Toba Inlet

This  entry made on Wednesday evening, June 28^th:

At this point, I take no responsibility for the chronology of events other than this mostly wonderful day. We are at the Stuart Island Marina tonight after  traversing  a portion of the Yaculta  Rapids at slack tide to avoid  more excitement than any of us wanted…..it feels like we are finally  entering true wilderness and the wildlife it implies…..this afternoon we noticed literally hundreds of birds bustling about an island to the west and when viewed with binoculars discovered that it was all Bald Eagles…….We hadn’t provisioned since Nanaimo, so we stormed the general store here at Stuart Island and pretty well wiped them out on numerous essentials (including beer!)…..the folks here are quite friendly and gave us some tips on fishing for ling cod, so Richard, Katya, and I (Steve) headed out in the dinghy early afternoon and in about 30 minutes, Richard snagged this monster fellow from the deep (20 lbs?)……enough fish for all of us for a few days of delightful dinners……..Beautiful waterfalls are ubiquitous and on the way up here, Richard pulled the bow of the boat so close that you could literally take a shower up front if you could stand the cold. Our resident boat artist , Katya, continues to amaze with her drawings and three dimensional art projects including face disguises and caricatures for us to wear in the evening. Roger Brierley Jones keeps us all honest with the driest (and most effortless) wit since James Bond. Jude and Sandy are keeping us all well fed as well as handling the sheets whenever required (wenches on winches).  Luda Brierley Jones is our soulful and intrepid leader on all our trekking excursions  and  crashes in total , well deserved exhaustion at the end of the day……tomorrow we head further north in the hopes of  seeing grizzly bears and possibly orcas and who knows what else……. It’s a mystery……