Unfortunately,our time in Princess Louisa Inlet is over and we left the dock this morning at eleven o'clock with Bill and Sylvia aboard Salubrious following behind. It was a magical week, my personal favourite for various reasons – the mysterious weather, having the basin to ourselves for a day but, above all, sharing this time with David and such good friends.
It stopped raining early yesterday morning but, by the time all was said and done, we'd bailed more than 150 gallons of water out of our dinghies and were damp, inside and out. Cambria and Salubrious looked like a true cruising boats sitting at the end of the dock with jackets, pants, shirts and towels hanging from the rails in an attempt to dry in the sun.
With the clearing weather, it was a busy day at Chatterbox Falls and a tour boat from Egmont arrived with a complement of tourists. They'd been to the head of Queens Reach and seen grizzly bears feeding on salmon in the river – a diversion which would turn out to be too strong for us to ignore. We also saw the arrival of two float planes and the ranger, Ming, returned later in the afternoon with some people from the head office who had never been here before. She came down to the boat to say hello and remembered Sally from our visit earlier in the year – the silly dog always seems to make an impact wherever we go.
We woke to fog in the basin this morning and the barometer was sitting at 1020 and steady – a very good sign for the days to come. With a little help from the sun, the fog had lifted by the time we reached Malibu Rapids and, for the first time, we turned right when exiting and made our way to the head of Queens Reach. We didn't see any bears, but the detour was well worth the time and effort ending in a stunning alpine-like meadow.
With the days shortening at a rapid pace and time against us, we didn't linger long before turning south and making our way down inlet towards Pender Harbour. We arrived in the dark which is always difficult due to the confusing lights from shore but managed fine with the aid of a two-million candle power light as the charts were off just enough to direct us over land. Back in Garden Bay, we both dropped our anchors and settled in for the night where, tomorrow, we'll decide what our next move will be.
