It’s still raining this morning, as Al sets out to do the grocery shopping, and I head out to do laundry. Fortunately, the laundromat here is very nice, and I have the place to myself. By the time I’ve finished the laundry, Al is on his way back with the few groceries we need.

The rest of the day is spent resting up for Johnstone Strait in the morning. The weather sounds a bit iffy. We’ll listen to the 0400 hrs weather update in the morning

We’re up with the chickens again this morning, hoping to make Port McNeill without too much discomfort. It’s raining, but there’s no fog. I can’t believe how little fog we’ve encountered this year. I’m loving it.

Sea conditions are great for travelling, and we make Port McNeill in 3 hours. We tied up at the new marina behind the fuel dock, where they bring the fuel right to your boat. Nice. And, we learn that moorage is 25% cheaper starting September 15. Double nice.

We leave at daybreak, hoping to get to Blunden Harbour before it gets too nasty. The wind is supposed to pick up to 15-25 knots this afternoon.

Sea conditions were not bad when we left Miles, but within an hour, the wind has started building. If it gets too uncomfortable, we might have to duck into Shelter Bay for the night. I plotted our course for Shelter Bay, just in case.

After what seems like an eternity, the seas start leveling out a bit, and we are able to continue on to Blunden Harbour, where we anchor for the night.

There are still crabs at Blunden Harbour, even though the commercial crabbers have thinned them out considerably. This fellow has the smallest operation I’ve ever seen.

“Red sky at morning, sailor take warning”………….

Despite the red sky this morning, we are up at dawn, headed for points south. According to the weather we should have light winds until noon.

As we head aross Rivers Inlet the seas are a bit gnarly, but nothing we can’t handle. Fortunately, by the time we get to Smith Inlet, the seas have calmed somewhat, so we continue on to Cape Caution, rather than ducking into Millbrook Cove, which was our Plan “B”. We feel fortunate that there isn’t any fog this morning, like there usually is here this time of year.

As we get closer to Slingsby Channel, the wind and seas pick up to the point where we decide to head into Miles Inlet for the night. Hopefully, the wind will be light enough to leave for Blunden Harbour in the morning.

It’s raining when we leave this morning. We’re the last boat on the dock. It appears summer is over in Ocean Falls. We don’t know how far south we’ll get today, but there are good anchorages all the way down, just in case the weather changes for the worse.

When we got to Codville Lagoon the wind was still light, so we kept going. I’ll miss the Codville prawns, but we’d best be making tracks while we can. As we passed Kisameet and Kwakume we were still enjoying light winds. Heck, we might get clear around Cape Caution today. Well, that was a bit too optimistic. The winds started picking up just before we got to Fury, so we headed in to anchor for the night. The winds are supposed to blow gale force tonight, then get light tomorrow morning. We’ll see.

We had planned to stay in Ocean Falls for a week to 10 days, but the miserable weather has changed our minds. I did manage to get in one paddle to the Martin River. There weren’t many birds around, other than these Honkers.

I spotted this Blue Heron.

And, the seals escorted me all the way.

There are still plenty of berries for the birds and bears.

Al had 10 large male crabs in the trap when he pulled it this afternoon. He only kept 4, since that was all we needed for now.

When we listened to the weather report this evening, we were pleased to hear that the wind was going to blow 10-15 knots tomorrow morning. This was our chance to head south, and we didn’t want to miss it.

It’s still raining this morning as we leave Forit Bay, headed for Ocean Falls.  It’s starting to feel like summer is over.  I’d hoped to see some whales this morning in Fisher Channel, like we sometimes do, but the whales were a no show.

As we started up Cousins Inlet, I noticed a new logging operation.  It looks like this machine strips the bark off the logs, getting them ready to ship.

Link Lake must be really full with all this rain, because they are letting a lot of water over the dam.

I hate the thought of leaving Kakushdish, but we’ve got to get moving if we’re going to be home by October 1.  It’s pouring rain when we pull the anchor, headed for Shearwater to fuel up and get some groceries.

We couldn’t believe it, but Shearwater was full of boats, mostly commercial fishing boats.  Apparently, there had been an opening for salmon for the past two days.  Fortunately, we were able to shoehorn our way into the last available spot at the dock.  As soon as we’d fueled up and got our groceries aboard, we were off for Forit Bay, where we would anchor for the night.

I couldn’t wait to return to the creek this morning. The tide would be higher today, making it possible to go farther up the creek. Before I got to the creek, however, I came across these Honkers.

At the mouth of the creek, I spotted another pair of Teals.  I immediately stopped paddling, hoping they hadn’t seen me. They were headed in my direction, so I just waited until they were within range, and then very slowly got my camera ready. By now, they knew I was there, but they were so into whatever they were feeding on that they were willing to put up with me as long as I didn’t press them.

On the way back to the boat I came across this pair of Sandhill Cranes.

It’s drizzling off and on this morning when I leave for my paddle. With any luck the rain will stop long enough for me to get some decent photos. My first destination is the creek near the entrance to Kakushdish. Last year this time there were lots of salmon jumping there.

I hadn’t heard any Sandhill Cranes since we got here yesterday, so I was surprised when I came across this pair of Sandhill’s just around the point from where we’re anchored.

As I approached the next point, I spotted a little red head sticking up over the rocky promontory

When I got to the creek, there were lots of eagles hoping to pick up a salmon or two.

As I was leaving the creek, I spotted a pair of Teals feeding along the shoreline.