Bella Bella July 16

We took a little foot ferry over to Bella Bella. There is a very nice grocery store and quite a large school. They have a hospital and a bank. And of course, their tribal house and totem’s. That’s it. There is a lot of building going on and everyone we saw was extremely friendly. Population 1400.

This school was about 3 times this size. Looks new and modern. Lots of kids playing on the playground.

Once back to Shearwater, we departed for Ocean Falls. On the journey a whale breached directly in front of our boat! Made us jump. Ocean Falls is a mostly abandoned town with a year round population of 50. The British Columbia ferry does stop here however. The town once had 5,000 people and was a pulp and paper mill town. There is a large dam that wasn’t being utilized so a Bitcoin company came in and set up mining operations. They get plenty of power and water for cooling.

By the time we arrived in Ocean Falls the wind had picked up massively. We weren’t sure how we were going to get on the dock. Norm decided to pass the dock and then back up – which the boat does not do well at all. There is very little steering when in reverse. Moments later we landed – no hits! The guy on the boat behind us came over to tell Norm what a fantastic job he did in the wind. The wind never stopped. In the middle of the night I was up just watching and listening to the wind. Measuring 30 knots on our anemometer.

Pigeon Guillemot

Jan’s recent reads: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaafon, The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Whistler by Anne Patchet.

We left Ocean Falls at 7 am on Friday, July 17. The water is amazingly smooth. We’re going to Pruth Bay, our favorite stop on the way north. Given the weather, we may be spending a few days here. We have been seeing a lot of whales – multiple times every day for the last week. Awesome!