Kadushdish Harbor and Ocean Falls.

We discovered Kadushdish Harbour on July 22nd while looking for a place to hide from forecasted disgusting weather.  We find some of our favorites spots doing this.  In Kadushdish, we got rain, but minimal wind and wave action: both items to be avoided for those of us who like to sleep while at anchor. 

The little cabin in on a small First Nations Reserve 
that occupies part of the harbour.

Kadushdish earned high marks on our Anchorage Rating System: 

safe anchorage,  

places for Allie walkies even at high tide,

within dinghy distance of Shearwater for laundry, 

and Bella Bella for groceries. 

Bella Bella was five miles away straight through the opening to the harbour.  We could see the lights of the village at night.

Waiting for forecast storm.  

Greywolf  is the small dot on the right. 

Kadushdish Harbour protected us from the strong winds, but was unable to do much about the rain.

What we do when it rains.   

Doug and Allie are reading All the Light You Cannot See.  

Highly recommend.

Loons were numerous, but shy. ‘Weren’t too interested 
in being photographed.

After the rain, the play.

Loverly sunsets were another benefit of our safe anchorage.

 Interesting rocks, eh?

Before we left BI, we bought two crab pots.  We bought Jean a new fishing rod and reel.  In Sidney, we bought Jean a BC fishing license.  Leaving Kadushdish, headed for Ocean Falls, we stopped to fish for bottom fish for the crab pots.  Doug found the perfect spot for me to catch crab bait.

The “falls" at Ocean Falls, were replaced by this dam in 1912.  The pulp and paper mill it supported are gone, but the dam now supplies electricity to Bella Bella and Denny Island.  

Our cruising guide describes Ocean Falls as a lively ghost town.  All of the buildings in this photo except the pink and white one on the left are abandoned.  "Pink and white" houses the post office (open five days a week) and a few apartments.

Why do we keep going back?  Probably for the same reason as the other ten to fifteen other pleasure boaters at the dock:  good water, good docks, interesting people, roads for people and dog walkies, and good crabbing.

You might have visited with us last year, but don’t go away.  Something has actually changed, other than the annual rot and decay.

Last January, a massive landslide closed the road between Ocean Falls and the small community of Martin Vally.  Heavy equipment was brought in (from where???) to clear the rubble. 

The rocks, mud, and trees missed the telephone poles. Fortunately no cars were parked alongside the road at the time of the slide.

Fifty years ago, almost to the day, a landslide destroyed an apartment house in the same area, killing seven people.   I think that fewer than seven people live in all of Ocean Falls now, excluding the workers at the hydro plant.  (In the ’50’s, 3,500 people lived in Ocean Falls.) About 25 people live in the area year round, most of them in Martin Valley, a mile down the inlet.

We were told that when the BC government decided to sell the houses in Martin Valley (in the ’80’s, maybe?), they were asking  $5000 for houses with no moss (on the inside) and  $2000 for houses with moss (on the inside).  I’m sure they all had moss on the outside.  

Curious about current prices we looked on-line:
Three bedrooms. Close to boat launch ramp.  $100,000. 

Everything is Martin Valley is close to the boat launch ramp.
We did not make an offer. 

We’d been in Ocean falls a few days when, can you believe it?  A storm  arrived.  Doug helped this Nordhavn motor-sailer tie up in about 20 knots of wind.   The wind and rain stayed fairly steady (20-25 knots) all morning.   Late afternoon brought 35 knots and  RAIN.  Ocean Falls' yearly rainfall is measured in double-digit feet. 

OLD PEOPLE CRUISING:   When we were younger, we were inspired by some of the Senior Citizens we met cruising.  If they can do it, why couldn't we???  

Because we can’t remember things.  Sticky notes help, but only if you remember that you need to remember:  slack water time for rapids, time of high and low water, chart numbers, (sometimes the chart plotter goes wiggy-wiggy).  And we also have check-sheets for getting underway, docking, anchoring, getting out of bed….

Sticky notes can’t do it all.  I looked for Mr. Panasonic Camera before I took Allie out for her evening walk on the day of The Rain.  No Mr. Panasonic.  Not to worry, The Little People often hide things.  On the walk, I replayed the day’s events.  When did I last have the camera?  In Dinghy setting the crab pots. 

I found a naked (no case!) Mr. Panasonic shivering in the rain on Dinghy's seat next to my grab-the-crab gloves. We had planned to check the crab pots in the evening, but rescheduled for morning because of the rain and winds. 

Poor Mr. Panasonic.  I took out his battery and chip and put him on a towel to drain and dry. The next morning, he was ready to go.  He is, however, refusing to go crabbing Ever Ever again.  

