inlet, while Kevin unraveled crabs from the traps, measured them, and threw back the females and the too-small males. Nice and calm, and the clouds are starting to dissipate.

We had 8 large male keepers, and threw back 6. Pretty good haul for one night! This one looks like it might be the biggest.

7.5 inches! Sweet! So…Awesome Thing About Today Number 1: a bunch of crab!

So, I’m at the helm, cruising down Fisher Channel and not yet to where we turn into Gunboat Channel while Kevin is back on the deck cleaning crab, and I start seeing a bunch of white up ahead on the horizon. I’m wondering if this is where things open out into a windier channel or something and maybe the wind picks up and what I’m seeing is whitecaps, so I zoom out on the map to see, but there’s nothing that seems like it would all of a sudden be rougher. I get the binocs out to get a better view of the horizon, and sure enough, there’s a lot of white and splashing…that stretches for maybe a half a mile wide (or more). Birds? I can’t quite figure it out, but the splashing makes me think it’s something a little out of the ordinary…I have a good feeling about this. I call back to Kevin. “Hey Kev? You might want to stop what you’re doing and come up here and take a look through these binoculars. I think there’s something pretty spectacular that’s about to happen up ahead.”

Kevin came up to the pilothouse and as we got closer, we started to see dorsal fins. Hundreds of them. Just like I’d hoped, it was Pacific White-sided dolphins. Probably about a thousand of them. And we were heading straight for them. Gaaaaaaahhhh!!!!

I went up on the bow with my camera, and pretty soon they were coming right for us! As we drove through this gigantic group of dolphins, they jumped and splashed and bow-surfed with our boat in groups that traded off…I’m guessing we had no fewer than 10 at a time surfing along with us. It was extraordinary. This lasted for about 20 minutes as we made our way through Dolphin Disneyland and it was marvelous. Okay, on to the photos!

Dolphins on starboard:

Dolphins on port:

This one surfed on his side and his belly the whole time, looking right up at me as I hung over the bow and squealed. I hope he could hear me.

What an incredible experience. That’s Awesome Thing About Today Number 2.

Gunboat Passage…so serene!

We cooked the crab while underway, and then I went back and started picking the crab meat while Kevin took over the helm. SO. MUCH. CRAB. We started feeling swells increasing gradually as we got closer and closer to Seaforth, but I was able to finish all eight crabs before anything fun happened. We had maybe 6-7 foot swells just before turning into Reid Passage, but they were far apart and no big deal. (They look pretty dramatic when they wash over all the low rocky isles though!)

After we passed through Perceval Narrows at slack, things were calm enough to start with the crab stock project. We put all the shells in the big pot, and added some shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and bay leaves, and a couple hours later, we had ourselves a gallon and a half of fresh, delicious, crab stock. Tonight’s dinner will be crab bisque, with a caesar salad and some garlic bread. We’ll freeze the rest of the crab stock until we need more.

We are now anchored in Rescue Bay, and this is our view out toward Jackson Narrows:

We took a fun dinghy exploration ride around the bay (followed the whole time by a posse of seals). The water was so clear that in the narrow parts it was like tidepooling by dinghy!

Kevin took the drone up for a few quick shots of the bay from the air. Here’s one looking out toward the entrance to the bay:

Back at Airship, we strained the homemade crab stock (a gallon and a half of it!!), and then made a REALLY good crab bisque, with a caesar salad and garlic bread for dinner. (This bisque was AMAZING. I’ll share the recipe, but I have a feeling it’s all about the fresh crab stock.)

Just as dinner was almost ready, two guys from a prawn boat that had recently anchored in the bay here rowed up and asked us if we wanted some prawns. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? We’ve been dreaming about those spot prawns since the prawn feast at Pierre’s last year with the flotilla. The spot prawn season up here is 45 days, and it opened the day we were leaving Lund, but we’ve asked around and haven’t been able to get any. And here were these two guys, just rowing themselves over to us to give us some. Spot prawns are like the freshest best regular prawns times 10. They’re AMAZING. We asked if we could pay for them, and they said no…they said their captain (or maybe she’s the boat/company owner, I’m not quite sure) gave them some prawns and said they should go share with the two boats at anchor. SO! NICE! We asked if we could trade for them and they said they’d just run out of beer. (They also said the captain has some wine, but that she doesn’t share it with them.) So we gave them a large bottle of beer, and then asked if they liked bourbon. Turns out yes. So I gave them the rest of a bottle of Bulleit and they were SUPER happy. Here they are: Tyler and Dustin. We chatted with them for quite a while…they were great. Sounds like they may have a fire on the beach tonight… (They didn’t have a fire on the beach, turns out. I think they probably drank bourbon and played cribbage.)

