There be dolphins!

This is actually a shot of Pruth Harbour taken a week ago - I just though it looked good!

Turnbull Cove

We stayed in Turnbull Cove for 3 nights, waiting for summer.  It did not happen.
If you have to spend time waiting for the weather, there are few places that would be better than Turnbull Cove.  Even though the winds my be howling down Queen Charlotte and Johnston Straits, here it is always calm and peaceful.  We have been very lazy, getting up late, reading books and playing Monopoly (the card game), and watching the 2nd season of the TV show 24 (not that great).  Because the days have remained overcast, our solar panels have not been able to keep up - we probably could not do this for much more than a week without having to start the engine, unless we gave up our fridge, freezer or TV.  Still, not too bad.

Our anchorage here is quite near the site of an avalanche that occurred in 2005, nearly swamping a couple of boats that were anchored close by.  As one of the near victims expressed: "Of all the ways I've imagined dying on a boat, I never thought I'd be killed in a landslide."
These types of slide areas are actually very common throughout these waters.  Just one more thing to worry about.



Sullivan Bay

Today, we finally decided to move on, and we motored the 6 miles or so to Sullivan Bay, where we are paying for moorage for the first time since Shearwater.  They have a store where we can do some re-provisioning and a floating restaurant where we can indulge ourselves.

This is a very interesting (quirky) kind of place, with some very swanky looking float-homes.  Pretty isolated, so the owners (these are really just summer homes) commute via private yachts, planes or helicopters.  Odd seeing a landing pad on a house.

Normally this is a very busy marina in the summer with reservations recommended, but right now, it is almost empty.  Talking to the manager, it appears that the last couple of weeks of gale warnings in Johnston Strait have kept most of the boats from getting this far north.  They are really hurting here, so we are doing our part by consuing the somewhat pricey fare at the restaurant (although to be fare, the food is rather good).

We will probably stay here another day and then start moving further south again.  Tomorrow (Sunday) night is roast turkey dinner night, and that sounds pretty good to us right now.

Note: The big bonus today was when we were motoring a few miles out of Sullivan Bay, and were suddenly surrounded by a small pod of dolphins playing in our bow-wave and leaping along side the boat.  We have heard of them doing this but this is the first time we have had any such experience - moments like this make the whole trip worthwhile.  Unfortunately they did not stay long enough for me to get a camera organized, so I don't have any proof.