Sunday Morning, 8:15AM, Outer Cove (Near the Southern entrance to Grenville Channel)-
Everyone is still sleeping…it’s so easy to stay up late here as it doesn’t get dark until 11PM or so. Last night, Connor was flying around with the dinghy at 11 when we called him in; it was still that bright. As hard as we try to get to bed on time, we just don’t want our days to end.
Ok, now let’s back up to where I left off. We were hoping to cruise awhile after we got our supplies at Bella Bella/Shearwater but that wasn’t the case. We’d been having a few problems with our 110 electrical system…seems like circuits would blow with very little load on them. Val couldn’t even run the microwave or blow dry her hair. At first I thought it was a generator issue but it happened again when we tested it on shore power at the Shearwater dock. It was Friday night, the dealer was closed so I couldn’t call them for advice, but, low and behold, as I am giving up in frustration and leaving the dock to find my family, I ran across Jeff Chernove, captain of the 37’ Nordic Tug, Seabear. Turns out Jeff specializes in electrical/battery systems. After a couple of hours of tracing wires and telling big boating stories we (he) found the problem. A voltage sensor regulator thingymabob had to be reset and, viola, everything worked great! Thanks, Jeff. Now, my wife can be gorgeous and cooking all at the same time!
While I was having my own technical challenges Val was having hers. She had put a load of wash in at the laundrymat, the washer door locked, and it never finished…on and on it went…washing and washing. She tracked down the manager who had to do some serious beating to convince the machine to give up it’s hostages, which it finally did, gushing all of its water over the floor.
At any rate, with all of that, we just decided to stay at the Shearwater docks for the night. It’s a neat place with a nice grocery store, marine store, and internet, yee ha! We ate off the boat at a lovely restaurant with a beautiful view. The folks are very friendly here.
Yesterday morning, Saturday, we did our normal routing…get the dogs to shore, clean the boat, have breakfast, do devotions, and go cruising! We decided to put in a pretty good size cruising day as the waters were glassy flat. We left the dock about 10:30, cruised for an hour, took up a lovely little lunch hook and then cruised most of the afternoon. It was a gorgeous run. The topography has certainly gotten much more rugged. We’re seeing snow in the mountains and waterfalls coming down everywhere. The waters are very deep right up to the shore. In fact, we stopped our boat about 5’ from the edge of a waterfall and the sounder read 300’ deep. Pretty neat sight, both up and down. At any rate, we ran about 100 miles yesterday. We got settled in our anchorage about 6:30 or so.
As we entered the entrance of Grenville Channel, we saw two huge cruise ships. We sailed right beside one of them for about 15 minutes…we both cruise at the same speed…about 22-24 knots.
Before we found our little cove to anchor in for the night, we set out our shrimp and crab pots. We ended up in a little quite nookie called Outer Cove. After we got settled, Val prepared a lovely dinner of Cod fish and fresh caught Dungeness Crab, the first of the season. It was soooo good! 
Cody set off in the dinghy to catch some more fish. Connor washed the back deck. Tanner went for about a 45 minute swim trying to catch all the little minnows that were jumping everywhere. Seals poked their heads up to watch us and him. It is so gorgeous here. I could stay for a few days right here.
While Cody came back fishless, he did come with pictures of a bear he watched for about 10 minutes, the first bear sighting of the trip. We settled into our nightly poker game, which I finally won one! Just as we were ready to pack it in for the night Connor spotted two bear that came to edge of the water beside our boat. That was neat!
This was one of my favorite days. The water was so calm, the beauty so magnificent. Val gave me a little note in a gift for Fathers Day that goes like this…
“This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world.
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hands the wonders wrought.
Bless our trip, oh Lord, we pray.
Keep us safe both night and day.
In all we see and all we do,
May we praise and worship You.”
Thank you, Lord, for making that so easy to do!
Well, the family is up and at it and we’re heading for Prince Rupert today, so, that’s it for now.
Sunday Night, 6:30PM, Prince Rupert Yacht Club.
Happy Fathers Day! We had another good day of cruising up Grenville Channel. It was gorgeous. Some sun, some clouds, no rain! Here, at Prince Rupert, we’re enjoying 70 degrees and sun. Yee ha!
This morning, at breakfast, another bear came near the boat to check us out. That was pretty neat. Then we set sail, pulled in the crab and shrimp traps. The crab trap was stripped of it’s bait but no crab. I’d like to know how that happened; nothing in the shrimp trap. Rats!
We really got going about 11AM and ended up in Prince Rupert about 3:00PM or so. I took on a bit more fuel for our crossing of Dixon Entrance tomorrow. It’s supposed to blow hard on Tuesday and Wednesday so we decided to keep pushing for Ketchikan before it gets nasty, especially in Dixon Entrance. So, Lord willing, we’ll be in Alaska tomorrow night.
The boat is running great, everyone is getting along, but I’m ready to slow down, do some sight seeing and serious fishing.
Hoping this finds you all well.
