Pruth Bay, July 14th-16th

Found an outstanding anchorage (and great weather to go with it) at Pruth bay on Calvert Island.

This is a pretty big island that separates Fitz Hugh Sound from the ocean. There is a long inlet that leads from the east side almost all the way to the exposed west side of the island. At the head of the inlet is what used to be a high end fishing lodge and retreat. It was sold to the Hakai Institute in 2010 and is now a scientific research and meeting facility. The Institute has done a really nice job keeping up the facility, and the buildings and grounds are immaculate. They also allow visiting cruisers to land at the dock and explore the area, including the most amazing set of pure, soft white sand beaches on the west side. There is ongoing field research happening here and we saw students and scientists doing their field work during our visit- kind of cool. We also saw a  big school of squid swimming under the dock. If the weather is nice on our way back we might have to make another stop here. 

Seaplane take off from the anchorage:

A lot of beaches to choose from on the west side- all are mostly deserted:

The hike to the beach:

Temps in the 80's- yes, we went for a swim:

Good crabbing here. Our first catch was a red rock crab and a dungeness. The red rock crab is pretty good, but dungeness wins the taste test. Caught a couple of more dungeness the next day.

Rock Cod caught around the west side:

Sunset

Blunden Harbor to Pruth Bay (around Cape Caution), July 14th

Our next leg took us across Queen Charlotte Sound, around Cape Caution, and into the Northern part of the Inside Passage. This is an open water crossing that includes about 30 miles exposed to wind and seas from the Gulf of Alaska (a body of water not to be trifled with- even in Summer). Again, the weather gods were kind to us, and we had a solid GO forecast in the early AM, with light wind and seas and patchy fog. The fog cleared a few hours into our trip and we had a great ride, with just the usual afternoon North Westerlies towards the end entering Fitz Hugh Sound.

We had the usual cast of  characters along the way: eagles, dolphins, and whales. As we passed Egg Island lighthouse we saw a huge amount of bird activity on the water ahead- a clear sign of baitfish at the surface. Besides the usual shoppers (seabirds, seals, and whales) we saw about a dozen bald eagles making the rounds from a nearby group of offshore islands. They would swoop down, grab a fish, fly to the islands to chow down, then return for more. We also spotted a group of sea otters rafted up together along the Calvert Island shoreline. The weather was so nice, we decided to pass our planned anchorage for the night (Fury Cove), and keep going on to Pruth Bay on Calvert Island- a very good decision as it turned out...

Blunden harbor, July 13th

Another calm weather day for our departure from Sullivan bay. 

Our last anchorage before heading back out to open water to get to Fitz Hugh Sound was Blunden Harbor. This is another (mostly?) abandoned native settlement. Nice big anchorage with good holding, and a great place to wait for weather to cross around Cape Caution to the northern part of the Inside Passage route. There was a floating dock and a couple of structures behind the treeline that looked recently inhabited. The shell midden beach made for a nice walk, with lots of interesting old stuff to look at from previous attempts at settlement.

Got a little spooky after we saw this sign down the beach:

A little exploring of the inner tidal lagoons:

Sullivan Harbor, July 12th

We decided to stop at Sullivan Bay marina for a night as this would be the last provisioning stop for awhile and it promised wi-fi. The provisioning part went well however the wi-fi rule was text email only, no facebook or downloads. Oh well, more time to get our appetizers and cocktails ready for the 5:00 happy hour potluck get together. 

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We met up with Tom from At Ease again and also met the three boaters we saw rafted up at Kwatsi Bay. They were from Oregon and turned out to be super nice folks. After dinner they came over and we gave a tour of our boat. Kama Hele certainly attracts a lot of attention as she looks so different than most. Other cruisers are especially interested when they find out we built it ourselves. Usually when we offer a tour, it is readily accepted. For us, it feels very similar to our Maritime Day open boat tours in our harbor, so we're used to it. Not to mention Kona loves the smells and attention of new people...

Sullivan Bay definitely has the funky floating village thing dialed in:

For the cruising golfer - they had 2 holes-in-one last year, supposedly.