via new Bella Bella
A rush to beat the weather
Rain, then overcast
The rain started in the Roscoe Inlet at 2am. The visibility was still good as we departed; Jon was actually taking photos from the roof of the pilot house. (We don’t have a flybridge)
We returned to Shearwater by way of Troup Passage. We really needed groceries, however, so we decided to try to small float docks at New Bella Bella. I think these might be too busy in the summer season, but there was plenty of space this time of year at 1:30pm.
Just to be sure, Jon asked a fellow at the fuel dock if it was ok for us to tie up to get groceries and he responded “of course”. That was reassuring since we never know how warm a reception we will get at any dock we haven’t previously visited. We had our grocery shopping done at the Waglisla market in 30 minutes.
By 2:30 we were approaching Shearwater and received a warmer than usual response to our hail for moorage. I wondered if the harbormasters at these remote outlets get lonely or bored this time of year. There was a lot more space at the T-shaped floats than a month ago. He said he remembered the name of our boat.
After paying for 2 nights, we camped out in the HodgePodge coffee shop- this time they even had boxes of fireworks for sale to celebrate Halloween. I was disappointed Jon didn’t get one- there were all different sizes and assortments. We haven’t been able to stage our own fireworks for ages due to the fire danger.
Then Jon checked the weather and had bad news: if we didn’t make it around Cape Caution by tomorrow, we might be stuck in Shearwater for up to 5 days! We decided to compress our planned next 3 days into one. Instead of another night at Shearwater, then Pruth Bay followed by Fury Cove, we planned to make it all the way around Cape Caution to Miles Inlet
The decision lit a fire under us- we rushed off to look for groceries we couldn’t find in new Bella Bella (but the Shearwater selection is so poor there were none), then I quickly got the laundry done while Jon refilled the water tank. He determined we still had sufficient fuel, so all that remained was dinner in the Fishermen’s restaurant (too bad the cedar plank salmon wasn’t offered this time) and an early bedtime.
As we returned to the boat for the evening, we were complemented on Fifth Element by one of the crew of the barge workboat that had come in. It turned out his crew specialized in aquaculture construction and maintenance. We ended up having a very interesting conversation with him about that business.
Seals enjoying the sun in the Roscoe Inlet
The temperate rainforest vegetation
Changing weather leaving Roscoe Inlet
yacht Anomaly and M/V Fifth Element 
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