By Becky – We spent a leisurely morning in Murchison Island Cove and had a short run to Hot Springs Bay where we were blessed with a calm, sunny morning.
The Watchman, Carol, came to greet us as we landed since we were delivering much needed garbage bags to her sent from Reggie at Windy Bay. She is a delightful Haida woman who taught us several Haida words. She also insisted that we walk through her beautiful forest since we had enjoyed Windy Bay so much.
We had been conserving water and therefore not taking regular showers on the boat. Even though the shower was just lukewarm, it felt great to get clean before going into the hot tubs. We were given an hour to have all four pools to ourselves and loved each one. They are well maintained and clean. It was great to be able to soak and watch our boat in the harbor on a perfect morning.
After soaking we went for a walk through the old growth forest to the bay on the opposite side of the island. We meandered around for a while on the beach then headed back to our dingy which (as expected) had been left high and dry due to the tide going out. Carol rounded up a couple of people to help us carry it over rocks and kelp back to water level.
Cruising through Burnaby Narrows was fairly exciting since the charts don’t really show accurately where a huge rock is in the middle of the channel. You have to zig zag through while water is rushing in or out of the narrows from both ends. There isn’t really much of a slack. Jim and I helped Paul to line up with the channel markers while I stood as bow watch. There was some excitement when I found the rock where we didn’t really expect it but Paul was able to quickly back down and get us turned in the right direction even though the current was trying to push us on the rock.
We were ready to drop anchor in Bag Harbor just a little south of the narrows and had a very quiet night watching a group of about 5 sea lions floating in a pack on their backs waving their fins in the air to regulate their body temperature. I can’t believe we get to have such an amazing trip seeing incredible nature at its best and meeting such welcoming Haida people who want to share their culture and history.
