Sunday, August 25, 2002 -- Lowe Inlet to Foch Inlet

Came out of Grenville Channel today, and as we came to the spot where it intersects with Douglas Channel, Dave said, "This is actually a really good place to look for whales." I turned toward the bow to start looking and immediately saw an enormous splash up ahead. Pretty good timing!

Humpback whale breaching
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The day was actually fairly warm, and completely calm and still, so we were able to drift and watch and listen to the whales. There was one rather near to us (the one who had breached on Dave's cue), and two more in the area, each quite a distance away (I would guess more than a mile). It was quiet enough that we could hear them exhale, and noticed that each whale sounded different when it exhaled.

Humpback whale, slapping pectoral fin
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We dropped the hydrophone for a few minutes, because we thought they might be talking to each other, but no luck for us.

Humpback whale tail (diving)
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We sailed up Douglas Channel when it appeared we'd miss the tide to take the dinghy too far up the river in Gill-to-yees Inlet, and detoured for the night to Foch Inlet.

One more whale, on the way into Douglas Channel

As we came into the inlet, we were looking at a large waterfall, and someone spotted what looked like a bear in the middle of the falls. Eventually, logic prevailed (the falls are much too steep for fish to be jumping up them, so why would a bear be there?), but that kept us excited for a while, and I promptly named the rock The Bear What Wasn't.

Bear What Wasn't Falls, Foch Inlet

Dave actually brought us right up to the edge of the falls, illustrating something about the islands in the area that never fails to astonish me. You can be feet or even inches from land, and still have 20, 70, 100 feet of water beneath you. There were times when we were in 100 fathoms (600 feet) of water, and land was just a few meters away. If I recall correctly, 100 fathoms is generally considered to be the depth that indicates you are off the continental shelf. You would need to be at least a hundred miles offshore on the Atlantic coast of North America to find water of that depth.

Sailing right up next to Bear What Wasn't Falls

Now, in my little head, seeing something that looks like a bear always convinces me that a bear must be nearby: I almost saw a bear, therefore I must be getting warmer. Fortunately, Nature agreed with me this time. After we anchored, we decided to sit silently for a while before getting in the dinghy, to give any wildlife a chance to settle down after our noisy entrance. Before too long, someone spotted a real bear in the estuary up ahead. While others were getting ready to get in the dinghy, mom and I saw a different bear on the other side of the estuary.

The Bear What Was, Foch Inlet

The bears seemed to have found a pretty good fishing area, since we could see salmon everywhere as we floated up the estuary in the dinghy. We ended up seeing two bears from our dinghy, both on the right side of the estuary, so the one mom and I had seen earlier either joined the other, or there were three total. Hard to tell, with bears.

Monday, August 26, 2002 -- Foch Inlet to Gill-to-yees

We left Foch fairly late this morning, because we knew we didn't have far to go to Gill-to-yees. We wanted to get to Gill-to-yees at around high tide so it would be possible to go up the river for a distance. In the end, though, we were completely stymied by huge rapids at the entrance to Foch Inlet. Although it was already high tide, the entrance to the inlet is narrow enough that water keeps flowing through at a rapid rate (I think we estimated about 12 knots/hour) for quite a long while past high tide. There was a standing wave that looked like it was 3 or more feet high...definite river rafting time.

Na'walak in Foch Inlet

There was no way to get through until the tide slackened, so we had lunch, and then went to fill up the boat's water tanks at the waterfall. Dave had mentioned doing this, but it didn't seem to relate to anything in my experience, so I had somewhat dismissed it from my mind. It turns out to be quite a fascinating activity. They attach a large funnel to a garden hose, and use the waterfall to top off the tanks. The second time we did it (we were able to reach higher into those falls, so gravity was working even better for us), we got 4-5 gallons per minute.

Loren, topping off the water tanks

We finally made it out of Foch and into Gill-to-yees, but the river current was too strong by this time for us to get far up the river. Still, it is a gorgeous estuary, with salmon and birds, and seals sitting on logs. We definitely did not regret the "detour" into Foch and seeing our first bears of the trip.

 

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last modified: September 6, 2002