Aug.1. It was an easy 2.5 hour motor and we were tied up to the Port Hardy City Dock by 10:30am. It being prime time for boating we wanted to get in early to grab a spot as others left. It turned out not to be as big an issue as we had thought. There was enough openings at the two civic marinas and the private one. The private one had fuel, showers and the only laundromat in the downtown area. It was also charging over three times as much as the public marinas. Port Hardy only has a population of about 4000 but has a well stocked SaveOn Foods about a 15 minute walk from the Civic Dock. A Government Liquor Store was even closer. Two trips were necessary. We had to do a good stock up, as it could be several weeks or more before we got to Tofino for our next planned shop. We had a nice lunch with fresh bread, exotic cheeses and bread. We did also need to do a large laundry but it was about a mile away at the other marinas. There was oddly electrical hookup at the central Civic Marina where we tied up for the night but no water. All the restaurants were also near the central marina. A good sushi dinner at a nearby Sushi restaurant was had. We decided to get up early the next morning and move down to the other marinas to fuel up, take on water, do a laundry and have a nice endless shower. We had no problem squeezing into a convenient slip at the Fishermans Public Marina that was also operated by the City of Port Hardy and only entailed us paying for one nights moorage. The weather was nice and we could catch the tide/current helping us get to our next anchorage, at Bull Harbour. At 2 pm we left Port Hardy. Twaz good for the first hour or so. 6plus knots with the tide with a bita NorthWest head wind. Then the NorthWest accelerated into about 15 knots against, dropping our progress down to as low a 3 knots. We pulled into Bull Harbour about 7:30 and immediately went into HH mode in a sunny calm anchorage on Hope Island, the last viable anchorage before negotiating Cape Scott. The marine forecast for the next few days included a gale warning with northwest winds to 40 knots. Not when we want to be on the water, so; we plan on hanging out in Bull Harbour until sea conditions are a little less challenging for us. Laurence had plenty of work to keep her busy. I did some work on this blog and did a bit of trolling around the bay in the ding. Only one strike that shook before getting aboard. There were a half dozen sea otters in the harbour. At times they came quite close to the boat and could be seen chomping down on crab. There was crab in the bay but none in my trap. Damn it. Sunday Aug. 4 was a laid back day in Bull Harbour . Did a bit of fruitless fishing in the harbour and changed up my fishing gear. Bit of a gale off Cape Scott but the forecast for Monday looks better. Will get up early (5am) and check out the sea and wind conditions. Our house batteries were still strong; as the solar panels were nicely contributing, so we watched a funny new Netflix movie on the bedroom screen in the evening. Frosted. I gave it 7.5 stars. Lights out by 10pm.
Anchored in Bull Harbour, waiting for conditions to be right for rounding Cape Scott
