It’s a good day to catch up. After being on the move every day this past week—exploring and poking in and out of bays and anchorages—it’s pouring rain today and we are staying put. There are more than a dozen boats hunkered down with us in Turnbull Cove in the North Broughtons. It’s the most boats we’ve seen in one place since we left Alert Bay nine days ago.

We’ve been the only boat in most of the coves and inlets where we’ve dropped our hook. It is vast and empty here. “We have rocks and trees and trees and rocks, and rocks and trees and trees and rocks…and water!” sings the Canadian band The Arrogant Worms. But boy, what beautiful trees and rocks and water BC has!

Here’s a photo tour of some of our anchorages so far:

Yvonne Maximchuk painted plein air at the Burdwood Group Islands and showed us the exact location where she’d painted ours on the chart. Of course we had to see if we could find it! One of the wonders of this trip is our ability to wander, to explore and see where our nose—and the charts—lead us. There’s an immense feeling of freedom in this. We were delighted to discover and anchor next to this pristine midden shell beach at the location she’d sent us to. It’s the most beautiful midden beach we’ve seen so far on this trip. Midden beaches are formed from deep layers of broken clam and other shells laid down over centuries by the indigenous people.

This anchorage ranks as my favorite so far this trip. Not only was it spectacularly beautiful, we could get ashore and it was fun exploring the small islands and islets on our paddle boards. Yvonne also told us about a culturally modified tree on one of the islands and how to find it. We were able to find the small flag marking where to go ashore and then follow a short, rough trail up to an ancient tree where the indigenous people, centuries ago, used stone tools to split planks off the tree to use for building, without killing it. The tree could be a thousand years old.

As we headed up Simoom Sound we ran into fellow cruisers Carl and Laura who we’d met at Lagoon Cove. As we bobbed in the water and yelled to each other from our cockpits, they told us they’d spent three days at this great spot. “Just look for the rock that looks like a boob,” Laura shouts, “you can’t miss it!” They were right! Here’s my illustrated rendition of what we’ve affectionally named “Boob Islet”:

The spot was beautiful and the water was a deep emerald green. It was cloudy, which made it difficult to take photos to do justice to the Yosemite-like granite peaks we were under.

Kwatsi Bay is just stunning. Unfortunately, low clouds descended over the towering granite mountains so we were unable to catch them in our pictures.

It was a cold but sunny and clear day when we anchored in Joe Cove. Forevermore it will be known to us as “Bill” Cove. Our friends Bill and his wife Shirley were avid cruisers and Joe Cove was one of Bill’s favorite anchorages. We lost Bill last year and Shirley asked that we take up and leave some of his ashes at Joe Cove, which we did. It was a beautiful send off to a beautiful man in a gorgeous place.

It was sunny and warm when we arrived at Turnbull Cove, yesterday, and we hiked up to a freshwater lake above the cove—not far, but straight up with pretty fresh bear dung on the trail. It felt great to stretch our legs and David even went for a swim, calling me a “sissy” for not wanting to jump in the cold water. We met with several other boaters on the dock of the lake—a BC maintained recreation site. All were from Washington, and most from the Bellingham area. What a small world it can be.

Very few people get to see and explore this area. The only way to get here is by boat or seaplane. We feel so lucky and privileged to be here. Loving each other and this place.