Hakai Institute - A Research Center in the middle of Nowhere. Perfect!
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A moment of Zen. Surfing into Nalau Inlet in mild conditions.
Patchy fog this morning in Lewall Inlet...
Looking back out towards the mouth of the inlet.
Which is up?
Crossing Hakai Passage. We had to thread our way between numerous small islets, but we couldn't see them. Fortunately, I always carefully plot a route, so as long as we steer the exact route, we should be good.
You can see the route I plotted on the two NAV screens, it is the black sort-of vertical line in the middle of the screens.
One of those invisible, small islets I mentioned.
The fog cleared just as we entered the channel to Pruth Bay.
We set the anchor, plopped the dink, and took off for a tour of Pruth Bay. But first, a spin around Blue Redd to make sure there aren't any dangerous rocks lurking below us.
We tie up at the dinghy dock at the Hakai Institute.
And we are off for a hike to West Beach and North Beach. The trail to West Beach is in great shape and well maintained. The one to North Beach, not so much...
Creeping Dogwood with beautiful red berries.
A nice clean trail.
Dense forest. The forests here have extremely shallow root systems as there is virtually no topsoil. The roots are a solid mass but only go down a few inches. This explains why these trees are regularly toppled in windstorms.
No idea what plant this is.
My phone reports that this is a blueberry plant. They don't look blue to me!
Salal plant. Edible. Looks like huckleberry, but with serrated leaf edges and not as tasty!
We find West Beach! And it is a beautiful soft sand beach. Lots of driftwood high up are a testament to the winter waves they get around here.
All of those black dots are sand flies. Just like the beaches back in Santa Cruz. Lots of decaying kelp, debris, and sand flies!
Hey, I found a Japanese float! Well, this one was marking the trail to North Beach. Someone found it, but it wasn't me.
A local denizen a few feet off the trail and not particularly bothered by our presence.
What an idyllic little pond filled with lilies (or at least what looks like lilies).
A bridge over the stream feeding the pond.
Another local denizen and my alma matter bro! Go Slugs!
We made it to North Beach.
An inchworm! And he was inching!
On the trail to/from North Beach.
Showing off her superior balance...
Back at West Beach.
Man, that water is cold! I took her word for it.
Zen surf at West Beach.
Don't get eaten by wolves. We didn't see any, but they may have seen us.
Back on the inside in Pruth Bay, now that the tide has receded you can get a better look at the beach on this side. Pebbles, covered in barnacles. Don't walk on those barefoot!
Here's a closer shot of the barnacle covered pebbles/rocks.
Dinner back on Blue Redd. Karen made a spicy Italian sausage pomodoro sauce over tortellini. Mated with a nice Caesar-esc salad and the 2023 Long Cellars Reserve Cab Sauv.
Zen Thunderstorm. This rolled in during dinner. We were treated to lots of rain, hail, lightning, and thunder. Perfect! As a former Midwesterner, I love a good thunderstorm (but no fires, please!!!).
The Admiral wants her revenge in a game of cribbage, but at 2100 (9:00pm), it is too late for us. Revenge will have to wait.
Playing with propane again. My manifold was all bolted down so it cannot move. Last year when we closed out the season it was all fine. When we got aboard a few days ago, Karen said she smelled propane. Leaping into action, I chased the smell to the propane locker. After much fiddling, I discovered it was both the manifold and the regulator. The manifold fittings were all loose and if I held the flashlight at just the right angle, I could see the density waves of propane flowing out of the regulator vent. How can this happen? Regardless, it is now all fixed and my locker is clean (soapy water at close to 50/50 mix is a pretty good, if not goopy cleaner). All tightened, fittings are taped with yellow teflon tape + blue PFTE compound, tightened hand-tight + 1 turn with a wrench. So far, we haven't smelled more propane nor have we blown up. My next project is to replace this domest...
Not us! We spied this derelict boat along the shore at Point Thatcher, where Peril and Chatham Straits meet. Somebody had a really bad day... We departed just before 1100 (11:00am) this morning heading to Takatz Bay, about 48 miles to the east. Trying to catch-up on a bit of work reading. A friend of mine, Jeff Osorio, is writing a wonderful book on finance and I'm contributing what small bits I can. It will be on my "I highly recommend this book" list... If you want to really understand finance in the context of a small/medium business, this is the best I've ever seen. Rather than pick a few photos, here they all are. A pair of humpback whales. Likely a mother and her large calf spotted in Peril Strait about 2 miles west of Lindberg Head. We stopped for about 15-20 minutes to watch them play. Scroll away... I think whales "play". And this is a good example of it. Captain Lizzy at the helm. A...
That's the sound of the steady rain and they tink & plink into the water, or pitter-patter according to Google Gemini. It is entrancingly beautiful. Today started out just as the weather forecasters had promised. The rain cleared-up by 1100 (11:00am) and the winds died down to an acceptable 15 knots. We left Green Island Anchorage and headed north. We passed this point (Kwakume Point in Fitz Hugh Sound) where there were 3 humpbacks breaching, fin-slapping, and spy-hopping. Unfortunately, they were too far away to capture with the camera. To be clear, we do not chase the whales nor approach them. They have to come to us - that is their choice. Yup, that's Captain Karen at the helm. You always have to keep vigilant for logs and rafts of kelp that float around. Today, this stuff was everywhere, it was difficult to steer clear of it all. Perhaps the storms over the last few days washed this out of the mountains or ...
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