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DATE: August 2, 2002 DESTINATION: Duncaby Landing
STILL TALKING Woke up to that guy still talking on the Nordstar at 7:30 AM. Got up and took Ziggy out. The Canadians were talking to another boat just like there’s.
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DECIDED TO SEE HOW FAR WE CAN MAKE IT, WEATHER PERMITTING Everybody checked the weather report and all decided we should go and see how far we can get. If we have to, we’ll stay in Fury Cove, and if it’s calm, we may go all the way, making the crossing and then spending the night in Sullivan Bay. We left about 9:00 AM. 11:00 AM: Weather has been pretty calm up until Fitzhugh Sound. The wind is about 9 knots and sea is mild. I didn’t pay much attention to the trip having slept part of the way. We just followed Raven going down the same plotted route.
FURY COVE, TOTALLY PACKED We went by Fury Cove but it was totally packed both in the inner and the outer cove, all waiting out the Front headed this way. We decided to go on to Duncaby Landing. Susan called ahead and radioed back that they’re saving space for us. The weather was good to go across Queen Charlotte Sound but it would’ve been a really long day and you don’t want to cross that when you’re tired. BACK AT THE "DUMP" We pulled into Duncaby Landing and
Raven takes a spot on those crummy docks again. They did have their new
docks in but "the space was reserved for a barge due to come in." Larry
had to go around the old ratty docks and dock on the inside. It was a
little hairy getting in and then turning around with no chart to show the
depths. All we were told was to "turn near the building to miss the
rocks"! Larry did fine except some goof ball that came out to take the
lines tried to get us to tie onto a big loose log! No way! We decided to
pull our boat back behind the junky fishing boat owned by the owner of
Duncaby. The place is still as much of a mess as it was before. Ziggy
immediately rolled in some crap on the dock, probably otter poop. Now
he'll need a bath. There's only one place for him to pee and pooh here
too and that’s on the big rock right by the entrance to the store. I guess
I should let him take a crap on the dock as I don't think the owners here
would even notice. Susan wanted to eat dinner in the restaurant. We had to make "reservations" at this dump. They were serving rib eye tonight. I decided to catch up with my bookkeeping with the check book and visa and spent time in the boat. Later we played dominos on Raven’s boat. Susan and Reiner came by for a drink before dinner and then we headed up to the "dining room". I hadn't finished my beer so I just brought it with me but incredibly they wouldn't let me bring it in. Imagine, in this junky place? I had to throw it in the trash can and buy a new one from them. This place is nothing but a bunch of crummy buildings and run down docks. The dinner was not much better. The rib eye was full of gristle and flat as a pancake. I'm not sure really what kind of meat it was, really. It didn't seem like beef. The dinners came with half of a tomato, some canned corn and a dried out baked potato with condiments on the side served without utensils. We had no spoons so we had to manage getting the sour cream, chopped onions out with a knife or fork. As Betty Davis used to say so appropriately, "What a dump!" (Today ,2008,as we're posting this, this place is a fancy fishing resort and none of this exists. See our visit in 2006 )
DATE: August 3, 2002 DESTINATION: Sullivan Bay NO SLEEP We went to bed early last night to get a good night sleep because we all agreed to get an early 5:00 AM start. In the middle of the night though the expected barge came in (about 2:00 AM) and then another follow it and we got no sleep for the rest of the night because they were unloading and talking loud all night long. FORGOT TO CHECK THE SUNRISE When we finally dragged our tired bodies out of bed to leave at the agreed departure time of 5:00 AM but to all our surprise, it was pitch black out. We all forgot to check the time of the sunrise and just assumed it would be daylight. ZIGGY LIKED THE "DUMP" Though I didn't like this place much Ziggy liked it because we could let him run around loose on the dock and he was happy as a clam. Other than rolling in some crap which required Larry giving him a bath it was great for him. We left at 5:30, before sunrise, still dark but we could see a little bit. The seas were calm with low long swells. Several fishermen were out in skiffs already fishing. The skies were cloudy. There's always something eerie about leaving in dark. It always looks dark and scary like a storm is coming. I’ll be glad when it gets lighter. QUEEN CHARLOTTE CROSSING UNEVENTFUL We went by Dugout Rocks but on the inside cut this time. I was having a fit worrying about some rocks under the water. It wasn't the way we came heading north. The islands are white in color. The trees are bent and stripped bare by the normally strong winds in this area adding extra drama to my imagination for the crossing. ALL WENT SMOOTHLY, UNTIL... The Queen Charlotte crossing went just fine. It was uneventful except for some large swells but we all rode up and over them smoothly. All was fine. Well, until we headed into heavy fog. We lost sight of everything except what we could see on the radar screen. We were keeping our eye on tracking two tugs pulling big loads on the screen which was a little unnerving and then one large fish buying boat on our port quarter. It was a little hairy with the fog just because there were other boats out here and we knew we had to watch out for them. We lost sight of Raven during this period but tracked them too on the radar and followed their path. It was what the thickest pea soup we had ever seen. All went fine as we kept our eyes on all those spots on the radar screen. Once we were passing Ripple Passage, we saw millions of little birds out on the water. We were out of the fog now and seeing a lot of small fishing skiffs and bigger yacht type fishing boats. We're nearing Sullivan Bay and we heard Susan again on the radio calling Sullivan Bay to reserve space for all of us. "Raven" went in to the dock first. We had to go in to the back corner. Larry did a good job going in, turning around and getting us in the tight spot that was left. Guess that’s what happens when you’re the last at the dock, following someone, you're left with the crap spots. SULLIVAN BAY Sullivan Bay is a charming place.
