On June 17th we followed Joint Decision to Shearwater marina. It was smooth water and no wind the whole way. We saw one male orca whale sitting on the surface with his dorsal fin in the air. Just sitting there. Odd behavior in an orca. Maybe he is waiting for the pod of girls to arrive? Maybe sleeping? We stayed at Shearwater a couple of days so Dave could get some work done. Internet access has been more problematic on this part of the journey than we anticipated. We visited Bella Bella. It’s an armpit of a place. But not uncommon for a native Indian reservation. While here we made a list of (1) all the things that Dave needs to teach Melissa about how to captain the boat now that he has learned all about it, (2) what all we want to fix in Ketchikan, (3) what all emergency procedures we need to document (laminated checklist) and then drill. On June 19th Dave worked most of the day and then we headed out for a few hours and are now anchored in Oliver Cove. Another peaceful little spot. On the way here we saw our first black bear. He was just wandering along a beach. Also along the way we heard an alert from the Coast Guard that at Bella Bella there was a yellow paddle board floating in the harbor with no one on it. They were worried someone had fallen off. But leave it to MacGuyver to have noted while we were at Bella Bella that there was a yellow paddle board tied to the dock in such a way that he knew it would come loose at low tide. He radioed the Coast Guard back to let them know that was likely what happened. At 11pm in the twilight we went for a Kayak ride.
