Day 10 – Blue Lips Cove – Amai Inlet– In The Middle Of
Nowhere!
Wow, do we feel isolated.
We woke up this morning in our little private “Columbia Cove”…not
another soul around. Tonight, we’re
going to bed in another private little “Blue Lips Cove.” Other than a little Native American village
we stopped at, we hardly even saw any other signs of civilization other than a
couple of kayakers in the distance and a far offshore fishing vessel. It’s wild, untamed, and very uncivilized out
here. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt
this isolated before in my life…including our trip to Alaska in ’09. I haven’t had a cell service and Internet
service at the same time since last week Thursday in Port Hardy and we’ve
cruised many miles out of our way just to find some village where I could find
a phone booth. How can I pay for diesel fuel
if I can’t do any deals?
Well, today, we went in search of communications and found
a phone booth and an Internet signal in a little village called Walter’s Cove,
but not before spending the better part of a day on the beach again. We woke up, packed a lunch, and found the
trail head leading from Columbia Cove to the beach on the exposed shore. It was overcast but we were comfortable in t-shirts. Val and Connor found some nice mussels for
dinner while Tanner munched on star fish.
Connor and I played baseball on the beach using driftwood for a
bat…Tanner was catcher and outfielder.
This was probably the most beautiful beach we’ve found yet and the hours
flew by.
Mid-afternoon, we pulled anchor and set out for Walter’s
Cove, about a 15 mile run. A few fishing
lodges, a tiny little variety store, and a phone booth with the handset cracked
in half was about all there was there. I
hadn’t made a credit card phone call in years and had to dial the operator to
find out how to do it. I don’t dare to
check my credit card bill how much the four minute call to check my voice mail
was. The little store also had a 10’ x
10’ Post Office inside it that sold phone cards. The lady inside said that there was a coffee
shop at the tip of the bay that had Internet and the owner would let me use his
phone so we were off! Double the price
of Starbuck’s and half as good, I was glad to be able to do some business
again. Two hours later, we were glad to
be out of there.
Val found this interesting cove on the charts only about
seven miles away. We idled our way
through the peppered rocks to get there in the drizzle and rain, the first
we’ve seen on the trip. It was beautiful
in a new, mysterious way. It seemed like
we barely fit through the entrance of the cove which opened up into a cozy
little nest for our boat. Perfect!
While the sun tried to burn holes in the clouds, Val baked
some of my fresh bread dough and prepared the most amazing fresh halibut with a
side of crab carbonara. It was exquisite
to say the least. We ran out of wine
(oh, the price for isolation) so we had to stoop down and open a bottle of
Dolphin Cove Blackberry Wine…not the best pairing, but, hey, we’re roughing it.
It’s really getting dark earlier now…by 9, it’s really
dark. The bioluminescence was so
bright! We “swooshed” the boat brush
around and watched the light reaction in the dark water. Connor started the dinghy engine and it
looked like a white jet flame coming from the prop. Then he turned on the salt water wash down
and made a mini meteor shower around the boat.
I tried to photograph it and film it but it never turned out. There were thousands of little 9” fish
jumping all around us too. We don’t know
what they are but every once in a while a few thousand will ball up and jump
out of the water like they’re being pursued, maybe by a seal or something. Interesting.
No plans for tomorrow. Like scripture says, tomorrow has enough
troubles of it’s own, don’t worry about it.
In my dreams, however, I will plan for another big adventure.
