Justine's Journal

Shawna called and today they departed Windy Bay and found it was a windy day. Included here is a photo of Shawna working on her diary. Due to the wind they only paddled about 9 nm to Ramsay Island stopping on the way to visit Hotsprings Island. Another bear seen today and this one was a big one. Shawna said they were enjoying a camp fire and when I asked if it was a "white man's fire" as Leon described in This Is The Sea, she pointedly said NO this is a "white woman's fire". Sounds to me like the women may be rebelling against Leon's iron fisted rule? U Go Girl

Mike

Leon called this evening. They are camped at Porter Head which is just before they cross the boundary of and enter Gwaii Haanas National Park. Leon said that as they approach the park the mountains seem to be much larger. On the way they stopped and visited Skedans which is a Haida village. A website with information about the Haida is: http://www.civilization.ca/aborig/haida/hvske01e.html
They all enjoyed another good day of weather with just a bit of a head wind. They had just enjoyed a delicous dinner of corned beef, mashed potatoes and vegetables when Leon called. Speaking of eating, apparently Leon requires that Justine and Shawna entertain him if they want dinner. Included is a photo of Justine and Shawna playing drums for their dinner and a photo of Justine accepting her prize from Leon.
Mike

It's nearly 3pm and we're still here in Queen Charlotte City. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is proving to get my small waterproof camera system which I mount on my kayak delivered to me here. It was meant to be here at the start of the trip 13 days ago now and it's still not here. Apparently it's finally on the island in Masset, about an hours drive from here, but geting our hands on it is proving difficult. As Shawna says in her positive way, adventres aren't always in our kayaks! I'm hoping to be able to be reunited with it soon so we can get underway, or arrange to have it delivered to us tomorrow and we'll still be by a road for part of the day ( if we don't paddle too far!). I have been filming with a handheld camera on the water and have got some lovely wildlife and scenery shots but I look forward to ( hopefully ) having the exciting action shots to go with it as we go around Moresby island.

It's been fun in Queen Charlotte City ( which is really more like Queen Charlotte village). We've stayed at the Premiere Lodge where we've been looked after well and allowed to spread out all our kayaking stuff all over the lawn! Amazingly I met a guy, Alwyn who lives 2 miles away from me in Wales, and we've chatted to lots of great local people. Yesterday I hitched a ride to Skidegate where my camera was meant to have been delivered. Doug picked me up, a guy who has lived here since 1968. I told him we hadn't caught any fresh fish because we decided $110 was too expensive to buy a fishing license, but we hoped to be able to buy some from local fishermen. Next thing I know, he's taking me to his workshop where he had just cut up 6 huge salmon that he'd caught that morning. He opened the chest freezer and the entire bottom was covered in huge chunks of pink fish. He handed me one of the biggest pieces, which was enough to feed a small army, and wouldn't accept any money for it ( or give me a smaller chunk). So we cooked it on the BBQ at Premiere lodge with some baked sweet potatoes and salad and it filled the stomachs of 6 of us. Thank you very much Doug if anyone happens to tell you about this blog!!


Eating has been high on our agenda for the last few days - actually on the whole trip, but back in town we're eating 2 big meals a day and lots of snacks. We've just returned from a huge plate of food at the Sea Raven restaurant. There are also loads of fantastic shops here packed with interesting Haida artwork and books. In Skidegate there is a new herritage centre where they are building 4 replica Haida canoes at the moment. We saw the men at work this morning and it looks amazing - they were just getting the basic outline on these huge cedar logs by chipping away with an axe. When we get back we'll have a proper look around all the shops and the museum. I probably won't post again today - unless we end up staying here, or I end up hitching to Masset and back to get my camera... I'll post again once we're in a new location!

5PM UPDATE - I got my camera!! Thank you so much to John Gamba, Philip Mutton, Mike DuPas and Mook at the Heritage Centre for all their help with that. We're just about ready to go now and will be on the water by 6 or 7pm. We're just going to paddle about 4 or 5 miles East to Torrens Island where we're told there's a tombolo we can camp on! The forecast for the next few days is good so we'll head on down the East coast of Moresby! Bring it on!!!

