Last day in BC for a while

Thursday May 17 - Friday May 18

On Thursday, we left Grenville Channel and headed for Prince Rupert. When we reached open water, we had winds of 35 knots, on the nose, of course! Much lighter wind had been reported in the morning. Sea was an unpleasant chop until we rounded the corner to Prince Rupert Harbour. We could not find a place to tie up, so we headed for a nice anchorage. At the mouth of the anchorage, there was a minefield of black floats -- very hard to see in the chop. Despite a bow watch, we nicked one of the floats. I had choice words for the floats' owners.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine and Duke of Bavaria (1619-82)was created Duke of Cumberland by his uncle, King Charles I. He commanded the Royalist cavalry in the English Civil War at the age of 23. When Cromwell won the war and Charles lost his head, Rupert became a buccaneer in the Caribbean. After the restoration of Charles II, Rupert returned to England and became a commander of the Royal Navy. Later, he was governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

Chart around Kitkatla

Today, there was no wind and the floats were much easier to see. We slalommed our way through the rocks and shallows around Kitkatla, one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities along the BC coast. We are now anchored on the north end of Dundas Island. There is a clearing of rocks on the shore. This is a sign that there was a native canoe landing place here.

Tomorrow, we will get up early to catch the tide to Alaska. The winds are predicted to be favorable but will increase in strength on Sunday. So we may decide to go all the way to Ketchikan, rather than stopping at Foggy Bay.

So we made it to the north end of BC in 14 days of travel. It would have been slower if we hadn't had benign weather and pushing tides. We still have enough fuel to get to Glacier Bay!