Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

October 11th (Friday) Shortly after sunrise, which is getting later and later, we headed out in Kiki. While on shore we saw two, super cute, little birds. They were a type that we had seen before, but had never looked up in the bird book. However, after getting back to the boat, and looking them up, we have discovered that they were Varied Thrushes. One of them was particularly curious and friendly, and came hopping out on a branch almost right above where Jason was. It did this twice while we were there, and each time hopped around and flew from one angle to another as though it was getting a good look at what we were doing.  Sometimes its feathers were all puffed up like it was trying to stay warm. It was very pretty.  In the bay, we were seeing a type of duck that we had not seen before, and they turned out to be female Surf Scoters. Our bird book says that they are common in the winter in this area, so it will be interesting to see if we see a lot more of t...

October 10th (Thursday) In the morning we were ready to head out shortly after the sun was up. It was another chilly, clear, beautiful morning. It was minus 2 degrees in Bella Bella, plus one in our cockpit, and we had frost and ice on the deck. We had to be careful moving around out on the deck because it was actually quite slippery. We had decided that since they were forecasting up to 40 knots of wind from the southeast for tomorrow that we would move anchorages today. We pulled up our crab trap before leaving, and were not surprised when it was empty. We kept the bait, and left the trap set up to be able to reset it at our next anchorage. We moved to the area between Meadow Island, Cypress Island, and Rainbow Island which is just out from Shearwater. We set the anchor, set the crab trap, and then headed to Shearwater with all of our gas and diesel jerry cans, propane tank, laundry, garbage, and recycling. We dealt with our garbage and recycle, got all three fuels, did our laundr...

October 9th (Wednesday) It was another beautiful, crisp, fall morning. It was two degrees in our cockpit, and we had frost on the deck, with some ice where there had been water drips. The grass around the shore of the bay was white with frost, and it was beautiful. We decided that today looked like a good day to head out, and so with mixed emotions we started the engine to leave. We had been at Eucott Bay for almost a month, and it felt like home.  When we pulled up our anchor, it was incredibly well set. It was the hardest for us to un-set of any time we have anchored so far this trip. It must have been so far dug into the mud. When we did get it free, I could tell by the sound of the windlass that it was coming up heavy. As it reached the surface we could see that it was a giant ball of clay and mud. We left it hanging at the surface, and scrubbed it with our pole and brush. We scrubbed, and scraped, and dug at it, and slowly, bit-by-bit, we dug away the mud and clay, an...

October 8th (Tuesday) In the morning, around 04:30, we once again started getting gusts of wind. Since the weather has gotten cooler we have been keeping one of our kayaks upside down over our forward v-berth hatch at night. Having it on top provides a protected air space, which prevents our hatch from condensing on the inside, and dripping on our bed. One of the bigger gusts in the night picked the kayak up, and threw it over the side of the boat. Luckily we always keep the kayaks tied off, but we still had to go out and pull it back up, and retie it in a different area so that the wind would not catch it.  Our kayaks are inflatable, and do have a lot of windage, but they are also not light. It is amazing the power of the wind. When we got up in the morning it was a beautiful, windy day. The sky was blue, the air was crisp, the cresting little white caps blowing past us were glistening in the sun, and all of the mountain peaks around us had a beautiful dusting of fresh snow. ...

October 7th (Monday) The rain continued through the night, and in the morning at about 05:00 we started getting gusts of wind. The gusts of the passing cold front lasted until 11:00, and then the clouds began to part.  The mountain to our southwest seemed to catch every cloud that went by. The clouds would build and build, and then spill over the mountain to our side. Along with most of the clouds would come a gust of wind, then rain, and sometimes as the shower stopped another gust would come. The sun kept peeking out with lots of blue sky all around, and then the next build-up of clouds would spill over the mountain, and it would all repeat. We spent the morning doing cleaning on the boat. It had been a while since we gave the cockpit a good clean, and when we came home wet from the bush yesterday we brought back a lot of forest debris. I worked on cleaning it all up, and giving the cockpit a scrub, while we finished drying all of our stuff out with another roaring fire. After...

October 6th (Sunday) In the morning the clouds were lifting and parting, and the sun was trying to shine through. It looked like it might be a nice day. We headed ashore in our kayaks, and hung up our two tarps to hopefully dry, and headed out on our trail. We enjoyed the hike on our trail, and when we came to where we had left off last time we came to a wall of brush. Some of the areas that our trail goes through are open forest with little to no undergrowth. Through these areas we basically just pick the best route and mark the trail. Through other areas, however, there is very thick underbrush, and it is slow work picking out a trail. Unfortunately it started to rain, and gradually we realized that our optimism that it was just a shower was misplaced. We made our way around a boulder, over several logs, across a marsh, up a bank, and around a stump before we decided to head home. We were getting wet and cold; it was pouring.  Before paddling home we went to one of our Cha...

