Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

October 26th (Saturday) The morning dawned as a beautiful day! As forecasted it was crisp and sunny. We pulled up anchor and headed out of Discovery Bay just before 11:00 so as to ride the ebbing tide out Seaforth Channel. The night-time low-lying cloud around the mountains was just burning off, and the heat from the sun warmed our enclosure up to a very comfortable temperature.  We motored out over calm waters, and as we got closer to the open water we saw a sea otter sleeping on the surface. At first we thought it was a sea otter, but as it did not move as we went by, we wondered if it was just a log. Just after we had passed it by, however, its feet parted and it stuck its head up in surprise, it had been sleeping. About three nautical miles before we rounded Cape Swaine we started to feel the swells. As we neared the outer water the swells got bigger and bigger. According to the marine weather the swells were 3-4 meters. The swells were south-westerly, and the waves created ...

October 25th (Friday) The strong wind continued last night, and we were not able to get to sleep until around 02:00, but after that, the wind died away quickly, and we slept well.  At 10:30 in the morning, for the first time in two weeks, there was no Gale Warning in effect. Yay!! The forecast for the coming four days was for fairly light winds, and we expected sunshine for at least a few of those days. Therefore, we made plans to head out the following day to a new anchorage that would be out on the outer islands. It is always exciting to go to a new area, and a new anchorage.  Before heading out there we wanted to fill up with gas, and pick up our mail, so we headed out in Kiki for Shearwater. The winds were light, and the trip there was lovely. There were many dark cumulus clouds around, but between them was blue sky, and the sun was shining. It is always fun picking up our mail, and either opening up our ordered packages or receiving a letter from family. I may b...

October 23rd and 24th (Wednesday and Thursday) On Wednesday morning the mountains were socked in with a low hanging cloud, but we could see the pink clouds of the sunrise so we knew it was not a solid cloud cover. After listening to the forecast on the VHF radio we decided to head out fishing before the wind picked up.  As we headed out over glassy water the cloud cover was building, and different clouds that signify approaching wind dotted the horizon.  It was a perfect morning for fishing, the water was calm and we drifted perfectly along the line between Rithet Island and Regatta Rocks. As we jigged we watched as three whales surfaced in the distance. Over the calm water we could hear them breathing. Since reviewing the pictures I took of the three of them when we saw them quite close up a couple of weeks ago, we now believe that they are humpback whales. The odd thing is that I thought that all humpback whales in northern BC migrated south in the winter, so either we ar...

October 21st and 22nd (Monday and Tuesday) On Monday we awoke to lighter winds and rain. It had been windy on and off all night, so the relative quiet was relaxing. Based on the wind that we had gotten overnight, and the forecast, we were hopeful that the wind had come early for us, and that it would remain calm.  When the sky looked promising that it might not rain for a while, we got ready to head out in Kiki to go ashore. Just as we were almost ready, however, it started to rain. That is one disadvantage to having mountains all around us; we have a very limited view of the sky and of what is coming. We ended up staying home, but we had a very productive afternoon of projects on board. As the afternoon progressed the wind increased once again; so much for our hopes for a calm night. As the evening wore on, the wind became the strongest we have had it over the last ten days of being anchored in Discovery Bay. Although it was not the strongest forecasted winds, we were getting s...

October 20th (Sunday) It was another day of rain and howling wind.  If this weather keeps up I will not have nearly as many adventures to write about. Hopefully our winter will not be just a series of gales and storms, as it makes it very hard for us to go out and do the many things we enjoy doing. It also makes it less desirable to move anchorages, as most of the anchorages are not as well protected from the wind. To a large extent we have become quite used to the many noises and motions onboard our home in the wind, however, it can also be quite tiring when it goes on day after day. It is a constant noise, and yet ever changing. It comes and goes in pitch and intensity, and yet remains ever present. Depending on the angle at which the gust of wind hits the boat, and the wind’s strength, the howl and the shutter of the boat down from the mast, along with the boat’s rocking motion and the lapping of waves at the hull, all changes. It is a constant, ever changing, background noise t...

October 19th (Saturday) Our hopes for a nice-weather day, before the next gale tomorrow, were shattered this morning when we awoke to the sound of steady rain. The mountains were socked in with clouds, but we were hopeful that the rain would stop, as the low-pressure system with a trough passed over us. Either way we planned to go out fishing, as this was the first day in a week with calm winds.  By mid morning the rain had stopped, and we headed out. We fished around Regatta Rocks and Rithet Island, and we were catching many fish; a variety of Rockfish, lots of Lingcod, and even some Flatfish. Unfortunately, most of them were on the small side, but we did keep six decent-sized fish. We were looking forward to having fresh fish for dinner.  It was amazing how many lingcod we did catch; I would say at least ten. It’s just too bad that none of them were a bit bigger. We motored across to Ormide Harbour, in behind Thirburne Island, to explore the area. It was a neat area of low...

