Friday, August 15, 2014

Kwatsi Bay to Shawl Bay, Broughton Islands, B.C.

Distance traveled: 17.9 miles

Travel time: 2 hrs, 11 mins

Before leaving Kwatsi Bay, Cathryn commented to Max (owner of the Kwatsi Bay marina along with Anca) how much she enjoyed the bread he’d made the night before. Guess what ended up leaving Kwatsi Bay with us? Yum.

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It was drizzling as we pulled out, but there was no wind, the water was flat, and the fog was high up, so visibility was good. We drove from the lower helm as we’ve got windshield wipers there.

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The gray palette was monotonous in a gorgeous way.

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An hour into the trip we passed Deep Sea Bluff, another spectacular sheer cliff that rises hundreds of feet straight out of the water.

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A pretty boat in Tribune Channel with an unusual pale blue hull.

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We love the look of wooden masts.

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Halfway through our trip up Tribune Channel we saw a boat approaching a mile or two ahead. Bob commented on the similarity between it and a boat we traveled the Inside Passage to Alaska on (as crew/guests) in 2009. No boat name was visible until we passed it by and could read the transom using binoculars, but lo and behold, it was “Gold Rush”, the same trawler on which we’d made that trip!  We hailed Gold Rush (and owners Greg and Terry) on the VHF radio 6 or 8 times, but they must have been on a different channel talking with someone else or something, so didn’t respond. Almost an hour later when we were miles past each other, they called us back on the VHF and we had a several minutes long, if broken, conversation. They’re headed home from Alaska, while we’re still northbound, and we missed each other by one night, as they spent last night in Shawl Bay where we are tonight. Another small world experience!

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Mid-day we pulled into Shawl Bay, another small, off-grid marina (except for generator electricity and satellite wi-fi, ha ha!). Here you can even do your laundry for $10/load. Think we’ll wait on laundry.

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We dropped the dinghy and explored the Bay and nearby colorful Float House community, a bit larger than most we’ve seen.

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Not many Float Houses have seaplanes parked in front, especially with window trim that matches the plane.

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As seems to be the norm in this area, everyone met on the dock for Happy Hour at 5:00, bringing appetizers to share. We don’t need dinner after such events, and they end early, so it’s nice to hear where others are coming from and going.

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