Day 8 ~ Bottle Neck Inlet, B.C. to Hartley Bay, B.C.

 By 8:00 a.m. the sun made its way over the cliffs and we were in brilliant sunshine. Looking out over the bow of the boat towards the inlet we could see snow capped mountains. The birds were chirping and we had a seal rotating between sunning himself and eating. We had already managed to gain 5 days in the first 8 days of our original float plan so we decided that we would to head to Hartley Bay. It was going to be a long day but it would be well worth it if the promised technology was really there. We also decided that if the predicted storm became a reality or if we simply wanted to, we could stay an extra day in Hartley Bay without any negative impact to our master float plan. We ended up departing about 2 hours beyond the projection of our float plan because the folks from the Celtic Song came to visit and our crab pots were much fuller than expected.

Dad spent the bulk of the day doing chores around the boat and I skippered. As we entered Hilskin Channel, I convinced Dad to try our luck at fishing, which turned out to be a wasted effort but entertaining nonetheless. As we continued north, the terrain was definitely changing. The mountains were much taller, the snow on them much lower and the depths along the banks were straight down and extremely deep. We also took note of the waterfalls that Al & Diane Lucas (friends of Dad), noted in their journal. Enticed by the lure of technology we pushed along as the clouds began to darken the skies and the air cooled.

Finally we had King Come Point in our sights, which was our last waypoint before Hartley Bay. The clouds had overtaken the sun and the skies began to spit. We contemplated moving to the lower helm when we spied 3 Orca whales. We slowed and enjoyed the awesomeness of them and then moved along. Before reaching our final destination we came across Dall porpoises that were on the hunt. They were racing around the surface as a team and had something cornered. It was wild to watch.

Hartley Bay turned out to be a quaint Indian village with a nice dock, no roads and the best technology for miles in any direction. Most of the boats were small private fishing boats that were loaded with fishermen. The one across the dock from us that couldn’t have been more than 24 feet long with 3 guys on board and a freezer bungeed to the swim step that was filled with provisions which they had to eat so they could make room for the fish. I must admit I felt very fortunate while I was doing the dishes with hot water in the toasty warm cabin looking out at the falling rain drops. The people on the dock encouraged us to wander up to the gym to watch the hockey game with all the residents but we decided we were pooped and we stayed in.