October 18th (Friday) After more wind and pelting rain, including a downpour of ice pellets, last night, the clouds began to break up in the morning, even though the sky was still filled with large and dark cumulus clouds moving quickly across the sky. With them came gusty winds and heavy, though mostly short lived, rain showers. It was, however, a relatively calm and dry day compared to what we had been having over the past week.  We wanted to go out and do some fishing, and since it was calm in our anchorage we headed out in Kiki. As we exited our bay a large cell was coming quickly up Troup Passage bringing with it heavy rain and white caps. Rather than speed along in the wind and rain, and over the increasing chop, we pulled into a sheltered bay and tucked in under the limbs of a large leaning cedar tree. Here we stayed warm and dry, completely protected as the cloud passed us by.  Once the worst of the rain had passed, the sun came out behind us and a beautiful rainb...

October 16th and 17th (Wednesday and Thursday) It was another rainy and windy couple of days. The rain, for the most part, was steady. We got a few breaks from time to time, but the next rain shower was never far away. We had a couple of rainbows, and the sun tried to break through, only to be covered over again by the next dark cloud. The wind was also ever present. The intensity came and went in gusts in the anchorage, and from what we heard from the VHF current-condition reports for lighthouse stations close by, we were quite well protected. The gusts still howled by, however, and the rain combined with the wind made it hard to go out and do anything. Each time that the sky looked like it might be clearing we went out.  In one of the bays that we explored we saw a lot of male Surf Scoters. They were the first males we had seen. Inside our anchorage area it seems to be only females. The males are very pretty with distinctive black and white colours.  Male Surf Sc...

October 15th (Tuesday) The wind continued through the night last night, and through the day today.  It came and went in intensity and consistency, and overall I think that we were very well protected.  We had a nice relaxing day of Spanish practice, reading, writing, and baking. I made a batch of "Matrimony Cake" also known as Date Squares; a family recipe from my Grandma. We also played a game of crib in Spanish, which made the game take longer, but it was great practice for our numbers, and it was fun. One of the times today that J went up into our cockpit he saw a bird sitting on the top of our outboard on our tender, which was floating behind our boat. He called for me to come and see it, and we watched as the little bird sat and looked around, and then flew up onto one of our spreaders. He sat on our port (left) side spreader for a while before flying off into the wind. He was obviously being blown around in flight, and it was curious that he chose to fly out to us in t...

October 14th (Monday) It was a beautiful morning, with high clouds thinly covering the sky. Wind-blown lenticular clouds dotted the horizon, a confirmation of the already forecasted storm heading our way. The whole five-day forecast was for rain and wind, and we were supposed to have 50 knots of wind by the next day.  The rain began before noon, and the wind began to pick up. It remained gusty within our anchorage, but in comparison to the wind in Eucott Bay it was very calm. We were anchored in much deeper water here, which made such a difference as to how the boat moved, and the noises of the anchor snubber. It was comparatively pleasant, and we went about our afternoon unconcerned. We made up a batch of dough for tortillas, which we had not had in a while. We cooked up four fresh ones for dinner, and made pizzas. It had been two months since we had had pizzas, and they were delicious! 

October 13th (Sunday) Last time, when we were here in mid August with my parents, we didn't see any crabs. We are currently not allowed to crab in Discovery Bay, as it is requested by the Coastal Guardian Watchmen that people voluntarily not crab in the area. Apparently the Watchmen monitor crab numbers in certain areas, and request closures when numbers are low.  This time we have been seeing Dungeness crabs in the shallows at low tide. It is interesting because all summer we were seeing and catching very few crabs everywhere we went, and we began to wonder if they perhaps migrated into deeper water during the warmer months. Of course, we had no reference for particular locations because we had not been to them in the winter, but it was a theory. Now, seeing crabs here when there was no sign of them before, we are curious to see if the crab will be more numerous at other locations. We had rain showers on and off all day, but the sun also broke through at times, and the winds we...

October 12th (Saturday) The forecasted gale never arrived last night, at least not in the anchorage. We did have a bit of wind overnight, but not very much. They are now forecasting up to 50 knots for Monday and Tuesday, so we shall see what happens. We had a big brunch of bacon, eggs, hash browns, and toast. It had been a long time since we had had eggs or bacon, so it was a delicious treat!  It was a lovely day. The rain had stopped over night, and the clouds began to break by mid morning.   The sun even broke through on and off in the afternoon, and we enjoyed its warmth in the cockpit. We gave the inside of the cockpit a good clean, wiping down the inside of the enclosure.

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...