The place is nothing more than old floating docks and buildings salvaged
from the old floating logging and cannery towns. There's no land as it's
just a floating village. There are some really nice float houses too, one that has a helicopter landing pad on top and others that have float plane docks. Several have yachts or huge sports fishing boats parked on their private docks. PET SEAL I bought a little children’s book in the general store written and illustrated by the owner about a little abandoned baby seal that they found and had raised. It became a pet and they taught it to fish and survive in the ocean when it grew up. It still comes by to visit they say. The story is written from the perspective of the cat “Alley”. WOOD CARVER We came across a wood carver working out of the back of his old converted fishing boat. He was carving some beautiful things, mostly animals like eagles, seals and ducks. We asked if he would make a sea otter for us. He said sure and we gave him a small deposit. He said he was busy for the next several months but would send it to us next spring and if we liked it we could pay him the balance and if not we could send if back and he would refund us our deposit. Now how about that? Just like the old days when people were honest and genuine. We gave him our address and hoped for the best. (Sure enough, it came in the mail next spring and is cute as a bug and we mailed him a check for the balance!) STORM AND SUNSET We ate in since there was no restaurant. They have a dock boy that helped us with the lines when we came in and Larry gave them a tip. I guess we're getting back to civilization. I took Ziggy for a long kayak ride all around. We played more dominoes that night with Raven and then watched a spectacular thunder and lightening storm with heavy heavy rain. Then just as suddenly it blew through and then we had the most magnificent sunset that I have ever seen my whole life. The sky turned a deep magenta and then orange and it was magnificent. I'll never forget it my whole life. I cooked us some fresh halibut from Petersburg that night for dinner.
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DATE: August 4, 2002 DESTINATION: Greenway Sound GREENWAY SOUND, JUST AROUND THE CORNER Susan and Reiner said they wanted to go to Greenway Sound which is just around the corner. We said that would be fine and also discussed possible plans of going to Shawl Bay, Echo Bay, or Pierre’s the next day. We left Sullivan Bay and took our time as we slowly cruised to Greenway Sound. We didn't have far to go and wanted to leave time for people at the docks in Greenway to leave. When we arrived at Greenway I was surprised as the place was nothing more than a big U-shaped dock with a restaurant with small attached store for supplies. It's just a big dock for people to tie up to, eat dinner and get some minimal supplies. ELMER AGAIN Once we tied up we saw Elmer Bernstein walking the docks eating some ice cream that he bought in the store. He stopped by to say "hello". We asked what the names of some of the latest movies he'd done. He said Gangs of NY and something else. Susan asked him what were his most famous and he rattled off just a few: Ten Commandments, Magnificent Seven, Great Escape, Man with a Golden Arm. Amazing! HIKING TRAIL There is a trail that you can hike nearby but you have to take your dinghy to get there. We all took a hike up the mile trail to the lake. It’s an old logging trail where you can still see what they call the corduroy planks which they used to transport the cut trees down to the water. We decided to hike even higher up to Beaver Lake. I think it was about a ½ mile more to that. Some areas were muddy and buggy. Zig had a ball. Zig really likes Susan and Reiner and they seem to like him. When we got back we had just enough time to shower, clean up and go to dinner. The restaurant is in nothing more than a crummy building but it serves its purpose and everyone goes to dinner as that's the reason to come here, to tie up and eat dinner. DINNER The food wasn't anything spectacular as I had something called Cincinnati Spaghetti which was nothing more than linguini with chili, chopped onions, shredded cheddar cheese and oyster crackers piled on top. Strange dish. Everybody else had shrimp cooked in a lemon, butter, garlic and wine sauce. It was kind of watery, with pasta rice and mixed vegetables. We had a bottle of red wine that gave me a terrible hangover the next day. For desert they had chocolate sundaes, apple pie ala mode, strawberries and butter bars. I think we sampled all of them. What else is there to do here? NOT MY FAVORITE We decide to skip our dominoes game for the night and I go back and try to get the boat more organized. It seems messy now and I’m tired of this rain. Don’t particularly like this place. Nothing but a dock and a restaurant. Huge boats here. Nothing else.
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They have a cute little "Poop Deck" for visiting dogs and a fly plane dock
that they call "Sullivan Bay International Airport". There's a little
general store where you can get minimal supplies. The store and supplies
are pretty typical for these places but the funny thing was the little
fake "Safeway" logo painted over the entrance. Flower boxes are
everywhere over flowing with colorful arrangements and murals adorn almost
everything and anything you can think of including the propane tanks, all
with a sense of humor. 
