Monday, March 22, 2010

Left Nanaimo in awesome weather. Wind was less than 10 knots and the sun was shining. Took about 3 1/2 hours to cross the Strait of Georgia. This is big water for us. We crossed here in January on the way back from Chatterbox Falls. The waves then were over six foot ~ today we had a ripple on the water. One night in Secret Cove where we caught one crab. We definately are not getting full of crab at this rate.
We ducked into Powell River for two nights as the weather was calling for 30-40 knot winds. We were right by the ferry dock and were entertained by watching the ferrys come and go. Powell River was once home to the worlds largest pulp and paper mill. It produces 2,000 metric ton of paper a day. The above picture shows 10 of the old liberty ships that were sunk and are now used as a breakwater for the paper mill. Liberty ships were used to haul troops during World War II. Tugs haul sawdust into the paper mills to make paper from lumber mills in the area.

As usual we just can not describe the scenery. We take hundreds of pictures because the islands and the inlets are everywhere. They say in the summer every inlet holds many anchored boats. We are lucky. We only saw one sailboat today.
We did however have quite a treat in watching a pod of Orcas.
It was so neat watching them we almost forgot to take pictures.
Arrived in Refuge Cove just before the mailman. The mail is delivered here by plane. The name Refuge Cove sounded so quaint we went out of our way to visit. Interesting is probably the best word for this small town. We were hoping for a bit more activity but it isn't tourist season yet and the 12 residents are still in winter mode. As you can see - not much going on.