Caretakers of Osprey

Fishing boats in Coal Harbor

Waking up to fog in Holberg Inlet

The day after the rain storm

During the rain storm-- see how the wind is pushing us off the dock!

Mammoth Oysters from Bligh Island

The team of sea-lions from Bligh Island

It has been awhile since we have last blogged. However, we have not run into too many big surprises (like storms or whales!) Well, we did run into a rain storm where there was non-stop down pour for over 24 hours—it must have rained 3 inches or so. We were anchored up in Queens Cove, near Esperanza Inlet. Our anchor was holding well in the rain storm, but as the winds gusted up to 25 knots, we decided we needed to find a more sheltered anchorage. At this point, four angel loggers motored over to our lonely boat and mentioned that there was a “log-dump” just around on the other side of the cove with a boom that we could tie up to. We had no idea what this “log-dump” would look like, but sure enough as we motored through the horrific rain and wind we came across a large wooden dock where we could tie up. This then allowed us to have a restful night sleep instead of doing anchor watches all night.

Other things we have enjoyed doing this past week: harvesting our own mammoth muscles and oysters, watching a ballet of jumping fish (there were so many they kept triggering our depth sounder alarm in the wee hours of the morning...poor dad!), sea-lions hunting in teams for the "jumping fish," eagles perched in trees spying on the fish, and lastely the many hump-back whales we have had the pleasure to watch from a distance!

Now as I write this blog, Grant and I are enjoying lovely sunny days up in Quatsino Sound in a small fishing village called Coal Harbor near the northern tip of Vancouver Is. Jerry left yesterday on a bus from Port Hardy back to Washington where he is taking care of business for a couple of days. Thus, Grant and I are taking on the roles as caretakers to Osprey for four days. We are enjoying exploring this remote logging/fishing region, meeting the friendly locals (one of which drove us into town to buy groceries and another invited us into their house to show us their son’s wood carving decorations!), and taking advantage of the naturals surroundings and baking ourselves a nice blackberry crumble from the blackberries we picked at the end of the dock!

Our plan is to leave Sunday from Coal Harbor and make our way around Cape Scott and then finally down the inside passage of Vancouver Island.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Cheers!
The Osprey Crew