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| Halibut vacuum packed ready for freezer |
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| Coho Salmon vacuum packed ready for freezer |
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| Rainy day in Canada |
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| Sunrise |
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| Sunset |
leaving Alaska.
Feb 23, 2015
February 23, 2015
Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have let all this time go by without posting anything!! We left Alaska the last week of August, 2014, a little earlier than usual, because we wanted to get down to Washington State early. After about a two week journey down the inside passage we arrived at Roche Harbor (www.rocheharbor.com). Roche is located in the San Juan Islands on the border of Canada. If you ever have a chance to vacation this area, I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful area. This is and has been one of our very favorite places. Check out the web site. While it is expensive to dock our boat there, the service is 5 star along with three different eating venues, where the food is always good. We usually clear customs back into the U.S. at this location, and it always feels good to be welcomed back by the customs agent. There is a special customs dock where we tie up the boat, and then I take passports and boat proof of ownership into the small customs office. Since we have done this so many times, we are in the computer, and they don't even bother coming on our boat. But I digress from the trip thru British Columbia. The weather all the way thru northern B.C. was rainy and windy. Not very pleasant. But in these northern latitudes you have to expect the climate to be unpredictable. Probably one of our very favorite anchorages (there are almost no marinas) in northern B.C. is a place called Lowe Inlet off Grenville Channel. Grenville is a long, about 50 miles, narrow channel with lots of current flowing either with us or against us depending on the tide rising or falling. Lowe is an inlet that is off this channel about two miles into a dead end bay. At the head of the bay is a large waterfall. We anchor about 50 yards away from the waterfall. When we drop the anchor the boat drifts backwards from the flow of water, and as the anchor sets itself, we sit facing looking directly at this beautiful waterfall. Then the salmon were trying to swim up the waterfall, migrating back into fresh water. All around our boat, salmon are jumping. Then along the shore at the bottom of the waterfall are black bears catching salmon. It is quite the show!!!! We could probably sit there multiple days watching the show. Most of the time, there was not another boat there for the two nights we were there. The channels we navigate, probably about 150 miles of them, are no more than 1/2 to 3/4 miles wide, with 2-4000 ft mountains on each side. One of the benefits of being in the rain were the beautiful waterfalls dropping off the mountains to the sea. These are from lakes on top where the water is overflowing. It is so very beautiful!!
After we left Roche Harbor we proceeded to cross over the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This is a 8-10 mile wide strait running west to east. The southern shore is Washington State, and the northern shore British Columbia. I'm not sure the exact length, but at the western end of the strait is the open Pacific Ocean. At the east end in stops. You have a choice, go south into Puget Sound and the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, or go north into Canada via the Strait of Georgia. This leads to the city of Vancouver among others. We crossed the strait and went to Port Angeles, Wa. where we positioned ourselves to bring the boat down the pacific coast of the U.S. to San Diego, our home. I will detail this trip in the next blog posting. In the meanwhile I will post some pictures from our trip thru British Columbia.
Chuck and Margaret
Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have let all this time go by without posting anything!! We left Alaska the last week of August, 2014, a little earlier than usual, because we wanted to get down to Washington State early. After about a two week journey down the inside passage we arrived at Roche Harbor (www.rocheharbor.com). Roche is located in the San Juan Islands on the border of Canada. If you ever have a chance to vacation this area, I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful area. This is and has been one of our very favorite places. Check out the web site. While it is expensive to dock our boat there, the service is 5 star along with three different eating venues, where the food is always good. We usually clear customs back into the U.S. at this location, and it always feels good to be welcomed back by the customs agent. There is a special customs dock where we tie up the boat, and then I take passports and boat proof of ownership into the small customs office. Since we have done this so many times, we are in the computer, and they don't even bother coming on our boat. But I digress from the trip thru British Columbia. The weather all the way thru northern B.C. was rainy and windy. Not very pleasant. But in these northern latitudes you have to expect the climate to be unpredictable. Probably one of our very favorite anchorages (there are almost no marinas) in northern B.C. is a place called Lowe Inlet off Grenville Channel. Grenville is a long, about 50 miles, narrow channel with lots of current flowing either with us or against us depending on the tide rising or falling. Lowe is an inlet that is off this channel about two miles into a dead end bay. At the head of the bay is a large waterfall. We anchor about 50 yards away from the waterfall. When we drop the anchor the boat drifts backwards from the flow of water, and as the anchor sets itself, we sit facing looking directly at this beautiful waterfall. Then the salmon were trying to swim up the waterfall, migrating back into fresh water. All around our boat, salmon are jumping. Then along the shore at the bottom of the waterfall are black bears catching salmon. It is quite the show!!!! We could probably sit there multiple days watching the show. Most of the time, there was not another boat there for the two nights we were there. The channels we navigate, probably about 150 miles of them, are no more than 1/2 to 3/4 miles wide, with 2-4000 ft mountains on each side. One of the benefits of being in the rain were the beautiful waterfalls dropping off the mountains to the sea. These are from lakes on top where the water is overflowing. It is so very beautiful!!
After we left Roche Harbor we proceeded to cross over the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This is a 8-10 mile wide strait running west to east. The southern shore is Washington State, and the northern shore British Columbia. I'm not sure the exact length, but at the western end of the strait is the open Pacific Ocean. At the east end in stops. You have a choice, go south into Puget Sound and the cities of Seattle and Tacoma, or go north into Canada via the Strait of Georgia. This leads to the city of Vancouver among others. We crossed the strait and went to Port Angeles, Wa. where we positioned ourselves to bring the boat down the pacific coast of the U.S. to San Diego, our home. I will detail this trip in the next blog posting. In the meanwhile I will post some pictures from our trip thru British Columbia.
Chuck and Margaret
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