Dollies, Devils and Dolphins

We coerced these two Dollies onto "our" boat and now they won't leave.

We sadlly pulled up anchor in Desolation Sound to continue our journey north. The early departure was to make sure that we did not have to navigate the Devils Hole in the channel between Stuart Island and Cortes Island when the tidal flows are at their worst. Devils Hole is a whirlpool that is created from the tides that can cause boats, particularly smaller boats, to easily capsize and that has lead to the worst possible outcomes. Even worse than some of Wieland's humour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrTHqdyvdVQ

Our destination was Blind Channel which is quite close to, well, nothing actually. Our route, as outlined on Garmin's InReach at https://share.garmin.com/WielandWettstein was smooth and beautiful. The photos do not do justice to the beauty of this area. You just have to be here.

Regrettably, our first whale encounter was brief. A single massive humpback was spotted in Calm Channel but quickly disappeared into the depths. These seemingly narrow protected channels are often up to 1500 feet deep.

While we were disapponted not to get a photo of the Humpy, we did encounter these guys for a good long play with us.

The Pacific White-sided Dolphin could be our favourite wildlife encounter in this area. They are so friendly and playful towards the boat and we spent at least 20 minutes with them. They are incredibly quick and synchronized in their movements. To learn more about the dolphins click the link below:

https://wildwhales.org/speciesid/dolphins-and-porpoises/pacific-white-sided-dolphin/

We made it to Blind Channel without any boat issues and mostly still talking to each other. This is particularly remarkable since the Captain delegated the docking in the fast flowing and windy Blind Channel docks to his Leatherman packing third mate. No (noticeable) damage was inflicted to Perfect Pitch.

We then decided to spend a little time on Terra Firma with a short walk through the woods to the "Big Cedar".

Look through the photos below by pushing on the arrows on the side of the photos to see our highlights from our rubber boot hike...

After lots of kinda big trees and crawling inside a pretty big cedar, we found the Big Cedar!

Until our next stop.

It should be noted that we unfortunately left two other possible passengers back on Saltspring to fend for themselves at Diana's house. We know they were bitterly disappointed not to come along and sure hope they are not too sad as they look in this photo....or are about to do anything rash.