A Move to Wigham Cove

November 9th and 10th (Saturday and Sunday)

On Saturday the wind shifted to be more from the south instead of from the southeast. Our point of land gave us some protection, but it was not as good as when the wind was from the southeast. Luckily the wind was not too strong, so it was not an issue. It rained most of the day, and we stayed inside and focused on our indoor projects. We had a delicious lunch of crab and mayo on toast; it was so simple and so perfect.
On Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful clear sky and calm winds. 

After listening to the VHF weather report we decided to head out of Higgins Passage. The swells were small, 1-2 meters and the winds were to remain mainly light for the day. As of the night, however, the winds were to pick back up again to 30-40 knots, and strong southerly winds were forecasted for the next day. We decided that although our protection was good from the southeast, it was not great from the south, so it would be best to not be here for the forecasted high southerly winds. 

We went out early in the morning to pull up our crab trap, and we were incredibly surprised to see whale blows. There were three humpback whales coming into Higgins Passage. They came in through the relatively narrow and shallow (about 40' deep) entrance and on into the first area of the passage, and they were doing dives in areas that ranged in depth from 30' to 90’.  It was not an area that we would ever have imagined that they would come into. 

We headed back to our boat, which was just around the corner, and got ready to leave. As we pulled up anchor and headed out, we watched the three whales surfacing and blowing before diving again. 

The swells coming up Milbanke Sound were smooth and nicely spaced, and the direction was ideal for our heading. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, and all of the distant fog banks dissipated before we reached them.  

As we passed the area of Vancouver Rock we saw a small boat bobbing in the waves, and we assumed that they were fishing. A little while later, we saw them planing over the swells toward us. They waved and pulled up along side, matching our course and speed through the rollers. The two guys on board had been out fishing for Lingcod, and they wanted to give us a bag of fresh fish. It took a couple of minutes for the handoff to occur as they attempted to get close enough to pass the bag, but not too close as the two boats rolled over different points upon the wave. Finally the timing was perfect and they handed us a bag of beautiful fillets. So amazingly nice of them; they had stopped their fishing, and came out of their way, to bring us fresh fish for dinner. So generous!
As we were coming up Seaforth Channel and making our turn up towards Wigham Cove we saw a whale surface not far off of our starboard side. It was heading towards us, and soon it surfaced again less than 100' away before showing us its tail and diving underneath us. Just afterwards we saw two more whale blows further off our beam out in the channel. Was it the same three humpback whales from the morning? Were these the same three whales that we have seen so many times in the area of Seaforth Channel? There are not many whales left on the Central Coast now that it is winter, and even in the summer when there were lots of whales, seeing a group of three was somewhat uncommon. If it were the same three whales, it was pretty neat that our day started and ended with them swimming with us. We came in and anchored in Wigham Cove, and enjoyed the last of the afternoon sun in a beautiful new anchorage. And, what a treat to have fresh fish for dinner on a day when we didn't even have time to go out fishing.