We got a late start from Shearwater - I think the last couple of days have caught up with us. We ended up leaving around 9a from Shearwater - making our way for 35 nm to Eucott Bay (where the hot springs are). It was going to be a long day - probably 6-7 hours. Sara spent a couple of hour reading to me, it was raining in the morning so she tucked herself on the top step of the companionway to stay dry but still keep me company. The first challenge of the day was Gunboat Pass - a narrow pass that takes you out of Shearwater and into Dean Channel. The pass is narrow and does get some current, but it doesn’t get turbulent. We choose to go with the flood tide and got a nice 1 knot push through the channel - which carried us well into Dean Channel. The current flipped around 1 pm and we ended up with a half a knot or so against us for the last couple of hours.
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the petroglyphs that were painted on a rock face on the coast of Dean Channel. We followed some quite poor instructions in our guidebook to find them - so we didn’t spot them out of nowhere, but they also weren’t an easy find. Not sure about all of the symbols, but I could see a person and some fish drying next to him. The middle ones are a mystery, worth looking up when we have connectivity again.
We have been playing around with working out while underway in the morning. There can be long stretches where nothing is going on, but you still need to be present to check the charts/instruments and look out to see what’s going on. Perfect time to do some planks! Angela has a goal of 500 squats - she started off with 100 today… she earned her hot springs!
We pulled into Eucott Bay around 3:30 pm and dropped anchor in about 20 feet of water (our shallowest anchorage yet). Shallow anchorages are nice if they are well protected (which this one was) - you end up putting out a lot less anchor line and you swing around less at night, which is comforting.
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The bay was beautiful - sort of like a oceanfront version of Yosemite. There is a big half-dome mountain just above the hot springs. We dropped the dinghy and got suited up for hot springs - just as the rain started to pick up. Undetered, we threw on our rain jackets over our swimsuits and headed out. The hot springs were just as magical as I had hoped - basically just a pipe and pool built from the existing rocks and some concrete to fill in the gaps. It was incredibly hot - and it sounds like it gets a lot hotter if you don’t plug up the pipe with a stick in advance (which had been done before we arrived). Angela and I took turns running down to the ocean (which was around 70 deg) and back up to the hot springs. It was fun all around - until we had to head back in the dinghy in the cold rain…
After we got back, I pulled out the DSLR (which I had used to get pictures of the petroglyphs) and downloaded all the pictures. Turns out, Angela did get a good picture of the otters! I think these were from a couple of days ago, but whatever settings she deduced worked perfectly…
The next morning, I had every intention of sleeping in and making pancakes - but neither Angela or I forgot to turn off our alarms (which both went off at 6a). I tried hard to get back to sleep, but failed and got about my chores for the morning. I went above and took a look around - to see two brown bears on the short, foraging for some food in the tidal flat. One was brown, but one was mostly white - except with black paws and a slightly brown head. At first, I thought it might have been a spirit bear - but I think they are completely white. Probably something for me to check on when we have internet again. Internet update - not a spririt bear.
I had put out the crab trap the night before - hoping to catch a few more crabs - and when I pulled it up in the morning, the chicken was completely covered in starfish. I think they must have been boxing out the crabs! There were some larger/commercial crab traps in the bay so I figured there must have been good crabbing, but perhaps the starfish were taking over…
We planned to head back to the hot springs in the morning and we were almost thwarted by terrible flies that were swarming around our boat in the morning. Sara, Oakley, and I braved the flies by covering ourselves head to toe with clothing and jumped on the dinghy to head to shore. As soon as we got out of the sun, the flies dissapeared and we had a magical soak in the hot springs. We met some fellow boaters who have been coming here for the last 30 years! This and Pruth Bay were their favorites - which I think I would emphatically echo. They had some good tips for us for the next couple of days and we discussed some of the challenges of staying at anchor - they had optimized their system to basically stay at anchor in some bay for 30+ days, so we have a lot to learn. When I asked them what their plans were - they informed me that they had absolutelly none. They may stay here for another day or they may stay for another 10 days. They had actually spent the day before doing hot spring maintenance - draining the pool, cleaning it, refilling it, etc - something we thanked them for mightily. That also explains why it was so hot yesterday - the fill water is 122 deg F and you need to plug up the inlet a bit to let the water cool off so that it’s bearable…
Leaving the hot springs was a challenge - The flies were swarming the dinghy when we returned and the tide had come in putting our dinghy in waist deep water. I took my pants off (I put them on over my swimsuit to protect against the flies) and waded out to get it. Then we raced back to the boat and basically completed our fastest start off of anchor to date - hoping to make for the channel where the flies would dissipate. They did, for the most part, but we were battling the last of them for the next 30 min or so. Oakley was a trooper - nipping at the flies that were swarming her. Sara decided this was the best way to battle the flies as well, so we had two puppies running around the boat biting at the flies!