October 5th (Saturday) It was a lovely day! It was one of those days that feels long, restful, productive, and fun all in one. What a perfect combination. It rained all through the night, and it was still wet in the morning, so we did not rush to go out. Instead we baked the two loaves of fresh bread that I had mixed up the night before to sit, and had fresh bread for breakfast. What a nice way to start the day with a steaming hot piece of fresh bread and butter. The boat was filled by the smell of fresh baked bread, and the fire crackled away as the raindrops pattered on the deck. So relaxing.   After a nice combination of relaxing and doing morning chores, we headed to the hot springs for a mid-rainy-morning soak. We were very happy to find that the tub was fully full and overflowing. The temperature was also quite perfect, on the hot side, but incredibly relaxing.  There was a poor little salamander floating in the pool when we got there. He looked quite pink and well ...

October 4th (Friday) In the morning we were eager to go and check on our hot spring pool. We were a little nervous that we would find it empty once again, so we were very pleased when we saw that it still had water. The water had dropped about a foot, and the temperature was also quite cool, so we opened the inflow somewhat, to a flow that was a bit quicker than we used to leave it at, hoping that it would fill back up and become a good temperature. Later in the day we checked on it again, and were pleased to see that the water level had risen about six inches, but the temperature still needed more warming.  When we went over to the hot spring in the evening, it was lovely. The water had risen even more, and was only an inch or two below where it used to be. The temperature was also quite nice, and it felt like such a luxury to be submerged in wonderful hot, fresh water once again.  Ah, we are getting spoiled. We were very happy that our repair work on the pool had worke...

October 3rd (Thursday) We awoke to some very low cloud this morning. It was not fog, not over the water anyway, but it was filling all of the mountain valleys and gullies, and hanging low around the rock faces. It was a very fall-looking day. The yellow colours of the scattered deciduous trees are becoming more and more pronounced each day.  The air was very still all day, and Dean Channel was glassy calm when we were outside of our anchorage in Kiki. We managed to receive a good-quality weather fax, so that was a nice change. It is amazing how much the cloud cover seems to help with reception. We went ashore in the morning to check on our hot spring pool, and we were happy to find that it was fully filled and overflowing. We closed the inflow up most of the way so that it was only running a bit, and later we returned to check on it again and found that the level had dropped a bit, but only just a bit; quite acceptable. We then closed the flow off completely so as to allow the ...

October 2nd (Wednesday) It was cloudy in the morning, and we were finally able to receive a very poor quality weather fax, which confirmed our suspicions that there was a low-pressure system close by. Luckily it looked very mundane, and it looked like the weather would not deteriorate further. We made our second attempt at repairing the hot spring pool. Instead of focusing on where all of the water appeared to be flowing out of, we looked for where the leaks were coming from on the inside. There were areas that we suspected, but we were unable to verify if they were in fact leaks. While checking out these areas we found two holes. Actual holes, in the floor.  Bottom of the hot spring pool. It seems that the floor is a layer of concrete or plaster, or something that is on top of rocks. In points the layer bridges gaps between the rocks, and is an inherent weak spot. The two spots that we found, although quite well filled in with slime and old leaves, were definite leaks. ...

September 30th (Monday) The gusts of wind continued to lessen through the night, and eventually we were left in complete silence and stillness, it was wonderful!! We awoke to a mix of sun and cloud, and calm. It was beautiful. The clouds appeared to be building, and we wondered if a system was moving in, but we were once again unable to get our weather fax, so we did not know. It seemed that the amount of cloud cover played a big role in whether or not we could get reception for the weather fax, and over the last few days, with our blue sky, we had been unable to connect to the station. The air was also free of the smell of rotting salmon, which was nice.  We looked forward to getting to the hot springs to relax. However, w hen we got there we were standing at the edge getting ready to get in when we suddenly realized that the pool was 3/4 empty! Where had all the water gone?  There was still a good flow of water coming in, just as we had left it, and yet the pool was mos...

October 1st (Tuesday) It has been five full wonderful months since we left Vancouver. On one hand it feels like we have been away for a long time, and on the other hand it feels like time flies by. Even though we do not have a regular job for which we get paid, we have lots of work to do, and it seems that we still never have enough time for everything. We still have so much we need to do, and so much more that we want to do, and the days keep flying by. In the morning we spent time attempting to fix the leak in the hot spring pool. We had come up with many repair options through brainstorming last night, but since we had not been able to inspect the area well yesterday, we did not really know what we were getting into. We took a lot of options with us from the boat, and went ashore to inspect. Unfortunately, it seemed to be a whole series of cracks with no clear origin on the inside. Because it was not possible to stop all of the water flowing in, there was still a bit of water run...

September 29th (Sunday) Well, the wind continued through the night, its intensity gradually increasing until we were back up to our repetitive 30 - 40 knot gusts by 05:30. Because it was lighter winds to start with, and also because we were more tired than the night before, we did manage to sleep. On and off we seemed to manage to catch broken two-hour chunks of sleep, so that was much better than the night before. We were up early again listening to the gusts and watching them rip across the water, tossing up spray as they went. Some of the stronger gusts over the last few days have caught our boat and thrown her tight against the anchor chain, continuing to push on her they have heeled her over to a point that we have actually had some items fall off of our shelves. We remained at home until the gusts lessened to around 25 knots, and then went to the hot springs. We did not want to inflate our kayaks in the wind, and it would also have been quite hard to paddle them in the gusts...

