Rivendell, I mean, Princess Louisa Inlet
Today we wind through Jervis Inlet, British Columbia—a 40 mile journey carving north through the mountains from the Georgia Strait. Jervis Inlet is the deepest fjord on the B.C. coast, with depths of 2,400 ft. Two of Canada's highest waterfalls can be found near this inlet. At it's head is Chatterbox Falls in Princess Louisa Inlet. It feels as if we’re approaching Rivendell (the middle-earth Elvin Realm in Tolkein's The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and other works.) Jagged mountain tops, broad and harrowing cliffs bow to the fjord below. In many areas you can sail right next to a 1,000 ft tall magnificent cliff scattered with ferns and tenacious pine, sitting on over 1000 feet of water!
Jude is playing in the cockpit with his magnetic blocks, ever a challenge to keep this toddler occupied in our 36ft space! His newest boat-boy hobby is various block-and-tackle configurations. He hoists toys, spoons, my missing cell phone, anything he can get his hands on, in buckets and bags that he configures pully-systems for, up and down the companionway or off the mizzen boom. He's getting exciting for our man-overboard drills, practicing pulling each other up from the water.
“Definitely bears up there,” Jon says, gazing into the mountainside forests 500 yards on either side of our boat. Bears are a popular topic in our family, ever since I read Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance last summer. I oscillate between morbid fascination in bear behavior (including gory accounts of attacks) and paralyzing fear that's kept me up through the night while camping or clutching my bear bell on our family hikes through the woods! Though we take romping in bear country very seriously, we have to joke and pull my leg to quell my ever-hovering fears.
Occasional logging, mining and fishing grounds quilt the coastline of Jervis Inlet—a testament to B.C.’s rich bounty of natural resources, and human's longstanding history exploiting them. I recently read The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant, which I highly recommend. A captivating short read. It gives history of the logging industries influence over the colonization of coastal B.C., intertwined with a bizarre story about a logger turned environmentalist who single handedly cut down an extremely massive and rare golden spruce tree on Haida Gawaii Island to make a very peculiar point. It was a devastating loss for the native Haida people, referred to as Kiidk'yaas,"ancient tree" in the Haida language.
Jude made some great strides with swimming while we relaxed in Princess Louisa Inlet. We bought some floatie toys to entice him into the deep blue water—he's been great in pools but a little trepid to jump off the boat (understandable, so am I!) Remember that scene from What About Bob where Bill Murray is on the sail boat, tied to the mast? "I'm SAILING! I'm SAILING!" Well, that was Jude, all puffed up with his life jacket in a floating bullseye duck floatie, practically humping the water in excitement and yelling "I'm SWIMMING! I'm SWIMMING!" Not quite swimming in the deep blue yet Jude, but that's dad and I's little secret!
Princess Lousia Inlet was a big milestone for this first leg of our trip. It was the last place we really wanted to go in the Northwest before making THE BIG LEFT TURN into the Pacific. With my Utah roots, and Jon and I’s collective east coast roots, we know BIG mountains and sea. But never was there a place that melds these two landscapes so beautifully than coastal B.C. (and Alaska, though we’ve yet to make it up there together.) Sort of an interesting parallel to the melding of our personalities as we move through this journey together—a fish and a ram figuring their shit out and falling in love on a boat. Depending on the day (or hour), sometimes I'm the fish, sometimes Jon's the ram, and vise versa. This lifestyle puts it all in, all on the table. In less than a month we will sail down the Pacific Coast to San Francisco, and eventually to Mexico, the Sea of Cortez! Due time to leave our beloved Northwest, as the wind has widdled our Cascadia flag down to the center of the tree!
Info for the fellow family cruisers!
ITINERARY | Princess Louisa Inlet
Day 1: Leave Pender Harbor, near Madeira Bay, motor sailing to Green Bay in Agamemnon Channel: a short 1.5 hour evening cruise. We anchored right in front of a little waterfall on the left end of the bay (near a dock), which can be heard from the woods but not seen from the boat. Not much to do ashore (there are private signs posted about), but a lovely, secluded and calm anchorage for the night in Green Bay. We saw no signs of a potential uncharted rock at the entrance to Green Bay, mentioned in the Waggoner's Cruising Guide.
Day 2:
Early start, leaving Green Bay and traveling 9.5 hours to the head of Princess Louisa Inlet. We were able to catch a bit of sporadic wind to sail here and there up the channel.
Day 3 & 4:
Relaxing in the inlet ... loads of swimming and waterfall pondering. Taking the dinghy around the cliff sides to explore the flora and fauna. There is a public dock but we opted for anchorage to the left of the main falls. The powerboats seem to get the good spots anchoring right up close to the falls. Take an evening dinghy ride to an island mid channel in P.L.I.—we found several harbor seal mommas and pups napping in the afternoon sun on it's sunny, rocky shore.
Day 5:
Long journey back, Princess Louisa Inlet back to Pender Harbor. Left the head of the inlet at 9am to catch a safe exist through Malibu rapids (no worries there, if you are watching your currents and tides right!) Total trip just under 10 hours. Not much wind to be seen for sailing, though we hear the wind runs north in the morning and back out in the afternoon.