An aerial view of Port McNeill.
It was another foggy morning with a forecast of winds building to 25 to 35 knots in the straits by late-afternoon, so we left Cullen Harbour around noon in hopes that the fog would move south before the wind got too strong. The plan worked. As we approached Vancouver Island, our visibility was good – a mile and a half at its worst – and the bank moved off clearing a path for us with the help of a light breeze coming from the northwest making for a pleasant and uneventful passage, the best kind.
We dropped our hook outside the marina in Port McNeill sometime after 3 o'clock and dinghied into to town shortly after to take a look around and give the pup a good walk. It's a small town with a population less than 3000 people, but they seem to have everything we need within close proximity to the harbour – laundromat, grocery store, restaurants, and an unbelievably helpful auto parts store with a machine shop and chandlery – all at mainland prices rather than the highly inflated ones we saw in The Brougtons. As an added bonus, there's a strong wi-fi signal in the harbour and cellphone coverage (something we haven't seen for three weeks), so we may be here a while....
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