Day 8: Fury Cove to Shearwater/Kakushdish Bay
52 miles and 8 hours of cruising; fuel, provisions, garbage disposal, laundry, and long-awaited internet connection in Shearwater. Highlights: Black Bears, Dolphin, Bald Eagles, Infant Dungeness Crab, Waterfalls, Rainbows, and Sunsets. Did I mention BIG BLACK BEARS?
One last exploration by dinghy of the tide pools and islands surrounding Fury Cove and it's picturesque crushed seashell beaches before we pull anchor...
Reliably flat water in the early morning as we set out for today's destination: Bella Bella/Shearwater where we will refuel, take on more water, and try to grab an internet connection...
Typical cloudy morning, but sun trying to break through. We've realized if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it will change. It sometimes rains all day (as with the day we went to Miles Inlet); or today it rained perhaps two dozen times, sometimes for only two minutes.
Our typical flotilla formation: Journey in lead; Beyond next; and Seaquel aft snapping pictures of the forward tugs. A fun part of our daily routine is keeping close contact via VHF radio, chatting, pulling each other's legs with less-than-truthful stories; but also helping each other out by calling out debris floating in our path or wildlife spotted along the route...
Lots of debris in the water, especially wherever one inlet converges with another. Most are logs broken free from logging operations. The massive ones, and even the occasional full tree with branches sticking up, are easy to see. But some are smaller or odd shaped and so water-logged as to lie mostly below the water. A keen eye posted for a lookout and keeping speeds down is a must to avoid a mishap...
Getting fuel, we noticed hundreds - perhaps millions - of "pollywogs" swarming around the boat. In fact, these were infant Dungeness Crabs. Look close and you can see the legs and pinchers that will someday grow to become a succulent feast!
Ollie and Pam with Beyond stayed on the dock in Shearwater for laundry and reliable internet, while Journey and Seaquel ran just 2 miles further to anchor in a sleepy, tranquil cove called Kakushdish.
We hadn't dropped anchor more than 10 minutes when we spotted two Black Bear on the nearby shore. Glen and Mark hopped in his dinghy; Glen motoring (rowing when we got closer) and Mark fixing his telephoto to catch the subjects. We had observed for awhile with this particular Black Bear grazing, head down, unaware of how close we had approached on the water. It wasn't until this flock of Canadian Geese were startled by our presence that the Black Bear distinctly began looking up and around trying to figure out what had startled the geese. Peering up from his grazing, we finally got the pictures we were after as he looked straight at us...
How close did we get? We could HEAR the sound of the grass being torn from the ground as this bear grazed! We could never have gotten this close to the bear on ground; it was only by being downwind, on the water, and in the safety of the tiny rubber boat that we could spend close to an hour in this majestic creature's presence observing him feast.
Then a most remarkable and unexpected thing happened. The following sequence of seven pictures shows: 1) the first bear suddenly raises his snout as he smelled something in the air; 2) this bear then immediately turned back to confirm what scent he had picked up; 3) this bear IMMEDIATELY jolted and; 4) began to run FAST (25 to 30 mph) and AWAY from something it clearly feared!
Coastal Black Bear males typically weigh from 125 lb. to 550 lb. Both of these were on the large size, but this BIG FELLAH must have been in excess of 500 lbs. And they can run 25 to 30 mph!
And for a perfect ending to a most amazing day, God then treated us to some of His wondrous works with sun and light. Here are a few pictures - because just one or two would not do justice - to convey the grandeur and majesty of the gift of this place that our little Ranger Tug has carried us to. Still hard to believe we are here, even though these pictures are like the proverbial "pinch me, it's true" to show this all is very, very real....
Glen likes a tad bit of "swing room" when on anchor. This tranquil and spacious cove, shared by just our two Ranger Tugs, had sufficient room even by Glen's exacting standards...
A great day, and a "Goodnight" as well...
With these amazing images imprinted on our brains, we retire to our cozy bunks to try to imagine just what the next few days and weeks will have in store for us...
~Mark
Awesome! The pictures are incredible. Really enjoying following your travels. Thanks again.
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