Desolation Sound and Cortes Island

 

We've been slowly moving northward with our buddy boat, M/V Sound Venture.   High clouds moving in, so we know our good weather will soon be behind us.  We'd been watching three large red blocks on the water, wondering what they might be.  As we got closer, we could see one tug pulling three large barges, one containing sawdust.  We thought a picture might be fun, and had no idea that in the middle of the picture between ferry and the barges that a large pod of killer whales had popped up.  



 




What we had were three groups of killer whales, obviously feeding, moving southward in the middle of the channel.  









 






We couldn't move closer, but hoped they might move closer to us.  No such chance, but we managed to get some good photos anyway!

 

Cove in Tenedos Bay, Desolation Sound

We knew our weather wouldn't hold all summer, but the weather turning back to rain hasn't dampened our spirits.  We entered Desolation Sound with the clouds low and the rain starting.  We anchored out in Tenedos Bay, choosing a small cove where we could stern tie.  Our first stern tie was successful!  Of course, as Jerry rowed back to Cloud Nine, the skies opened up and he was drenched.

Cloud Nine at anchor in cove at Tenedos Bay - beautiful spot!

Rain and wind continued off and on that afternoon and evening, but we held steady where we anchored and tied.  Sound Venture, however, had a rough evening, with  neither Chris nor Donna getting much sleep.  Seems their anchor chain ran across a rock all evening as the boat swung back and forth in the winds.  With Chris & Donna anxious to move the next morning, we picked Chris up off Sound Venture and headed out to pick up the shrimp pots we put out the day before.  No luck this time!

Canadian C.G. Helicopter with Rescue Boat below

While picking up the pots, a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter hovered over Tenedos Bay, circling and circling.  We finally turned on our VHF radio to hear a call from a sailboat anchored out in an inner cove of Tenedos Bay.  They had a medical emergency on board and the Canadian Rescue Boat was on their way.  





 

They arrived about 20 minutes later, but we left them to their business as the inner cove was not visible from where we were in the Bay.

We left the area heading over to Prideaux Haven and Melanie Cove.

Entering Melanie Cove

Entering Prideaux Haven is quite breathtaking.  I've seen many an aerial photo of this area filled with boats, and now here we were with one boat anchored in Prideaux Haven, one in Laura Cove, and no one in Melanie Cove.  We had the whole cove to ourselves the first night.  A sailboat joined us by the second evening.  We went exploring in the dinghy, and put down another shrimp pot.  (The next day, after searching and searching, we finally found the pot about 1/4 mile east of where we had dropped it.  Three, count them, three shrimp in the pot.  Sigh!  We allowed them to get harvested by another by throwing them back in.)  We'll hold out hope for more shrimp later in the trip.



The next morning, Donna was out rowing, and Nancy got in her dinghy to join her.  It was a brief respite between rain clouds, though, so they both headed back to the warmth of their boats.




 
Leaving Prideaux Haven, Chris and Donna led us over to the east side of Cortes Island for a visit to Squirrel Cove.  We had to pause during our crossing for a tug pulling a long line of logs.

The narrow entrance to the inner harbour at Squirrel Cove.

We continued on shortly thereafter toward Squirrel Cove.   A very well-stocked grocery store, even with gluten-free items, awaited us and we first docked at the dock below Squirrel Cove Trading Company.  This dock is right out at the edge of the cove and on a windy day, with choppy seas, it was a little challenging bringing her to the dock.  After stocking up, we moved the boats into the inner cove for a night of anchoring.



Next day we moved over to the west side of Cortes Island to Gorge Harbour. 

We had the marina to ourselves mostly the first two days.

Gorge Harbour Marina & Resort  is a delightful stop.  New owners have totally renovated the grounds and the marina (so we hear from other boaters) and we found it to be a beautiful area to rest up for a couple of days, catch up on laundry, and do some repairs.   Nancy's computer, which had done the "dreaded blue screen of death", needed repair and we were lucky to have Dino, a local businessman on the island, available for a run to the marina and a temporary repair job so that Nancy could at least get files off of her computer.  To everyone's surprise, two days later, the computer is still functioning, allowing this post.  No promises on the ability to update this blog as we move northward, however.  A new computer is on the list of supplies needed when we hit Juneau.



Their hot tub was visited every afternoon for a good soak.  We are here before the summer season, so we paid a reasonable $1/foot for the beautiful surroundings.

Nancy read by this pond while waiting for laundry.

The resort has houses to rent, in addition to four rooms above their well-stocked store.  Clean laundry and shower facilities were a plus.  We loved the detail to the grounds, and staff were planting flowers for the summer season.  








We said goodbye to our traveling companions, Chris & Donna, as they headed back to Sequim, WA for their summer.  They were excellent guides showing us their favorite spots here in British Columbia.  

We'll continue our journey northward, now alone, getting through the rapids of Yucalta and Dent and will then move into the Broughtons area.  This is an amazingly beautiful area and with two weeks of our trip now behind us, we are amazed that it's only been two weeks.  It feels closer to a month with all that we've seen and experienced so far.