We are tied to the dock, here in Tofino, the wind is howling, gusting at 35 knots, out on the ocean it is gusting up to 45 knots, no place to be right now.     Even the fishing fleet came in, every one tucked in, rafted, tied somewhere, to spend the day and night.     We were anchored out, in front, many boaters and books had told us that is is not a good idea to anchor in front of Tofino, well yes, there are the shallows, the current runs by at 4 knots or faster, but we decided to try it, put out all our chain, scope 6:1, then Bert put our kellet,or anchor weight  on the chain too, to keep it down.     You do get a bit of a wild ride out here, but this is only because of the many tourists boats, racing by at well over 15 knots.     We did great the first night, and the second night, but then the storm came up, a spot came free in the marina and we went in there as fast as we could.   So, here we wait, looks like it will be a few days, till the SE settles down, we would really like some NW…….

Last time i wrote , we were on our way to Winter Harbour, so i will start with that.  We liked it there, even though the place is all about fishing, fishing, fishing,  a lot of fisherman drive from Port Hardy , towing their fancy boats, and then staying in Winter Harbour for a week or more.    They start early, 5 a.m.   boat loaded with snacks and beer, and come back with an incredible amount of fish, salmon, snapper, cod, long cod, halibut, it all gets checked upon arrival , the size, what species and if they have a tag.    A lot of the guys were complaining about catching pinks, but i love eating the pinks, and would be just grateful to catch one!!!!!          The town has history, dates back to the 1800’s , it was known as Oyagamla to the four Kwakwaka’wakw tribes that lived here, and they used this site for their winter village.   Today Winter Harbour is a world class fishing spot, i think its basically impossible to NOT catch a salmon here.    There is a board walk all along the shore, it winds around the shore, along it are old cottages, old growth trees, and ancient docks.   Eagles sat above us in the trees, hoping for some fish ,as the men cleaned their fish,and throw the remnants in the water.        We did some emailing here, and bought groceries, they are trucked in here from Port Hardy, the prices are high but it was all fresh.  I am stopping for a bit now, because of the storm, the connection goes on off, on off, too hard to download photos, will be back later!!!

This coast is wild, threatening,overwhelming and yet unbelievably beautiful.  What a place to be able to visit, we are so fortunate.    I have more photos to publish but the connection is slow, and i am tired!!   We are in Winter harbour right now, fishing capital of the world as far as i am concerned!!     The trip from Sea Otter Cove to here was wild, beautiful and scary.    The sun came out, and with it the wind, NW  well up to 25 knots, the waves grew, and grew, Bert put on his life line when he went out, he raised the main and the genoa, tried to hook up the spinnaker pole to the sail but that didnt work well, need to do some modifications……..        Again, a Humpback Whale surfaced, right next to us, right among the by now 5 meter waves.    We had a following sea, but , they were big!!!!!     It took us 4 1/2 hours to  get to Winter Harbour, not too bad.   We anchored out in North Cove the first night.