Maltipi to Kwatsi Bay, July 11th-12th

Sue: The journey from Maltipi to Kwatsi Bay was incredible. Beautiful sunshine, milky green colored water from glacier runoffs, mountains on all sides and a handful of boats seen. Perfection. 

Kwatsi is a surprisingly roomy little anchorage nestled in a small cove surrounded by sheer cliffs and mountains all around. Many of the anchorages and inlets here are like this, and wind is blocked on almost all sides making for water like glass and amazing reflections of the surrounding shoreline. There is small dock at the mouth of the cove that can accomodate a few boats (we chose to anchor), and the owners pointed us towards a nice hike up to one of the many waterfalls emptying into the cove. -PB

Once anchored, we met up with another couple that had just arrived and ended up going ashore to hike to a waterfall. Aside from them, there were also 3 other boats rafted up but we didn't see much of them. But they do show up later in our travels. We also laid crab & prawn traps but struck out on both. We spent a lot of time lying out on the back deck staring up at the beautiful scenery. Kept the windows open at night so we could fall asleep to the sound of waterfalls. It really doesn't get much better than that. 

Clamato Bloody Mary's and garlic prawn appetizers - so good!

Waiting for more prawns:

Blind Channel to Matilpi, July 10th-11th

We awoke the next morning to gray skies & gusty winds. We had two more rapids to go through so we had to leave fairly early. We were a little concerned about going through Whirlpool rapids (the last of the two) as we were going to arrive well after slack water. Luckily, we cruised right through, with two bald eagles sitting right next to each other, watching our transit. We had originally planned to stop at an anchorage right after the rapids however as we had the current with us we decided to power through Johnstone straits, and headed to a little anchorage known locally as Maltipi. This is the site of a native village that has long since been abandoned. Like many old native village sites, there was a shell midden beach (made up of crushed shells from generations of shellfish eating). 

Sue: Shortly after arriving Pete set out the crab & prawn traps. We had a nice dinner, watched a sail boat anchor with a lot of kids on it (must have been a sailing class from Seattle) and settled in to watch a movie. Right before we went to sleep, Pete went up to check the traps as you could see both of them from the boat. Unfortunately, the prawn trap wasn't there. It was after 10 and getting quite dark. Pete gave it up to being lost to the strong current in the channel outside the anchorage and said we should look for it in the morning. The thought of no more prawns (gasp!) was not one I cared to entertain so I insisted we go out on a rescue operation and look for it now. We quickly got into the dinghy and in the fading light zipped around looking for the red buoy, which I happened to know from my recent astronomy class, was a color you couldn't see well in the dark. We zipped over and around and lucky for us Pete spotted the buoy in the darkening gloom. It even had a few prawns in it when we picked it up - happy ending. 

As we head further North, the scenery is getting outrageously beautiful!

Exploring in the dinghy:

Breakfast...

April Point to Blind Channel, July 9th-10th

This leg took us through Discovery Passage. This is the path that most of the commercial traffic takes headed North or Southbound. We saw very little traffic this day, and the weather was spectacular. A nice easy ride with the current behind us most of the way.

Our friend Marty recommended Blind Channel marina as an overnight stop so we checked it out. This was the perfect little overnight for us, with a small se6t of docks, a well stocked little store, great restaurant, and great hiking trails. -PB

From Sue:

Thank you Marty! Blind Channel Resort was perfect. We got there mid-afternoon and immediately our neighbors started inquiring about our boat & journey. We especially enjoyed meeting Tom and his crew on At Ease from Idaho. We exchanged stories, weather updates and boat tours. That night we treated ourselves to dinner at the german-inspired restaurant. Now, I've never been one to wax poetic regarding schnitzel however, I have to say, this was some of the best tasting I've had. Along w/the extremely friendly service & the chance to get a load of laundry done, this was an overall great stop.

A walk in the woods: