Off into the Great White North, Eh?

From Reid Harbor, we headed straight to Canada. For non-Canpass holders, the two closest boarder stations are Sidney and Bedwell Harbor. Last year we went to Sidney to re-provision and do some laundry. This year, since we were just two days out, we checked in at Bedwell instead. We had considered stopping to take advantage of the Poet's Cove Resort amenities, but the holiday crowds made that impossible.

Headed across to Bedwell, we had a good chance to see Turn Point Light from the other side. As you can see, there wasn't much wind that day - the water well into Boundary Pass was almost like glass. Not always a bad thing, but Frog Prints is a sailboat. Also no whales or porpoise, which was disappointing. Last year we had a family of Dahl's Porpoise play around the boat in this area as we were returning to the US. Oh well, the day is young.


Since our main goal this year was to make it all the way up to Princess Louisa Inlet, we decided to head on through the islands. Prevost Island is about a third of the way up the Gulf Islands, and was one of our favorite stops last year. So, we decided we'd head for Annette Inlet. Coming out of Bedwell Harbor and along the south coast of North Pender Island, it looked like either opening or closing day of fishing season. There were dozens of boats - mostly various sizes of power vessels, although also the occasional sail boat - fishing off the island. There were of course also a number of seals looking for the ones that get away. I'm not sure what proper etiquette is in this case, but we tried to stay as far away as possible as we wove our way through all the fisherpeople (both men and women out fishing this day).

One of the highlights of the trip came when we were just passing the Acland Islands on the south side of Prevost Island. Just as the log was turning over 7,600 miles under keel, we spotted a whale headed southbound. We cut the engine and drifted as it passed - not 20 yards to starboard. It wasn't a big picturesque event (good thing - the camera batteries had just died), just a lone whale surfacing every little bit as it went on its way. Perhaps it was just a Minke, but I like to think it was an Orca that had left the pod to run an errand and was on its way back.

We decided to anchor in Annette Inlet, a lovely little anchorage (we'll try the other anchorages next year perhaps). It's well protected and very quiet. There were perhaps three or four other boats in the inlet when we arrived - quite a difference from the crowd we saw in Bedwell. We picked a spot and settled in. There wasn't enough wind to need the anchoring sail, but we put it up anyway. The seals were about and performing their back flips again - one of these times I'm going to get good photos of that. We also paddled around the inlet in the kayak a bit - it's a nice place to poke around, with a deep mud shore at the head and some small rocky outcroppings at various places. In better weather, people often take their dinghies out to the mouth to watch a magnificent sunset over Saltspring Island, but the clouds would not cooperate today.