‘Had to bail out Dinghy before we went to bed.  

We were afraid the battery might be underwater if we 

waited ’til morning.

Mr. Panasonic got a work-out the morning after The Rain.

Dirt and small rocks had clogged the culvert.  The road was flooded, but not impassable. We did seriously question the usefulness of the black plastic tacked to sticks on the side of the road.

After two days of rain, mist greeted us, and then more beautiful days for crabbing.  We paid for the BC fishing license with the crabs, but, for some reason never took the time to fish on the trip.

Jack, the 120 pound eighteen month old white lab, wanted to play.  Allie declined.  He belongs to the couple who own the Darke Waters Inn.  They bought the Inn a few years ago just before logging in the area came to an end.  The income from the loggers, the major income source, disappeared.  The roof of the 23 room inn is disappearing under blue plastic tarps. 

The Inn is for sale for $299,000, if you’d like to make an offer.

We think this sign is from the last century.

Ocean Falls is the only place on our trip where we 

saw a bi-lingual stop sign. Granted, we didn’t see all that  many stop signs.  This is the entrance to the power plant.

On August 9th, Greywolf left Ocean Falls for the second time,   heading south down Cousins Inlet for Cape Caution and Vancouver Island.

Shearwater

After many days of sunshine, rain found us as we left Oyster Bay.  (This is ‘way back in July. You remember July.)

Heading north up Fitz Hugh Sound, the 65 foot Allyson H emerged out of the rain,  headed south for Nanaimo, according to her AIS information on our chart plotter.

Her barge of wood chips soon appeared and then they were both swallowed up by the rain.

No sooner had the Allison H and her barge disappeared  than the AIS symbol for the Norman H, 72 feet, (same tow company, eh?) popped up on the screen. She was coming out of a passage to the east and was not yet in sight when the skipper hailed Greywolf on the VHF radio.  Requesting a “green-to-green” passing (starboard-to-starboard) he wanted sufficient  room to make his turn to the south without hitting the rocks.  Good plan.  Go for it.

I try to avoid talking with professional skippers on the radio, but I had the helm and Doug was not in the pilot house, so  I answered.

My avoidance tendency originates with my favorite move:  Airplane.  (Yes, I am aware that this puts me in a very select group of people.)  I’ve laughed my way through the movie enough times, that much of the dialogue is very familiar, including the scenes between ground control and the pilot: Roger.
Okay, but stop calling me Roger.  

(You’e right:  you haven’t missed anything by not seeing the movie.)

I cannot bring myself to say “Roger that” on the VHF.  ‘Don’t know what response I’ll get.

Fortunately, “Right.  Green to green.”  is easily understood.  I once more avoided confronting my phobia.  I also avoided colliding with the Norman H...and the rocks.  

I’ll have to write out a radio script for the VHF and have Doug practice with me.

Early in the afternoon, Greywolf tied up at crowded Shearwater, stern-to-stern with another wolf. I asked the woman on board about the name.  The skipper’s daughter had named it; she thought it was from a movie, but didn’t know anything more about it.  Do you?

The big boats get bigger each year.

We were in search of produce, water, and laundry, not necessarily in that order. Shearwater’s store did not produce any produce,

 so we took the seabus to Bella Bella, a First Nations village, three miles away.

The store burned down last year, but was replaced late last summer.  Good produce...if you get there shortly after it arrives on the ferry.

Why....

.... the signs????

Needing a safe place to keep our Bella Bella watermelon while we were underway, I wedged it in next to the whale pillow .  Doug pointed out that it looked like the whale was getting ready to take a bite.  He never did.  Not even a nibble.

The dock master’s garden at Shearwater.

The “untouched” adjective is disputed by some.

Even without hearing the noise, you might understand why some of the residents of Denny Island are not thrilled to have Shearwater Resort and the other expen$ive fi$hing re$orts as neighbors.  The helicopters bring fishermen from Vancouver on a regular basis.

The sports fishing boats tear out shortly after dawn each morning.  More noise.  But no dust!

 The road (yes, it is a road) from the ferry dock.

Fishing boats waiting for the next opening.

At Shearwater, we had the choice of heading north to Prince Rupert or mussing around this area. We decided to muss. Between July 20th and August 9th Greywolf wandered the waters of Dean Channel, Cousins Inlet, Gunboat Pass, and connecting waterways, anchoring at Kadushdish Harbor (three times) and mooring at Ocean Falls (twice) with dinghy trips to Bella Bella and Shearwater from Kadushdish for food and laundry. 

Photos will follow.  Really.