We made for a bay - Elcho Bay - that was mentioned in our guide for having beautiful waterfalls pouring down both sides of the bay. There were a few places to anchor and we were considering having lunch near one of the waterfalls. The bay was beautiful, but we only saw one waterfall and it was mostly grown over. The flies were starting to come back as we slowed down near the shore, so we decided to eat underway (Taco Sunday!) and continue our journey to Ocean Falls.
We had the current at our backs and we were making good time, but our late start made us a bit anxious to get there. Ocean Falls has a small craft harbour, but it doesn’t take reservations and we worried there wouldn’t be a spot for us. We ended up getting what we thought was the last spot, but after we walked around the marina it looked like there might have been room for 1-2 more. Popular place - which was a good sign.
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Ocean Falls was described as a “mostly” ghost town. It was a mill town and the mill closed around 50 years ago. The town of several thousand dried up overnight and the town was vacant for many years. There is a hydro dam there which powers most of the small communities in the area (Shearwater, Bella Bella, etc) - which is probably the only reason it survived. Today, there are ~30 year round residents and around 150 residents during the summer. Most of the buildings are abandoned and many are crumbling - only a few are occupied.
There is a gift shop and a small bed and breakfast. The bed and breakfast hosts do baking day on Mondays - and fortunately we had planned a rest day here on Monday! The “town” had a gift shop/museum, this inn/ice cream shop/bakery (all one place) and the marina - that was about it. There’s the dam and hydropower operation - but that was in a separate part of the town. Apparently, the dam makes more than enough power for the communities it serves and so there is a crypto-currency mining operation somewhere - but it wasn’t obvious where. Might be in the same place as the hydro operations.
This town also had the first tidal grid we had seen. We had heard about these inventions but never seen them in real life. The idea is that there is a big ramp that goes into the ocean and you pull your boat up onto the ramp at high tide, tie up, and then wait for the tide to go out. You then have the next 12 hours to do whatever boat work you want to do on the bottom of your boat before the tide comes back in and you cast off again. Cheapest haulout available!
We also found a burgee from our friends at Shatze!
The hosts also had 3 kids - one that was Sara’s age. They hit it off immediately and raced off to play in the playground and the kids’ treehouse. Treehouse was used lightly here - this was a 3 story powered, heated, insulated house which was sort of built around a tree. The father had built it over the last 3-4 years using mostly reclaimed products from the abandoned buildings - the flooring was a cement board from shower stalls in the abandoned hotel. The roof and siding was old growth wood panels that were taken from some of the houses that were completely collaped. Sara and Zachary (their 7 y/o) had a blast playing in the tree house, picking/eating cherries and other berries, and playing on the playground for the next several hours.
The following morning (our rest day), we headed up to pickup some baked goods (bread and cookies) and Sara got some more play time with Zachary - couple of hours this time. They did all the things - treehouse, playground, and crafting. Pipecleaner zoo was the theme…
Around noon, we tore Sara away to do the hike up to Link Lake (the lake that feeds the dam). It’s a short hike (little under a mile) but it’s beautiful and we picked salmon berries all along the way - might have even been a calorie positive hike… The lake was clean and clear when we got to the top and was just asking to be swam in. I was the only one to go - it was cold/refreshing, but fun!
After our hike, we headed back to town to checkout the gift shop and have a look at the museum - which is really just a collection of the weird stuff people left behind when they abandoned the town. Unfortunatly, it was closed - but Genesis (Zach’s mother) told us she could let us in after dinner tonight (when she closes up her shops for the day. Awesome!
We went back to the boat for a snack and a nap, and the kids followed up. We ended up not getting naps, but instead swimming in the marina - Sara was happy, parents were tired… :)
Dinner was crab mac and cheese! I thought for sure Sara would love it, but I think she was a bit full from cookies that Genesis was sneaking her all afternoon - oh well, Angela and I thought it was delicous!
After dinner we headed up to the museum for our private tour. It was truly incredible - This man (who recently died) had collected anything he could find from the old town and stored it in this big room. Ocean falls got it’s start as a mill town in 1906 - and the mill was finally closed in 1980. We found a couple of year books and in the 1960’s the graduating class was almost 50 people - This was not a small town in it’s day. I could have spent hours here and Angela had to pull me away - Appologies in advance for a lot of photos of this one, I just found this stuff so interesting!
We found Ocean Falls to be a truely incredible place - so full of history, everyone was so nice, and such a peaceful place to spend a day. And don’t worry - Mama got Zach’s address so that Sara can write to him!
Tomorrow we make for Rescue bay near Klemtu and see what other incredible things we can find.