This morning Tim and Terry fired up the engine at 6 and I laid abed writing for a while. Eventually all and sundry crawled up on deck and we drank coffee (tea) and munched on toast, scrambled eggs and sausages. Donna is really spoiling us.

A bit later we did a drive-by of Telegraph Cove with a few morning dolphins. Leslie and Bob were still in their bunks or at least down below, so they missed them. We also checked out Alert Bay but we won’t stop until Port Hardy. Then we will top up all the tanks and head to Bull Harbour on Hope Island. And then tomorrow is Cape Scott and the Pacific Ocean.

I did my first docking of the trip in the tight marina at Port Hardy, but managed to bring the boat into the fuel dock successfully. Since this is the last civilization we fuelled up and had showers. Then it was back out and motoring the last 20nm to Bull Harbour. I sent off a last few messages before reliable cell coverage disappears.

I am having no luck with my tracks. Today’s died moments out of Port Hardy. In any event we arrived at Bull Harbour early evening and dropped anchor in 12′ of water. It’s a new moon so the tide was expected to rise up to 11′ more.

We ate dinner, sorted through our offshore gear and then hit the sack.

Tim and Terry were getting up at midnight to weigh anchor and cross the Nahwitti bar. Les, Bob and I were set for the 4am shift.

[flexiblemap src=”http://macblaze.ca/kmz/VanDay5.kml”]

B Timothy Keith
–a la iphone!