Puffin around Brooks Peninsula

We woke this morning and took a walk down the boardwalk around Winter Harbour. The board walk is the main "avenue" thru town. There are really no paved roads, the road from Port Hardy to Winter Harbour is a dirt logging road. According to a local that we had conversation with, the Dept of Transportation maintains the boardwalk, since they built it way back when….and therefore are required to keep it functioning. The community of Winter Harbour is moving away from commercial fishing and becoming more of a "sportsman's paradise" with superb fishing (we saw beautiful fish coming off the boats), fishing lodges and cottages for the summer season. I hope they succeed in maintaining their community. The man at the fuel dock told us they had humpbacks this winter coming into the harbor and feeding just off the docks. When we get wifi we will post some photos of the boardwalk, etc. Having returned from our walk we reviewed the weather and made the decision to head out to get around Brooks Peninsula. The decision to leave Winter Harbour was based on flat seas, little to no wind and a strong blow coming over the next few days. We ended up departing the dock around 11:30 am. We made a successful rounding of Brooks Peninsula arriving in Columbia Cove at 7PM this evening. It was a long run (42nm) and we had a few highlights (well, interesting situations…) First of all, the Canadian Pilot describes the waters off Brooks as some of the most hostile on the west coast. The peninsula is stuck out from the coastline, jutting almost 5 nm into the pacific. There is a shelf that rises steeply off shore from this land mass. The two combine to create dangerous conditions for mariners. We were nervous at having to make this transition as we had heard it could be challenging. The weather we had this afternoon was the most perfect we could have hoped for. Seas were flat with 1-1.5 meter swell. Wind 5-7 kts. Fog had lifted and visibility was 5-7 nm. As we headed around the point of Solander Island we saw our first Puffins! They were bobbing in the swell. The fog began to settle in on the back side of Solander Island, but the visibility was still 1-2 nm. We have been navigating using charts, GPS and Radar. The chart plotting with lats and longs every 15 minutes has been fun and keeps us sharp on skills. While we were commenting on the fog settling in our GPS failed. Why do these things happen at the most challenging moments? I am very thankful for the navigation class and the skills practiced in our offshore class taught by Craig Walker at "Tradewinds Sailing". I am also glad we have been doing the navigation on the paper chart. We did have a hand held GPS which we powered up and used for a while. Paul rebooted the main GPS awhile later and it seemed accurate. Tonight we are at anchor in Columbia Cove. It is tucked behind Brooks Peninsula and seems well protected. Tomorrow we hope to do some beach combing and exploring.

Janet enjoying a stroll along the boardwalk at
Winter Harbor.

Paul on the Winter Harbor boardwalk.

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