And Willie Said: Planes, Waterfalls, and a Mooring Ball at Walker Cove -- 6/30/2015

Punchbowl Inlet sees a low tide at 6:30A, causing our stern tie to drape lazily across a mossy rock. That we made it through the night is proof that the line splice Herb made at Lady Smith is good! Thank you, Herb!

(Photo taken at Ladysmith Marina in May -- Herb splices a line.)

Today he brings in the stern tie at 8:45A and reports the anchor comes up clean as a whistle – no mud in Punchbowl – we held fast in the rocky bottom. Ray echoes the same with his anchor. We cruise toward our next destination of Walker Cove, also in Misty Fjords.

Today is mostly sunny with clouds on mountains that reach to the sky. We turn to starboard in Rudyerd Bay to sight-see in the rest of the arm. There is more amazing beauty along this direction and I am fascinated with the crevasse featuring the sun’s reflection on the granite, even though it is a little hazy. Nudibranch can be seen below. (If you can zoom!)

Tiny Nudibranch compared to the Mountain

AIS shows Herb the tour boat St. John as she goes into Punchbowl at 30 knots, and we are glad we are not still there to get the wake while we are stern tied and anchored in 80 feet of rock and boulders.

Do I see a waterfall?

The face of this mountain is carved with great detail.

A plane sits on the water and taxies behind us to take off. Hopefully, I get a photo of his lights flashing.

Mixed Greens

When the tour boat stops for photos for a long time, Herb marks the spot on Garmin, so we can check it out on our way out of the channel. We wonder what they have spotted....

If you stop long enough to contemplate a rock wall, you can begin to see faces and shapes of animals, as in the Elephant Rock. Here I see a bear winking at me.

Nudibranch returns from going through the narrows into the inner channel. He reports a nice waterfall in the end of the cove. He says there appeared to have been a rock slide in one area and probably some uncharted rock, which he avoided.

We see the tour boat leave, and now we have the bay all to ourselves. We laugh about no need to monitor the Traffic Channel on the VHF radio. Having gone almost to the end of the arm, we turn back toward the entrance and a nice tall waterfall comes into view. It turns from sight to flow behind a rock.

Serenity turns to excitement when we realize we are not really alone, but meet a beautiful wooden boat, probably a Lake Union Dream Boat. Herb uses the binoculars to see him photographing us, and tells me to wave.

Some of the mountains suggest a large hand with a diamond blade slices off a piece of the granite.

The photo below is the waterfall where the tour boat sat for so long. We hear the rushing water and marvel at how it tumbles over the rocks to find its way down to the sea.

Many planes fly over us in both directions and Herb says we are probably much photographed by the tourists. Continuing our cruise northward, we get back to Behm Canal and welcome the flat calm water. No traffic is in sight.

Sad Face Mountain

Our sunshine disappears and clouds drift in near Granite Creek, where we see a gorgeous waterfall. Sprinkles of rain decorate our windshield just as we approach Walker Cove. We plan to do a bit of sight-seeing, as it is written up in the literature as even more spectacular than Punchbowl. Garmin shows the ocean floor under us rising from a depth of 350 feet to a shallow of 31 across a bar at the entrance to the cove, but at high tide we see 48 feet. The twisting channel was carved eons ago by glaciers. Several mountain tops have lingering patches of snow. A prominent boulder looks like it is waiting to be dislodged to become an uncharted rock in the channel.

Wow! Voile! The Forest Service heavy duty mooring ball is unoccupied.

Opportunity knocks and gives us a home for the night in a picturesque setting.

With Willie’s Tug only a little more than one year old, we have never caught a mooring ball for her, so we find out that the bow line does not reach to the cockpit, where I usually loop it, so Herb grabs it from the helm. We have a spare longer line available, which we will consider using next time. Growing pains.

We beckon Nudibranch to raft to us and we are home.

These are the views from our windows.

We position the boats swim platform to swim platform, which leaves a gap between, but we put down rugs for Lilly’s paws to grip, enabling her to jump across to visit Uncle Herb and Aunt Willie for Happy Hour and dinner.

Herb and Ray set out the crab traps, and much later, as the sun is painting its colors on the rippled sea, they go back to see if they got dinner for us.