I woke up and immediately started thinking about my laptop
in Ahousat but we had also come this far and wanted to take in all that Shelter
Inlet had to offer so we compromised that I would wait until about 2PM and then
we were going back to Ahousat.
We pulled the shrimp trap on the way out and had another 35
shrimp, although they weren’t the big prawns but they weren’t the little
cocktail shrimp either. Later, we ate
all 35 and they were sweet and delicious and made a nice side dish to our
halibut.
Then it was on to the Megin River just a mile or so down the
inlet. We anchored in the delta and
explored by dinghy. It was so much
fun. It was a similar to the experience
we had yesterday at the Watta River. We
found another cool waterfall.
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| Connor and Tanner checking things out. |
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| Coming out of the Megin River looking at Dakota Roamer on the hook. |
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| I liked this "flower pot." |
This
Shelter Inlet is a special place but it was 2PM and time to rescue my computer,
Lord willing.
Back at Ahousat, as we were coasting into the dock, Val
exclaimed, “I see your computer…it’s in the phone booth!” Wow! No one found my computer in the public phone
booth! Thank you, Lord! There were many very warm and friendly First
Nations people here and finding my computer left me with a warm feeling about
this place. The store owner thought that
if someone had found it, they would have brought it to him. Nice.
Armed with hot dogs and fresh buns from Ahousat (they got
their bread in), we continued another dozen miles or so out to the beaches of
Vargas Island where we were able to set the hook in the sand and take the
dinghy to shore. The waves crashing into
the beach seemed so small until we’re in the dinghy trying to figure out how to
make our landing without rolling us all.
We barely managed but within minutes had our fire going and hot dogs
roasting. Val and the pups snoozed while
Connor and I took a turn prepping supper.
When Val cooks, we get meals like Neptune’s Feast. When Connor and I cook, it’s hot dogs.
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| The dog days of summer. |
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| Lucky napping by the fire. |
We all love exploring the wonderful beaches out here and we
found a little porpoise that looked like something had taken a chomp out of
it. Interesting.
It was getting close to the point where I wanted to get the
boat secured for the night and, checking the forecast, I wasn’t comfortable
with any of the anchorages we were considering so we just decided to head into
Tofino, only about an eight mile run.
Our boat cruises at 25 knots (about 30mph) and it really gives us a lot
of options as we can cover a lot of ground (er, water) quickly.
I was surprised how shallow and flat the water around Tofino
is…it’s kind of like a big river delta.
I’m used to seeing hundreds of feet on the depth sounder and get a
little freaked out when we’re on plane at 25 knots in twenty feet of
water. As you can see below, there’s
good reason to be.
They made the most of
it though. (Not quite my idea of a beach
picnic.) Plenty of time to rest before high tide.
All of the public docks were jammed with fishing boats and
we ended up at the very nice Weigh West Marina with power and water, cell
service, and Internet…all in our boat…oh my, what luxuries. The hot dogs just didn’t cut it so we
meandered up to the pub overlooking the marina and had some cold drinks and hot
wings. As nice as it is to have these
things, we all decided we’d still rather be in the wilderness. As you know by now, I’d take an anchorage
over a marina most of the time.
As you can see, Connor caught a nice Coho earlier in the day so Val and I portioned him up and vacuum packed him.
We checked our e-mails and even had a chance
to look at some Facebook and other “for fun” websites. Wow.
We have really been out of communications with the outside world.
The forecast is calling for gale force winds for three days
and it’s supposed to hit tomorrow. I
give the family the option of staying in Tofino to wait it out or make the run
for Barkley Sound in the morning. It’s a
split vote. The captain has to decide
but will wait for tomorrow’s updated forecast.
For now, it’s bedtime. Sleep
tight.
