Easy Passage with a Surprise

 

Getting up and leaving at 7 AM paid off. We got ahead of the developing gale in Johnstone Strait, and had a long motor up to Port McNeil on Vancouver Island. Sometimes being ready is all you end up doing. As we traveled through Broughton Strait we had flat seas, clearing skies, and mountain views. Strange how just 30 miles away the mountains funnel the wind from the Pacific into a gale. 

As we cruised along, we dodged logs, bull kelp, and at one point we looked at each other and saw this:

I thought birds on kelp or maybe a strange carcass. Kelly got the binos out and said, kind of looks like birds on otters.  "Why would birds be on otters?" There was a tug hauling a large load of gravel up the channel so we changed our attention to it, moving on.  Then we saw some more birds on kelp up ahead. We got closer, and we realized it was a flotilla of sea otters.  This was new. We often see river otters, but these guys are so uniquely different.  About 20 were floating along on their backs...flippers in the air to act as sails (the flippers look like birds).  Families join arms together to form a raft.  There must have been another 20 in the first flotilla we didn't recognize from a distance. 

Sometimes when it's been a long day, you are tired, wet, cold, and maybe missing home, something makes it all worthwhile. The excitement of an encounter like this, just between you and naturally, wild animals, makes it all come together.  No one in the middle explaining, no cages, no other people around. It is a measure of life you will forever remember.

Now tied to a dock, this is our second visit to Port McNeil. It is a practical, government dock, and the northbound boats stage here. Not much tourism. We like it.  Last time we played musical bingo at the pub with the locals. We sat in the sun and watched community musical performances. You can walk to the grocery store, chandlery, laundry, and Jay loves the green field at the park. We'll see what's next. A slow moving high pressure system is coming ashore at Cape Caution, so we really can't point the bow north for a week. Not complaining. Good time to think things through.