The trio camped at Marchand Pt. near Hippa island last night after paddling down the coast another 25 nm at about a 4 nm/hr pace. Winds were light except for about the last hour when it was at their backs. Another wonderful day with 3 different groups of humpback whales and sea lions playing by swimming under their kayaks. Looks like weather allowing, they will back in QC City/Skidegate Saturday or Sunday. A couple of photos from earlier in the journey are included.

Despite the name of the location all is well. Sorry about the lack of information on the blog. I haven't been able to update blog entries because during some server maintenance, the password was inadvertantly reset to an old one. Here's an update on their progress and a couple of photos taken earlier in their journey. Note that Shawna is not getting enough exercise so she does Yoga while on shore.

Tuesday, July 10
Justine called and they are camped near Langara island 2-3 miles from the west coast and ready to head south down the coast tomorrow. Justine, Shawna and Leon are all in good spirits and greatly enjoying their trip. They did about 23 nm on Monday. They are seeing amazing amounts of wildlife and many, many birds while weaving through the kelp beds. Justine said she has never seen so many eagles. They have also seen 2 humpback and some gray whales. Today they ran into 'a bit of a storm' and decided not to head down the west coast in the strong SW winds. So today they are relaxing and washing clothes and bodies. Some fisherman took them in and served them tea in their 'plush digs. They were amazed at the contrast between new and old with a Haida long house remains on the other side of the bay.

Wednesday, July 11
Justine called around 7 pm and all 3 are well. They paddled about 21 nm down the coast to Peril Bay today. She said the west coast is already quite different with the swells being much larger (maybe 3 meters). They are camped on a long beach (you can see it on the satellite photo) and it is a gorgeous misty kind of evening with enough sun to dry things out. They are greatly enjoying their surroundings.

Mike

So we've had 4 days on the water so far and have reached the town of Masset, 90 nautical miles from Skidegate where we started! This is the last town we'll pass on Graham Island, from here on there are no roads or settlements and we're heading towards the exposed West coast. So we made the most of a hot meal cooked by someone else tonight ( no offence to Leon, who has done a great job of keeping our bellies full of fuel every other night!). It was interesting to walk through Old Masset, the Haida village tonight. There are loads of amazing totem poles and we saw dozens of bald eagles and ravens flying incredibly close overhead. The locals were feeding the birds their fish scraps so the birds were swooping down low to fight over them.

The coastline so far has been mainly a low lying beach. We'd been expecting this section to be quite monotonous but were pleased to find that it constantly changed from black pebbles to white sand to huge boulders, with dunes, cliffs or dense forest behind it. Always there are hundreds of huge logs strewn on the top of the beach. Fortunately we haven't had the sort of weather that put them there as it was pretty calm for the first 3 days, allowing us to make some good distance. yesterday we rounded "Rose Spit', an amazing 3km long curving sand spit that marks the NE tip of Graham island into what the locals call Long Nose. We basically paddled 6km or more to end up within 100metres of where we started (!) but we couldn't bring ourselve to portage it!!

We saw our first whale today - a playful Grey Whale who was doing some strange but impressive maneovers with it's fin on the water. He came within 15 metres of us at one point which was incredile ( and a little scary when you have an expensive camera in your hands!). Just after seeing the whale, and passing 'Tow Head', a basalt mound that pokes out of the flat earth from nowhere, the wind picked up and we ended up battling into about 15knots of wind for most of the day... hopefully not the sign of things to come!

Overall we've having an amazing time in a beautiful country. Can't wait for the rest of it!!

Justine called and all is well. They've paddled for a couple of days (about 40 nm) and could be in Masset as soon as tomorrow. They are enjoying themselves and happy to be on the water. The weather has been good and they are seeing lots of wildlife although no whales yet. And they are seeing thousands of driftwood logs. Getting Justine's batteries and cameras to her has been a challenge for myself and John Gamba as the import rules have changed recently in Canada but I'm hoping the gear and Justine will connect up. -------- Mike

Here are some photos during their ferry trip to Prince Rupert, a photo of Haida Gwaii from space courtesy of Dan Moos, and a map showing the towns and ferry route. Mike

All day today our ferry snaked up through the Inside Passage through a narrow channel, surrounded by steep rocky bluffs covered with fir trees. The scenery was beautiful although it was mostly mist covered and moody. After 15 hours we arrived at Prince Rupert, arranged to leave our kayaks at the ferry terminal and found a place to stay. After a beer in the pub next door, we're ready for bed. Fortunately our ferry to Haida Gwaii tomorro isn't until 1pm so we get a bit of a lie in at last!!

