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Princess Louisa Inlet

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Tom and Judy... (follow this link to check out some pictures of your boat... write to us and we'll send you the big version)

Overnight, in the early morning, the moon came up over the mountains and illuminated the cliffs that shot up almost vertically from our dock. It was amazing. Dumb words to describe it but any words would fall short so I'll just stop with that. I put on my glasses and went up on deck to take in the scene better. The quiet was almost primordial. The surrounding powerboats have some kind of motor that they seem to run constantly for power or whatever (to power the color televisions that their children play video games on). But finally, everyone was asleep and all these power systems were shut down. There was just the moon, and the waterfall, and the cliffs, and me there on the dewy deck wishing that I could store this event somewhere accessible such that I'd always have it to return to. I wanted to stay there forever, to become a part of this world. But after awhile... I got cold. The warm bed was calling and it was time to return to it. Besides, for some reason, there were mosquitos. Earlier in the evening, Jack had fled to the cabin. No more sleeping out in the cockpit. What's up with that? Mosquitos near saltwater?! We didn't understand it. However, now every night, we sealed up the inside of the boat so that we wouldn't wake up with mosquito bites all over our bodies. I guess THAT'S why they put screens over all the hatch openings.

The next day we woke up to absolute glass (see pictures). It was difficult to distinquish the trees on land from the trees reflected in the water. We took our coffee on deck and it was pleasant basking in the sun to warm up when it finally climbed above the ridgetops. Of course it wasn't as peaceful as the pictures indicate because of the ever present drone of the power generators on most of the nearby powerboats. However it was pleasant. It's things like this that help me to feel better about the hikes in gas prices. Someone on a powerboat even had a stereo playing a few boats down the dock from us. Good grief! There was one sailboat that came into the inlet when there was still dock space. However, they chose to tie up off a point some distance away. I didn't understand at the time but now I did. Clearly they were veterans of Princess Louisa Inlet.

Donna had been doing some exploring on her own and also had been doing a bit of reading in our various guide books. She discovered a rugged trail up to something called The Old Trappers Cabin that apparently had a wonderful view of the Inlet. This trail was supposed to take about two hours and had what sounded like some pretty sketchy sections. We floated the idea of going on a hike up the trail to Jack and Spencer. I didn't really expect any takers however Jack was quite enthusiastic about the idea. So we gathered up some supplies for the excursion and off we went. The books were right. The trail was pretty tough... very steep and slippery. However rather than the two hours suggested in the books and signage, it only took us a little over an hour. Are we awesome or what. Jack (aka "Goat Boy") led the way. The view, of course, was gorgeous. And there was, surprise, another waterfall (a large one), right next to the cabin. After the rigors of the journey, it was a good place to stop and enjoy the sandwiches that Donna had prepared as we stood stunned by the view. The Old Trapper's Cabin had fallen down. However you could definitely tell that there had indeed been a real cabin there. But you had to wonder what kind of man this trapper was to frequently endure that hike/climb up to his abode. As I said, the view was over the top. And as a bonus, we got a bird's eye view of what happens at slack water at Malibu Rapids. You could see the boats poised to enter Inlet then as if on signal, all the boats started heading through. As expected, the powerboats hit the afterburners in hopes of being able to gobble up whatever float space there was available and thus left the poor sailboats in the dust. Some of the powerboats were faster than the others as they quickly separated from the rest (all this taking place inspite of a speed limit on the inlet - presumably an attempt to give the sailboats a sporting chance). Later when we returned to the dock, we could see all the open spots had been filled by powerboats and the sailboats were trying to set their anchors in the deep water. The cycle continues. Anyway, finally we had to tear ourselves away from the view and head back down to the dock. The trip back was easily as harrowing as the trip up. It should have been faster, and it was but not by much. It took something like 45 minutes to get back down to the dock.

Once back at the dock, Donna and the boys took the dinghy to do a little exploring. I dilly dallied around the boat to do some chores. Then after awhile, I thought I'd take advantage of the warm water to get some exercise. Might be fun to see if I could make it to the other side of the inlet (and back). When I returned to the boat, I could see the fam off in the distance in the dinghy so swam over to meet them. The warm water was seductive but it was nice to get a ride back to the dock in the dinghy. Was getting a little tired. I also swam under the boat and found a very big chewy in the bottom of the keel. Someone had hit something VERY hard to leave a mark like that. It was fun to swim under the boat though. I'd never been in water warm enough to do that. It's spooky down there.

It was such a pleasant day. Felt a bit tragic when the sun went behind the cliffs overhead. Seemed like the day was ending way too soon. Actually it still was early. The surrounding cliffs rise so steeply that they block out the sun quite early. This of course, significantly reduces the amount of direct sunlight hours.