Here’s the prawn boat, the Lasqueti Gambler.

Here are Tyler and Dustin, prawn deliverers:

They gave us 3 1kg boxes. That’s 6.6 pounds of freshly caught flash-frozen spot prawns. SCORE. So that’s Awesome Thing About Today Number 3.

Today’s route from Ocean Falls to Rescue Bay was 53.9 nautical miles, 7 hours 13 minutes.

Day 14 – Rescue Bay to Windy Bay

Laura Domela — Sun, 31 May 2015 00:45:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska – Day 14

We slept in, made breakfast, showered, and departed Rescue Bay at a leisurely 10am.

Sea Raven leads the flotilla:

This weather!!

We headed up Mathieson Channel and made a left turn into Kynoch Inlet, then over to Kynoch Falls where we oooh’d and aaah’d at the pretty water.

Sea Raven with Kynoch Falls:

Looking up Kynoch Inlet to the Fjordland Recreational Area. I believe we’ll be spending more time here on the way home.

We’re now anchored in Windy Bay, which is on the north side of Pooley Island, on Sheep Channel. It’s not windy at all. Some light clouds moved in and we’ve gotten a bit of drizzle.

Rob and Jean on Big Red, the American Tug 41, invited everyone over for wine and appetizers on their boat at 5pm. We dinghy-pooled over there and had a really fun evening with delicious appetizers (which ended up being dinner for most of us I think).

Kevin had put out two crab traps so we checked them on the way back to Airship, but no crab today. We took a scenic dinghy tour around Windy Bay and then watched the sunset from the top deck. (Sunset being around 10pm).

Gorgeous sky.

Since we crossed Cape Caution on Monday, we’ve been cruising in some of the most remote and uninhabited wild areas that we’ve ever been in. We’re cruising between countless islands that look like modern humans have never visited them (for the most part). There are no roads, no signs of human activity, power lines, any kind of structures…we’ve hardly even seen any other boats. There is no cell service, virtually no traffic on the radio but for the chatter of our flotilla. It’s even rare to detect a plane flying over. Pretty much the only noticeable signs of humans are the occasional patch of clearcut on the mountainside.

I think we’re going to purchase a sat phone for our trip south when we’re not with the flotilla any more (and back in more remote surroundings).

Sunday we’ll have a longer passage (56 miles) to Bishop Bay Hot Springs, with a quick stop at Butedale.

Here’s today’s route (30.8 nautical miles):

Day 13 – Shearwater to Rescue Bay

Laura Domela — Sat, 30 May 2015 00:21:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska – Day 13

Today was a 34 mile passage from Shearwater to Rescue Bay. We left Shearwater at 8am and went through Perceval Narrows (20 miles away) at slack tide. Once again the morning started out gray with low clouds and ended up warm and sunny.

This is one of two eagles at Shearwater that were hanging out in a short tree on the waterfront waiting for handouts:

Also, in yesterday’s post I forgot to include this photo of the large mural here in Shearwater depicting some of the important people in Shearwater history (painted by Paul Ygartua).

Scenic Reid Passage in grays:

And now with some sun:

Rescue Bay is large and there’s room for many boats.

We all anchored and settled in for an afternoon with no plans. Here’s Larry’s very photogenic Monk, at anchor in Rescue Bay:

We set out two crab traps and then went exploring by dinghy.

Near the opening to the bay there were a whole bunch of seals hanging out and splashing around. We went over to get a closer look, but the seals stopped what they were doing to get a closer look at us.

We checked the crab traps and we’d caught one very large Dungeness (7.5 inches) and a feisty, too-small male. We left the crab traps in for a couple more hours, checking twice, and only came up with another female and another too-small male.

We cooked this guy up with a small side of tortellini and some grilled zucchini.

Here's today's track (33.5 nautical miles):

Next stop: Fjordland!