IMPORTANT PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRIP

This blog comes from the Thunderbird Inn in Port Hardy where Shawna, Leon, Matt & I are sparing no expense and sharing a room! Matt has driven us up here and will drop us off at the ferry bright and early tomorrow. We have been told we need to be there by 5.30 for our 7.30am ferry to Prince Rupert. Yikes, very little sleep again tonight as it's 11.30pm already! We won't exactly get to make the most of what might be our last bed for several weeks. The drive up through Vancouver island was more built up than I had imagined but we did see 3 black bears close to Port Hardy which was pretty cool.


THE THUNDERBIRD INN!

MEDITATION ON THE FERRY TO VANCOUVER ISLAND

So we’re nearly ready to go! We leave the San Juan islands tomorrow morning on the 7am red eye ferry! Tonight Body Boat Blade hosted a farewell BBQ which was fun & I gave a talk about some of my adventures. Shawna has designed some great t-shirts about the trip which her and Leon are sporting here. We’re selling the t-shirts to help pay for some of our food on the trips & also to raise money for the Sea Doc society who work to preserve the marine environment. If anyone wants to buy one then please contact Body Boat Blade – there are only a limited number ( 60 ). Email info@bodyboatblade.com

It will take us 3 days to get to Haida Gwaii. Tomorrow we drive up to Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island. On Tuesday we get the ferry from there to Prince Rupert in mainland Canada, then on Wednesday we take a ferry from Prince Rupert to Skidgate in Haida Gwaii. On Thursday we need to take an orientation to make sure we know how behave in the national park of Gwaii Haanas, then we’ll finally start paddling on either Thursday or Friday!

We have hired a satellite phone ( generously paid for by Kokatat – thank you very much!) so we hope to do daily website updates on this blog. We’ll phone Mike DuPas from Orcas island and he’ll kindly write up our daily report for us. He’ll show a google map of our position and hopefully the odd photo of the locations, as we probably won’t be able to email photos back for a while.


So here are a few brief details of the plan! We intend to circumnavigate the 2 main islands in a figure of eight, starting with Graham island in the north. We’ll head up the more sheltered east coast and then round the exposed west coast in a counter clockwise direction. We’ll cross back through the strait between Graham and Moresby island, stop in Queen Charlotte City to resupply with food and charge camera batteries before heading around Moresby island in a clockwise direction. Gwaii Haanas Park on Moresby will be the highlight of the trip so we’ve saving the best for last! Paddling on the more sheltered east coasts first will be a good warm up! So, I’m excited for the trip. It’s nearly midnight as I write this and a small group of us are still up chatting. The wake up call is at 5am – I wonder how much more of this whisky we’re going to get through!!?

Here I am on Orcas Island once more!! There is just 1 day left before Shawna, Leon and I leave for the long drive and ferry rides up to Haida Gwaii and our expedition around the islands. The shop at "Body Boat Blade" is covered with all of our kit as we try to sort out what to take and what to leave behind. It's not even 9pm and I'm feeling pretty tired from jet lag. It’s definitely nearly my bed time!

Thanks to Chris Heffernan & Nando Zucci from Johnson Outdoors for delivering me from Vancouver airport to the Orcas Island ferry ( via a few immigration adventures and a very nice hotel!)

So, on the eve of our adventure, I'm told that Leon has received several emails from men wondering what he did to get on a trip with 2 ladies!! Here is one of them ( from someone who will remain anonymous)!
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Leon,

When I read that you will be traveling to some very remote location with Shawna AND Justine C. I have to ask this question:

How can I become a stud like you?

Should I learn to paddle with greater skill? Shave my head? Become more charming? Please share your secrets with me. I promise I won't tell anyone else! Better yet, you could publish your response on your website so that men everywhere can benefit from your obvious skills. If you do publish this, please change my name to "Paddling Solo"
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That made me laugh anyway! So final packing and shopping tomorrow, then I'm giving a talk on Orcas tomorrow night... then we're off!! Very exciting!