Returning to Ocean Falls

July 5th (Sunday)   

We pulled up anchor at 08:00. 

It was a beautiful, sunny, calm morning and after pulling off a giant ball of kelp from our anchor we motored out past Rage Reefs.  A week ago today when we came into St. John Harbour we came through 3-4 meter swells.  Now, a week later the little 1-meter swells felt like just little rollers, and it was perfect wildlife spotting weather with the glassy smooth water.  We saw two sea lions on the outer side of the reefs and a small pod of dolphins along the shore before we even got to Seaforth Channel. 

As we motored up Seaforth Channel we saw a whale along the shoreline to our starboard side.  There was a lot of driftwood floating on the water after the very high tide from last night, but it was easy to spot up ahead because the water was so smooth.  Jason spotted an odd-looking shape in the water.  I thought it looked like a chunk of driftwood and Jason thought it might be a fin, but either way it was moving sideways in front of us.  I grabbed the binoculars and exclaimed, “It’s a deer!” 

We sure weren’t expecting that.  The little deer was out in the middle of Seaforth Channel swimming its way from the south side to the north side.  We slowed down so as not to frighten it as it crossed in front of us and continued on its way.  Whether it had decided to swim because it got frightened or chased, or whether it just thought that the grass looked greener on the other side, it was very determined and making good progress.  

We rode the flood current in to Ocean Falls and it took us about six hours to arrive back at our dock.  As we motored up Cousins Inlet we remembered the day that we first came up this inlet back on December 14, 2019.  On that day we had fought an icy outflow wind and large chop up the channel, the deciduous trees were brown, and there was snow on the mountains.  Today, the water was calm, the wind was light, the trees were green, and what little snow still remained on the mountaintops was quickly melting.  We tied up to the dock, plugged in our shore power, and connected our water.  Four people stopped by to welcome us back; quite the difference from six and a half months ago.