Morning crept into Newcombe Harbour.  There was no wind, not a puff, and the harbour was mirror-smooth.  The silence was broken only by the croaks of ravens, the whistling of the eagles, and the unexpected but welcome trumpeting of a couple of Sandhill cranes on their migration south.   Over a cup of hot coffee, Linda spotted a wolf galloping along the shore.  We had our own little Eden on the B.C. coast.  We hated to break the quiet with all the generators and engines, but we had our own migration south to attend to.

Brian, our flotilla leader, took us on the scenic route today, winding through the “math islands”, Sine, Cosine, Tangent, and Azimuth, and through the narrows of Ala Passage.  We sailed 52 miles and saw exactly zero other boats.  We assume that the rest of the world still exists, but you could not have proved it by what we saw.  The wilderness we sailed through is likely less populated than it was when George Vancouver sailed here in 1793, but we enjoyed our private cruising ground.

Continuing our wilderness themed day, we were the only boats in Patterson Inlet giving everybody plenty of room to anchor.  The fishermen fished, and Bob caught a Quillback rockfish.  The crabbers set their pots to soak.  A dinghy tour headed up one of the streams emptying into the inlet and found dozens on moon jellies pulsing along.  Marta took a kayak out on the calm waters.  Deception held a modest get together to celebrate Jack and Linda’s 38th anniversary.  It was a completely lovely afternoon.

We had a big leap in our bird count today, adding eight new species.  The best birds of the day were the Black oystercatchers with their crazy red bills, and a flock of Red crossbills harvesting seeds from the spruce cones.  The trip count is up to 42 species of birds!