The Marten and The Wharfinger

January 14th (Tuesday)

Last night at about 02:00 our annoying marten visitor came back. It was the first time that it had been around since we had been back home, and we had been hoping that since we were now home and it would be able to smell us, that it would choose to stay away. We were awoken by the sound of its little feet on our deck as it was walking over top of the v-berth area. Jason hopped up, and just as he got out into the galley, he heard the marten enter our cockpit. Jason could tell exactly where it was because the marten had bumped a can that was sitting just inside our cockpit enclosure door. Jason quickly opened up the hatch and stuck his head up into the cockpit and came face-to-face with the marten. Jason yelled at the marten, which was taken quite by surprise and turned tail and ran off of our boat and up the dock. Once again we hoped that it would now know that we were back at home, and that it would leave us alone.  

Just before noon we bundled up in our winter layers and went out into the wind and up to the road. Ken, the wharfinger, came by in his truck and picked us up. He took us along the road out to Martin Valley, and to his house. We were surprised by how much more snow they had there, even though it was not too far away from Ocean Falls. Ken said that sometimes it would be snowing hard in Martin Valley and not be snowing at all in Ocean Falls. They also get a few more hours of sunshine in the Valley, as it shines straight down Cousins Inlet. The high mountain that sits to the east, blocks the sun from Ocean Falls at this time of the year.  

Ken was very nice and let us do a load of laundry at his place, and he also let us connect our laptop to the internet to get our Spanish program working again. We spent some time visiting with Ken, and hearing his stories. He is in his sixties, and has lived in Ocean Falls for 10 years, although his home is recently up for sale as he has decided to move to an area with closer medical facilities because he has some health issues. If anyone is looking to live in Ocean Falls, his place is listed for $80,000 and will come fully furnished. He has a wood-burning furnace downstairs, so the house was toasty warm while we were there. Later in the afternoon he drove us back to the marina. Very generous. 

We gave him a jar of our canned Coho salmon from last August. He had told us that most years he cans salmon, but that this past year he was away during that time and did not get any done. While we were back in Victoria with my family we tried our first jar of the salmon. Since we had canned it while my parents were visiting us in August, we thought it would be fun for us all to try it together. It was delicious! Definitely the best canned salmon I had ever tasted!

Back at the Red Witch, in the evening, shortly after it got dark, we heard the footsteps of our visiting marten once again. Although we pounded on the ceiling, when I stuck my head out into the cockpit the marten was still there. I hollered at it, but it did not seem worried and simply ran up to the front of the boat. I turned on our spreader lights so that I could see, and there it was, beside our tender on the front of our boat, standing up on its hind legs looking at me. I climbed out of the cockpit and stomped towards it, and it slipped under Kiki to hide. So, I jumped on top of Kiki, and pounded on her hull. The marten darted out, and this time ran off the boat and up the dock.  

Although we have blocked all of our air vent cowlings that we assume it originally came through into the boat, it would still be possible for it to unblock them and come inside. Hopefully we can scare it enough so that it stops coming around, because it would be terrible if it came when we were out hiking, and got inside again. 

 Ice patterns on the bathroom window.