Duncanby Landing to Shearwater (Bellla Bella)

Chef and I woke on our own again this morning, around 7:30 am. I can’t tell you how great it is to wake on our own in the late morning, as opposed to waking at the crack of dawn to our rowdy neighbors - the twin 1000 HP Caterpillar engines (as long as we aren’t waking in Sullivan Bay that is).

I ambled upstairs and found Captain sitting in the California Cockpit (the back deck in layman terms) a huge grin on his face and a warm cup of coffee in his hand. He was in heaven, sitting comfortably with his dog at his side and the rain pouring down on calm seas. It was nice to see Captain enjoying a slow start to the morning and it set the tone for the day.

I ran up to the lodge and gathered up the fresh muffins and coffee they had put out for us. What a great way to start the day! Once everyone was up in the galley, Captain got us underway. The seas were like glass during the first portion of our journey, much to the pleasure of Chef and myself. We had one batch of rocky seas, but gratefully, Captain got us out of those pretty quickly and we were back to smooth sailing for the next few hours.

Chef took advantage of the calm seas to make a minestrone soup and risotto cakes that would be our lunch. The galley was filled with incredible smells as she chopped and simmered. Later, we ate lunch as we cruised on calm seas.

The water was a bit rough on this trip, and it was a very gray, rainy day, so I don’t have many photos from this leg.

At about 3:00 pm, we pulled into our next stop, Shearwater. I’d expected it to be just a few buildings – but it turned out the area was pretty well developed. The afternoon was a little hectic as I made calls to several of the marinas and outfitters to change our plans. Buck helped me and I was able to use the satellite phone to make the calls. It was really great to have the ability to actually communicate with people. I’ve got most of our events rescheduled or cancelled now, and I’m feeling much better.

We had to make some changes to the schedule. After Shearwater, we were supposed to go to a First Nations village – Klemtu and then go to an anchorage the next day. We decided to shorten the trip by cutting out the stop to Klemtu. I was sad about the decision because it was the only First Nations event I had planned, but I understood the wisdom of shortening the trip to try to make up time.

Before I knew it, it was time for our dinner. I’d made arrangements for the restaurant to hold a salmon bake. They also prepared chicken and ribs and had several salads and an apple crumble. For some reason, this more elaborate dinner didn’t seem to be as well received as the burger BBQ the night before, but people seemed to have a really good time.

Just as dinner was getting started, the manager of the restaurant approached Chef and asked her if she would like some free sockeye salmon. It seems that there are a large number of sports fishermen in the area. When they get bored, they go fishing. When they pull in fish they don’t have a use for, they sometimes give it to the restaurant. The restaurant can’t serve it (their license requires them to purchase their food from pre-approved sources). So the restaurant stores it in their freezer or gives it out to friends and family. Chef was given a Sockeye Salmon. The head had been removed and the insides cleaned out, but fish still weighed 20 Ibs in total. Chef was like a kid in a candy store. She quickly ran back to the boat and filet the Salmon. She packaged pieces of fish in zip lock bags and gave one to each boat at the end of the night. She was a very popular Chef that night. After filleting and dividing the fish, she came back just in time for a little dinner.

As usual, our participants headed back to their boats by about 8:00 pm. This time, the staff was able to unwind at a real bar. We played pool, darts and shuffleboard while we shared a few drinks and some laughs.