Saturday July 15th, 2023
I awoke this morning at 3:45 am to an amazing first light in Pond Bay. This is now one of our favorite anchorages and we will definitely use if for staging on our next trip to Alaska. There is, however, one downside to this (and many anchorages). No one talks about it, but it is a reality one must deal with. Deer Flies. They are big. They are aggressive. And they bite, hard. They can even bite through clothing if you fail to spray Bug Off on your clothes. The bites feel very much like a bee sting. They are nasty little buggers but I was up for the challenge. This is my sport fishing: killing deer flies. I fried dozens of the little buggers. It was an all out blood fest last night in the fly bridge during cocktail hour. I worked my electric fly swatter so hard I broke it. But I didn’t let that stop me. I taped it up and kept on going. I’m pretty sure I killed the majority of the flys in our area of Pond Bay. (Hmmm, Greg, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of these flies all over the area, but if it makes you feel better, more accomplished, manly, then go for it).
We left Pond Bay at 5:00 am this morning. The weather prediction and float plans were as expected. We had calm seas for the majority of our 8 hour crossing save for about an hour and a half of rolly one foot sea swells in the middle of the channel. Needless to say, we were extremely pleased with the crossing. I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of Dixon Entrance with boats plowing through 3 and 4 foot waves and wind. This is what our seas looked like today.
We are going to stay in Prince Rupert for two days. Tonight we have a reservation at our favorite Sushi Restaurant where all the fish in locally caught. It is truly the best sushi I’ve eaten. Fukasaku, Prince Rupert.
Tomorrow we are back to planning our voyage south with our sites on the next BIG crossing: Cape Caution. At present, we are looking to do the crossing Saturday the 22nd of July from Fury Cove to Allison Harbor.
Our boat is moored on the inside of the float dock at Cow Bay Marina. Checking in to customs was a breeze today. Once we moored I called Canadian Customs and had to wait about 15 minutes. The officer took my information, asked the usual questions and we received our clearance number within 5 minutes of conversation. I would highly recommend using Cow Bay Marina as your port of call for entering back into Canada.
glad to know you made your passage. somewhat of a coincidence deer fly swatting and Wimbledon finals. are you left or right? slice or spin? depends on the deer fly?
If they ever decide to make deer fly swatting a sport I think I could be a contender. (Ha, ha).
Welcome back into Canada, you two!
Thank You. It was a pretty pleasant crossing. We’re through one big gate; one more to go.