Day 6 - Ropes and Burls


The day started in a light drizzle, the mist draped from the sides of the surrounding hills like a soft blanket.  After installing one of my spare ropes on the dodgy section of Billy's trail, we departed the dock to pick up our Prawn trap and head over to Billy's Museum to buy some items from his gift shop.  Pulling up the trap i noticed a line trailing behind the boat....another "Roman, we've got a situation" day....we had left the port dock line out after re-docking the boat yesterday and...inevitably it had found its way into the prop. The prop was still turning fine but i made the decision that i would have to get wet when we got to Billy's as i didnt want to head all the way into Port McNeil in case it got worse or the shaft was binding and it damaged the bearings.  Oh, and zero prawns!  Billy's was just around the corner so i left the port engine in neutral and we made our way to the dock where Billy was out and about getting ready to go and set some crab traps.  Buster was on the dock to greet us, tail wagging and Patti and I went up to the gift shop.  With a copy of Heart of the Raincoast secured, i went back down to the dock to get ready for the operation that i knew only too well, having cut lines off the prop on Kona Kai and my previous boat Abigail Rose a few times.  

The water was cold as expected but I managed to get the line cut off after going under 3 times and we were ready to get underway.  The 32 foot boat that had engine trouble had declined our offer of a tow and decided to try to make it to Port McNeil on their own power so we kept an eye out for them.  Saying bye to Billy we entered Cramer Pass and around halfway down the pass i saw a huge splash and called out to Roman that I thought it must have been a whale and sure enough, a juvenile Humpback whale breached right in front of us around 150 feet on the starboard side.  It breached a second time but neither of us was quick enough with the camera so our memories will have to suffice.  Magnificent creatures and we hope that we are lucky enough to see one again.




We took the southern route to McNeil through a forest of small islands and shoals which required careful navigation but afforded us lots of opportunities for wildlife viewing and amazing scenery with the snow-capped ranges of Vancouver Island off in the distance.  Despite keeping our eyes peeled for more Humpbacks, all we spotted were a few dolphins. The weather got progressively nicer as we entered Blackfish Sound and made our way to the North Island Marina to dock at 1:30.  

It's Roman's birthday today so he got a pass on the boat cleaning as Patti and I washed and polished the salt from the past week off the windows and did a good inside clean.  This was a re-provisioning stop for fuel, water and fresh vegetables before we make the run to Fitz Hugh sound tommorrow past Cape Caution.  It was our first fuel stop so i estimated that we would need around 1,050L based on our travel time and fuel burn and i was only off by 18L (1,068L) after topping up the reserve and filling the main tanks.  With the reserve filled we can make it all the way to Rupert so we dont have to worry about fuel docks being closed due to the Pandemic.  

I asked the marina manager if there was a place we could recycle our large quantity of plastic tubing that we had removed from the beach at Bessborough Bay and the guy working on the boat next to us said he would take it off our hands as he needed some irrigation hose - you couldn’t ask for a better outcome so we loaded it all onto his boat for him. 


The marina is a busy place with a 72 footer fueling up for their quarantine trip to Alaska (they aren’t allowed off their boat) and a very large strange ship that looked like a factory on the water that pulled up as we were headed out for groceries.  I got talking to one of the deckhands and found out that the boat is designed to suction out salmon from a fish farm pen and “power wash” the sea lice off the fish before returning them to the pen.  They had just come from Tofino and were headed up Knight’s Inlet to another farm….a traveling “fish wash”…just when you think you’ve seen it all…


It was a strange feeling to put on a mask again today to go in the local IGA and hardware store after a week without wearing one.  After a great dinner on the patio at Gus' Pub for Roman's birthday and a walk to see the world largest Burl (it was better than it sounds and we were all quite impressed), we are all fueled up and the weather window is holding for our longest day of the trip so far, a 7 hour run to Fury Cove on Penrose Island. 

3 hours run time, 130L fuel used, 80L remaining, 2 hours range.


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