Hello again,                    June 12,2000 Bella Bella, BC

We didn't get a chance to mail the first letter in Port McNeill, as
I had hoped. The free Internet computer had died just before I walked
across town to send it.

We left Port McNeill for God's Pocket. We were not impressed. I had
heard that it was the most popular place to anchor and wait for nice
weather to cross the open water from Vancouver Island to the Queen
Charlotte Islands. We went back a few miles to a small cove behind a
fish farm. I got a tour! A kid (maybe 25) who had recently worked on a
ranch in Calgary, showed me around. It is a simple operation. They get
small Atlantic salmon about 3 inches long, and put them in big nets hung
from floats. It is very much like a feed lot! The guys shovel feed out to
them twice a day for 10 months then they send them to the packing plant
were they are "mostly sent to the States". They have trouble with seals,
sea lions and sea otters eating the fish. They shoot at some of them. The
eagles also get about 3 a day, and as he told me this, an eagle swooped
down and grabbed a fish while we stood there!

Al and Judy caught up with us there. The next day we headed North around
Cape Caution. It is only about 30 miles of open ocean across there, but
some days it is exciting. The waves had been over 6 feet a few days ago,
but now it was calm. After a few hours of motoring, the wind picked up
from the southeast. For the first time this trip, it was blowing from
the right direction to sail! We sailed about 2 hours Then it started to
rain. We seem to be "fair weather sailors" since we put the sails away
and went back to motoring.

We stopped early at a small cove, then went on the next day to Namu. It
is a ghost town. 6people live there now, 2 families of caretakers. It
was a big fish cannery and saw mill from 1880's to 1991when the fishing
industry had so much trouble. A logging company bought the property,
but decided not to log it. They are maintaining the "ghost town" and
are giving tours to the ferry twice a week and to us as well.

We stayed a couple of nights with them, fished but no luck. Alfons's
steering had gone out on the way into Namu. He had to resort to the
emergency tiller up on the back deck, and down through the bed to the
rudder post, to get into the dock. We found that a couple of bolts had
vibrated loose. He's ok now.

We  next motored up to another ghost town, Ocean Falls. It was a pulp and
paper mill and a saw mill. I 1988 there were 8n people left but now it is
back up to 50 in the winter and over a hundred in the summer, Americans
buying the cheep houses! We walked up to the dam and lake that powered
the mills and still makes electricity for the town and the surrounding
area towns, Bella Bella and Shearwater.

We left Al and Judy there and went to a cove with a hot spring. It was
nice, but there were 3 couples with lots of kids there for the weekend,
so we went back through Gunboat passage to Bella Bella.

That was as far north as we plan to go I guess. We are sort of heading
back south when we leave here.  It seems that to sail with ice bergs,
you have to go all the way to Jeauno, which we are still less than half
way to! This is a big country up here.

I hope to mail this letter here in Shearwater at the Bella Bella Post
office. Today is Monday, but from the middle of the bay, it looks like
it may be a holliday in Canada today. A BIG Coast Guard ship came in
last night and has his flags all up today.

By for now,

Larry and Trinda .....  and Muffy too I guess.