After leaving Princess Louisa we had another long long motor back down Jervis Inlet.

We were originally going to reach Westview Marina (which is basically Powell Rivers government docks) but in the end we were both tired so we stopped at Hotham Sound and found a bay. Most guides mention the Harmony Islands but I’d heard from a couple of people that the anchoring there was tricky and tight, so we found a nice bay on the other side and stopped there for the night.

 

Didn’t have high hopes, but it turned out to be lovely!

As a bonus, we heard a crashing sound in the brush and two bears came out on the beach around 200 feet away! We stayed very quiet and watched them from the safety of the boat

BEARS!

The next day we headed off to Westview and tried to get as much sailing in as possible as we were pretty sick of motoring after the 80nm round trip to PLI.

A lovely surprise was a pod of orcas that surprised us, one surfacing so close to the boat it scared us both!

We managed to get some good sailing in down the strait using the spinny again until the wind died right near the marina, so we motored on in.

In Powell River we stayed 2 nights (were only going to stay one but it POURED with rain the next day so we just stayed in town, and went out to eat which was nice).

Our stay was enlivened by one powerboat coming in with a HUGE amount of smoke coming out of the hull, while their friend on the dock yelled at the wharfinger ‘THEY ARE NOT ON FIRE, THEY ARE FINE – JUST HAVEN’T USED THE HEATER FOR A WHILE AND IT’S CHUFFING SMOKE’

Full marks for the use of the word ‘chuffing’ but that was an AWFUL lot of smoke – definitely looked like it was on fire. The wharfinger, a salty older lady who could have been a headmistress in a previous era took in all in her stride. I feel that she see’s a LOT in that job…

After Powell River we headed North to the Copelands again, trying our best to sail – and managed to move in just 4 knots of wind from straight ahead. Lots of tacking, but it was a warm sunny day and it was just a nice lazy way to spend the day.

We finally got to the Copeland Islands, stern-tied and went ashore to get oysters for dinner (the Copelands is one of the few places around here that is not closed to shellfish harvest because of redtide). (note – not our dinghy in foreground)

We then got invited about the sailboat Minx, a Norcat, by a lovely older couple and after drinking too much of their Blackberry wine we went back to the boat to watch the sun go down.

There must have been some predators around, as the little bait fish were jumping out of the water to escape.

 

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