Hello All, 

This is day 10.  We are in Port McNeill at the northern end of Vancouver Island waiting for our crew, Scott Wilson, who will accompany us part way to Ketchikan. We’ve come this far many times before, but no further. From here it's a gateway to the Northern BC coast, the Broughton Archipelago and its many islands and the primary route for those lucky boaters headed to Alaska.  

Our trip up through the Gulf Islands and points North has been relatively uneventful.  One day is beautiful, the next two days it’s like someone turned on a faucet. A large faucet. a Couple days ago, in a rush to get inside the boat and out of the rain, I hastily grabbed the cabin door and pulled. Unfortunately, I was able to get all of me inside the cabin with the exception of my ring and middle finger of my left hand when the door slammed into my hand. I screamed like a 4-year-old who skinned his knee. Terry wasn’t having it and suggested some ice. I now have two regular-colored digits on my left hand and two with a purplish hue.  And just so you know, the ice didn’t help much. 

This is a quiet anchorage in Port Harvey.  Pretty, safe and quiet. 

Part of the enjoyment of this trip is watching all manner of watercraft passing by. Tugs towing large barges of logs fresh from the cut. There was a plethora of fishing boats, fast inflatables taking people to bear and whale sightings, boats for crabbing and shrimping, water taxies, and other pleasure boaters, both sail and power. We were passed by a National Geographic “small ship” taking guests to Alaska. The ship reminded me of Jacques Cousteau, with his French accent, narrate his underwater documentaries on TV when I was a kid. I can still hear him say, "We shood nevair, nevair take our environment for granted."

Several hours before we got to Port McNeill, we motored through a maze of logs in the water, hundreds of them. That was more than I’ve ever seen in one spot, but on the shore of the islands we passed, were thousands of logs. There must have been a barge or log boom mishap somewhere along the way for that amount of timber to be floating around the water. There was enough wood to build a small development, no kidding.  I would think a salvage outfit would make a killing gathering up the number of logs we saw.

Besides the rain, it’s just a little bit chilly as Terry would say. But that’s what it’s like here at the end of April and the first part of May at the North end of Vancouver Island. 

Ed out.