That evening, Tom and Judy dropped over for a glass of wine. They were in a ketch that had come in the previous evening. We had been chatting with them on the dock throughout the day. They had a gorgeous boat and were friendly and interesting people. They had been having a problem with a halyard on their mizzen mast. We arranged to have Jack go up the mast the following morning to relead the halyard. I knew that he would enjoy that.

Then it was time to end our day in Princess Louisa Inlet... Like I said, it seemed tragic. We sealed up the boat, played our evening game of Spades and went to bed. This time I made sure to again wake up in the night to enjoy the full moon rise on the cliffs. Felt kinda sad knowing that I wouldn't see this again soon.

The next day, we prepared for departure. We couldn't leave right away but had to wait for something close to slack water at the mouth of the inlet. Jack and I went over to help Tom and Judy with their halyard issue. That was fun. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be for Jack but he eventually was able to weave the line through the blocks at the top of the mast. Our hero!

We wanted to get the earliest start possible cuz we knew that the up inlet wind would be building throughout the day. Starting early would mean we'd have to deal with less wind and might even miss the heaviest air. That meant that I was motivated to push the slack water time a bit more than might be comfortable. Tom and Judy went first but we got caught up in a docking circle jerk when this very large boat (I think it was about a 50' Beneteau) wanted to score the dock space that we were leaving and didn't feel like they could wait for our departure. We helped them wedge themselves into the hole left by Tom and Judy before leaving ourselves. I wanted to tell them that being at the dock just wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. But anyway... we were outta there. I totally dragged our feet about leaving the inlet. I had the engine on only a little bit more than Idle. I took way too many pictures and tried to suck up every view. Saying that it was spectacular was an understatement. But then, off in the distance, I could make out the yawning jaws of the Malibu Rapids. That changed the mood somewhat. The current was with us otherwise there would be no hope of being able to go through earlier than slack. We could see Tom and Judy's approach. They didn't seem to be having any trouble. I think that I may have just been a bit spooked from our previous transit. The views continued to be gorgeous. And as expected, we got through without a problem.

Now I wanted to get some pictures of Tom and Judy's boat so we could put them on our website for them (see linked "Tom and Judy page"). Most owners don't have many pictures of their boats underway so we thought we'd do them this small service. The rest of the day was spent making our way back to Pender Harbor. But that's described on the following day's webpage.

Glass...		From this picture you can get a feel for how peaceful it was
This was the sheer cliff that shot almost straight up from the water. You can get an idea of the scale by looking at the trees on the cliff face.		This was looking down on the Old Trapper's Cabin trail. Gives you an idea of how steep it was.
The waterfall next to what was left of the Trapper's Cabin		Goat boy!
The view from the waterfall. The white spec in the water was one of the lead boats in the race to get to the dock		Yet another waterfall picture...
Looking up from our waterfall		We made Goatboy carry the pack with the food and water
Food break... the cabin was in the trees over Jack's shoulder. We were at the base of the falls so you can get an idea of how close the cabin was to the falls.		Jack checking out the view
Not sure what caused the cabin to fall over. It might have been getting dangerous so it was knocked down. We don't know.		What was left of the cabin with the falls in the background
Cleaning up after the hike		Donna and I took a little spin in the dinghy. When I was swimming I discovered that you could see the falls that we had climbed to from out in the water. Couldn't get her to swim out here so had to take her in the dinghy... go figure...
View of the falls from out in the water		Back at the dock, the boys were greeting us
Jack jammin' around in the dinghy "pirate style"
Looking aft at Chatterbox Falls		Spencer snacking
The next morning... we hoisted Jack up Tom'n'Judy's mizzen mast to relead a halyard that had come through		Check out the toe action... Is he goatboy or apeboy?
This was harder than Jack made it look
S U C C E S S ! ! ... Jack is all smiles as we brought him down. Another triumph for Goatboy!		Another look at the waterfall as we left the dock
And this was the view as the dock receded in the distance		The snow covered mountains that we passed on our way out
There were many float planes going in and out. This is one that came in as we were leaving		Oh oh... Malibu Rapids... I took this pass a lot more seriously on the way out.
Here we are entering the maelstrom...		It is so weird being in a sailboat and going down a river... the two aren't supposed to happen together.
Mark and Carla of Sail La Vie... don't look at this. I don't think we were really this close. This was the telephoto... honest!		On the good side of the pass. Actually the passage wasn't bad at all. I think the only reason I was spooked was cuz I just didn't expect it to be this way when we came in and I was a little traumatized.
Oh but wait... we weren't done yet.. there were more rocks to avoid...		Damn but it was gorgeous though.. it was a glorious morning!
Okay... there's the channel marker. I guess we're through now		You can see boats out in Queens Reach waiting to come in. I think we were very lucky with regard to the timing of slack water at the pass.
There's Tom'n'Judy... they went through quite a bit ahead of us. I was very confident following them. They were longer and drew more so if they could make it... so could we. That was the theory anyway.

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