From Shawn's log: "I am tossing a bit at 4:30 am, trying to determine my game plan to cross Queen Charlotte Sound in my 6-knot boat. Port Hardy is 20 miles to the northwest, and would be the logical next stop. Kyra and I go up the plank for the pre-boat walk. Then we go back to the boat, untie and venture out to clear the reef, then head west to Port Hardy. While traveling in a 6-knot boat, one gets time to think." Once Tonie completes coffee and morning chores, she settles in for an early mid-morning nap. I read the guides, look at the charts and the GPS, then decide to follow the mainland route, via Blunden Harbour, toward Seymour and Belize Inlets. This allows several "outs," as the wind will likely come up.
Conditions are glassy, like a bowl of mercury, with almost no boats out. We make good progress, passing Blunden Harbour, and moving toward Allison Harbour. Just as we front the harbour, I wake Tonie to ask her opinion on whether or not we should go on, as it is close to noon, and the winds tend to come up hard in the afternoon. Just as we ponder the question, white caps form and we take some beam seas before turning into Allison Harbour, a well-protected wilderness anchorage."
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The sun sets behind Shawn at Allison Harbour. |
An added bonus of Allison Harbour was that we caught a couple of crabs for dinner, even though we just had a few herring for bait.
Fury Cove is a beautiful anchorage with trails, beaches and a wilderness cabin in the woods. Kyra had plenty room to run around, and there was much to explore.
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Shawn rows us to shore leave at Fury Cove. |
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The beach at Fury Cove is a sandspit that consists of crushed shells, rock and driftwood. This is looking out across Fitzhugh Sound to Calvert Island. On the "Tonie O," we spent some wonderful moments in Hakai Passage on that Island. It's neat to see it from this perspective. |
This is our sixth year traveling through the Inside Passage, yet this year is an entirely new and different voyage for us. Shawn has commented on the difference a 6-knot boat makes, in comparison to the speedy C-Dory we previously used for the trip. According to our analogous perception, the C-Dory felt more like an Apollo space capsule. The Allweather feels more like Skylab (not that we've every done any space travel). We have traded speed for comfort, even if we're still usually the smallest boat in the anchorage.
One big difference in our travel habits is that we're spending far more time in remote anchorages, instead of tied to town docks. The anchorages are far more relaxing! We are also exploring anchorages and routes we've never done before.
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A walk in the rain forest at Fury Cove. |
| A big cedar stump at Fury Cove. |
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Because the hull of the boat is insulated like a "Thermos," and the Dickenson stove really heats up the inside, it's becoming clear that this is the ideal Alaska boat. We think we'll probably put the boat in our back yard, so that we can further customize it to meet our needs, then "home port" it to Craig next summer. The cost of moorage in Santa Cruz, and the speed of the boat make it an increasingly attractive option to store the boat in Alaska, once we've completed all the projects on it. We'll see how we feel about all this next spring.
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Shawn and Kyra enjoy the beach at Fury Cove. |
| Itsuro at anchor. |
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