Saturday, July 14, we first did one more laundry, found out that the store here sold very good produce, and , yes, Soy cheese!!!! I dont eat dairy, nor Gluten, its a challenge most of the time, but i have a small fortune in gluten free crackers on board, plus i make special bread for Bert. The windpredictions were not so great again, up to 45 knots, but , at about 11, there was no wind at all, so we headed towards Gunboat Passage. This is a very interesting passage, has a range in the middle, (good thing), and has many little anchorages on the sides. Once we were in Fisher Channel, the wind started up, 8 knots, NW, Bert put up the genoa, and we did a nice 4.5 knots. Wind up to 12, the genoa was happy, we did  5.5 knots. i took over from Bert, as he wanted to trawl , to catch a fish maybe…..Towards Cousins inlet, we had the tide behind us, wind now up to 15 knots, i was doing 6.5 then wind to 20 knots, i did 7.5 knots!!!! now, that is fun!!   So much for Bert trawling for a fish!!!!    We sailed all the way into Cousins Inlet, until the turn at the end, towards Ocean Falls, at which point we had to take the genoa in, quite the chore, as the line got stuck, but we made it.   So beautiful, the setting where Martin Valley lies,big, big mountains, snow on top, huge waterfall, Martin Valley is the community where most people live but there are houses at Ocean Falls too. A lot of them are run down, as you will see in the photos.   The dock seemed very full, but there was a spot on the plane dock, apparently it doesn’t come in very often.  We tied there , next to MV Findochty!!!

Its been very hot, but the little breeze is nice.  We walked to the dam last night, followed by an army of mosquitos!!! And black flies and noseeums……..A hint for hot weather;drink warm tea, really helps, cold drinks are very hard on your system when the weather is hot.  

We did go to Codville Lagoon, because of other boaters saying it was worth while, but it was very busy, it was hot, we didnt feel like doing the hike because of the heat, but, we did catch our first batch of prawns there, so it was worth it.  We decided to head to Bella Bella, the NEW Bella Bella, called Waglisla, an all first nation village, with a great grocery store.  You have to hope for a spot on the dock,and as always, we were lucky!!   A very hot day, but the store is just up the ramp, i was so jealous of the boys, jumping in the water, soooooo tempting……. The store is good, found most of the things i needed, trying to get it all back to the boat, was another story, you cant take the store buggy, as the pavement is broken so badly, but a very kind lady,Pat, drove us to the ramp in her van, thank you so much Pat!!!!Then, back up there again for the wine….very important!!!!   We filled with water, (good water), admired new sailboats that just came in, like SV Wildwood II, built by Bill Hicks of Campbell River, what a beautie she is Bill!!!!!      Bert wanted badly to buy a fishing rod, as the last one broke in half, as he had a bite, it hit his nose,he came back to the boat bleeding, i thought he had lost part of his nose, but after i cleaned the wound, a tiny little spot remained……so he could stop crying!!!!    On to Shearwater, where there is a marine store with rods.  As we came close, i called in on 66A, asked to be on the dock for an hour or so to buy a rod, no problem, but , while Bert was in the store buying his rod, a very nice skipper from SV Dancing on the sea,   came and told me he had a rod for sale, brandnew , cheap, heh!!!! i bought it!! 20 bucks!!!   So, Bert comes back, with his new rod, and there i am, also with a rod!!! We stayed the night, might as well, as it was well past 5, wine time, and we were tired. The wind prediction was for 45 knots, well, there wasnt even a breeze!!!!  Tomorrow to Ocean Falls.