We are now sitting in Ocean Falls, British Columbia, literally at the end of the road. This place is almost a ghost town, as only 50 people live here vs. years back hundreds if not into the thousands lived here. This used to be a paper mill town until the mill closed. Of note here is the huge waterfall as there is a lake called Link Lake. This waterfall has electric turbines which power the area as well as a few very small communities downstream. There is no way to reach here other than by boat or plane. Yesterday we went to the "grocery". A place about the size of your living room. Canned goods only, some frozen meats, and only eggs and carrots for fresh produce. It was a 1.5 mile walk each way (needed the exercise) fighting the bugs most of the way.

But, prior to this, back to our last post, we traversed the Broughton Islands, still my most favorite area of cruising. Just pristine, almost no people, beautiful calm waters. Upon leaving the Broughtons we started the open ocean portion of our trip, broken into two days. Carefully watching the weather, we had no troubles, anchoring one night. The second day we passed around the large Cape Caution. There was about a 5 ft. swell in the water but light wind. The boat was pitching fore and aft, up and down, but we counted ourselves lucky. We went to a place called Dawsons Landing which was up a dead end fiord. The husband and wife carve out an existance here, living on floating homes, nothing on land. They have a very nice store, and fresh water. But on the dock there are no amenities so we were entirely self sufficient, providing our own water with our desalination system and electricty with our diesel generator.

We then went to a place called Hakai, which used to be a luxurious fishing resort. After about a 3/4 mile hike through the woods, we came to a beautiful white sand beach similar to something you'd see in Hawaii, but NO people. This faced the Pacific Ocean and waves were crashing. Really something being alone.

Then on to Namu. You must google this place. This is an abandoned fish cannery that closed many years ago, I think in the 70's. There are a man and a woman who are the caretakers of it. Not sure what that means, since this place is literally a ghost town and falling into ruins. She commented to us when we inquired if we could walk around, "don't walk next to each other so if one of you falls through the wooden planks the other one can pull you out"!!

Next, on to Shearwater where Lee's son Todd will arrive on Saturday. We will take him with us up to Prince Rupert, just south of Alaska, where he will go home a week later.

One of the strange things about these places we go, we can usually get internet service. We have had no phone service for over a week. The internet we get however is quite slow, dial up speed, so will post pictures when I have a better connection. For now, all is well, boat running perfect, and expect to be in Alaska by the end of the month. We are moving slow, we could literally be there in three long days from where we currently sit.