September 28th (Saturday) Our hopes of a calm night definitely did not materialize. The wind that we had when we went to bed continued and progressively got worse. Because of being in such a shallow anchorage the majority of our chain was simply sitting on the ground, and it totally changed how the boat rode and reacted to the wind. The angle of our snubber lines had a much larger range of motion creating much more noise inside the boat, especially in the v-berth, and when she came up tight on the chain it was a more abrupt stop than it would have been in a deeper anchorage. Everything on our deck was tied and secured, but because we did not know it would get so windy we were not fully prepared. Our kayaks, which were tied off, were getting lifted by the gusts and then dropped back down. Our fenders for Kiki when she is alongside were being blown against the side of the boat, and the howling through the rigging was quite intense. In the first part of the night we did manage to grab ...

September 27th (Friday) We awoke to a beautiful morning of almost clear blue sky. There were a few pinkish clouds clustered around some of the mountains and in the valleys, but the rest of the sky was clear. It was 8 degrees in our cockpit, the coldest yet. When I flushed our toilet in the back of the boat in the morning I heard a very odd crack-like sound. The plunger got very hard to pump and I could not suck any more water in, although I was still able to pump water out. Because of this happening I thought about preventative maintenance and about how our forward toilet was getting stiffer to pump. I took a bit of cooking oil to flush down it as it helps to keep the pump part lubricated. When I started flushing the forward toilet I got a couple of pumps through, and then it started to leak at the upper seal. I was also unable to switch it to empty the bowl. What are the odds of both of our toilets stopping to work within the same 10 minutes. I felt like I must be cursed.  Si...

September 26th (Thursday) We were pleasantly surprised to wake up to some blue sky. We had thought we would have another rainy day before getting nicer weather. After receiving the up-to-date weather faxes in the morning we decided it would probably be nice weather for the next three days. Fingers Crossed!   When I first went out into the cockpit in the morning to look around I saw a black bear on shore. The tide was quite low and he was walking around the area by the river. What a nice treat to get to see him first thing in the morning. Later in the morning we headed ashore and went hiking. We took the 22-caliber rifle in order to do some target practice shooting. We set up in the upper area of the forest where everything was very open. The trees were large and widely spaced, with little to no underbrush, so we were able to set up some longer shots than are normally possible in the places we find to shoot. We were shooting at 40 yards and 63 yards, and doing quite well I thi...

September 23rd and 24th (Monday and Tuesday) On Monday, when we were soaking in the hot springs, we saw a bird fly by that looked like a type of small hawk or harrier. Later we saw a super cute little critter that looked like a mole or a vole. It ran across a rock, then across a pool of water, through the grass, and up under the stairs into the hot tub. It was so small, and so fast! On both Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed our soaking time with the cool rain and gusty winds. The hot spring pool loses a lot of its heat when it has been raining a lot or if it has been windy, so on Tuesday it was on the cool side. It still felt quite nice when we first got in, but we opened the flow to full and hung out at the edge mixing in the new fresh heat. The pool took a while to regain its heat, but it gradually did. We saw the mom bear and one cub walking along the shoreline across from us as we enjoyed our soak.  On Monday evening it began to get quite gusty in our anchorage.  It would...

September 21st (Saturday) It is amazing how fast time flies! Three months ago it was the longest day of the year, three months from now it will be the shortest day of the year. It will be very interesting to see how short the days get up here on the Central Coast of BC, and how it affects our lives. We woke up to the sound of the rain just starting to fall, and we fell asleep to the sound of it still raining, and because of the weather we had a lovely day of relaxation. After receiving our weather-fax isobar charts, we analyzed them and wrote out our four-day forecast. We concluded that we would likely have a pretty nice day on Sunday, and then we would likely get some more rain before it got nice again. There was a big low-pressure system further north, but it looked like it would mostly dissipate before getting down to us. We headed to the hot spring to enjoy the cool rain and a soak. It was lovely. I had a bath, and we relaxed. It is funny, because ever since we got here the smel...

These bear pictures were taken by Sheya quite a while back in their journey. Black bear at Blunden Harbour Lagoon. Grizzly bear at Forward Harbour.

September 20th (Friday) In the morning we did our standard Spanish lesson time, and then our radio fax reception time. While our weather faxes were coming through I worked on cleaning out our fridge. We have finally chosen to make the switch to not having our fridge on at all.  During the summer months, especially our first months away from Vancouver when we were actually getting sunshine, we easily produced enough power through solar to run our fridge and freezer. In fact, it was so good that we would often get home after a day’s excursion, and our batteries would be at 100% charge. As the summer progressed, and we stopped getting very much sun, the drain on our batteries became more, and we started having to charge with our generator or our engine from time to time. Eventually we started turning our fridge and freezer off at night, as we found the freezer would stay rock solid and the fridge would not warm up too much. Now, however, as the days are getting shorter, and the an...