Petroglyphs and Jellies in Lewall Inlet

Our private peaceful spot at Hurricane Island Anchorage this morning.   Serene, barely describes it.

This great blue heron strikes the hunters pose along the shore of our anchorage.   We never did see him catch a fish.

The anchor came up fouled, meaning messed up.   The shackle was turned awkwardly, and the chain was wrapped around it.   It took a few minutes to get everything right with the anchor stowed.

Our route this morning through Brydon Channel in the Kittyhawk Group.

This area sits in one of the most classic Coast Mountains fjord systems, built from hard intrusive rock and carved by deep Pleistocene ice. 

The islands and seafloor are almost entirely granitic and dioritic intrusive rock—part of the massive Coast Mountains Batholith. This rock is extremely resistant, which is why the channels are steep, narrow, and deep.

The dramatic bathymetry on the chart—overdeepened basins, abrupt drops, tight contours—is classic Pleistocene glacial erosion. Grounded ice carved deep troughs and left steep submarine walls.

So says AI...   And now, you know too.

Lookie who we found...   No wonder the seals were a bit nervous!

At the entrance to Nalau Passage (west of Namu, BC), we encountered a mom and calf, Humpback whales.   We shut down the engine and just drifted, and watched in awe.   Mom passed within 20' of our boat with Jr. on the other side of her.

That's Jr.   Mom is still down.

We are planning to stay in Lewall Inlet.  A deep narrow inlet that opens up to a shallow bay.   This is looking at a small peninsula that juts out into the bay.   This is where we anchored in about 22' of water at mid-tide.   Low tide should still afford us 15' depths.   All good.

One of the 5 or 6 small coves that line the sides of the inlet, after the bay/basin.  It is pretty much 20' deep everywhere in here, except for the rocks, of which there are a few that jut up suddenly.   Gotta watch those.

Hunting for petroglyphs along the shore.   The First Nations' peoples tend to put these about head height above the highwater mark and on solid rock wall outcroppings.   I don't know if the petroglyphs are 5,000yr old graffiti, signposts, or people just marking their presence.

Regardless, there are none that I can see in this photo.

Maybe that is a petroglyph, but it looks more contemporary to me, so I'll bet that is more 20th century graffiti.

Now, this one is more plausible as a petroglyph.   It is faint and hard to see, but there is a pattern there.  What do you think?

Another cove along the inlet.

From the mouth of the inlet looking back to the basin where Blue Redd is anchored.   Clearly, we are out and about in the dink...

Captaining the dink as we motor very slowly in search of petroglyphs.   Just so you know, this bay is supposedly lined with numerous petroglyphs - so we aren't hallucinating them...

This is not a petroglyph.   The colors are similar to many, but the intensity is too much and there is no drawing.   This is just very colorful moss/lichen.

This is an uncharted rock outcropping in the anchorage - right next to where we anchored.   We are fine, but it is close.   We spied it when we came in as a change in the deep green color to a much lighter shade.   You can get a sense of the color change in the photo.

We got back to the boat just in time to make dinner.   Well, actually, we sat up on the flybridge with a nice glass of Australian Cab Sauv and talked.

For dinner, Karen made a garlic chicken with broccoli and rice pilaf, along with a mixed green salad with my awesome/standard Goose Dressing.   (Let me know if you want the recipe).

This is the wine that accompanied us to the flybridge and then onwards to dinner.

And they are back...   Nothing like the density we saw a month ago in Santa Anna Inlet, north of Ketchikan, but still...

These are giant moon jellyfish.   The largest are about 12" in diameter and the smallest (that we can see) are about 1/2".

This gives you an idea as to how many there are.   I find them mesmerizingly beautiful and I can watch them for hours on end.   I just don't want to suck them up into a sea strainer intake.   That would be a real problem.

They are so cute and they are not aimless.   If you observe them carefully, you will notice that they move with purpose and direction.   We saw the same behaviors last year with the lion's main jellyfish in Patterson Inlet.   Look up last year's blog for more details...

And it is yet another sunset in paradise.   What else is there to say...

Tomorrow, we are off to Pruth Bay, only 8 miles to the south.   It is reported that we can anchor in Pruth Bay and walk across the narrow isthmus to hunt for sea glass on the other side, which is open to the North Pacific and Japan.

Good Night, My Friends.