Ocean Wayfinder, Outer Shores Expedition’s new (to them) ketch.

Cathy and I boarded Ocean Wayfinder on October 3rd for a nine day sailing adventure exploring the Great Bear Rainforest.

Ready to board. I am never taking a big suitcase anywhere ever again, too much stuff, too heavy. And mine is a medium according to luggage websites.

From the BC government website: The Great Bear Rainforest (GBR) is a global treasure that covers 6.4 million hectares on British Columbia’s north and central coast. All British Columbians have a stake in protecting it.

The Great Bear Rainforest Agreement, between the Coastal First Nations, Nanwakolas Council and the Province of BC, secures the future of the Great Bear Rainforest. Ancient forests and critical wildlife habitat will be protected and conserved. Economic development opportunities and jobs for local communities and First Nations will be maintained. Forest carbon projects will contribute to ensuring First Nations have the resources they need to implement the Agreement.

Massive. We explored the lower right beginning west of Bella Coola and going north. The Great Bear Sea extends past Haida Gwaii

The agreement still allows lumber companies to operate, we did see some clearcuts, but the integrity of the forest will be maintained under the above agreement. It used to be called the North Coast Timber Supply Area which demonstrates the only thing that was thought valuable in the past. It is a hard won achievement of conservation.

How to proceed with this blog? Day by day, amazing event by amazing event, or just with pictures. A dilemma. Probably a bit of all three, but I never know where it will take me until I write.

The big excitement the first day was picking up a stray guest, more on that after exploring the boat, first we boarded, settled in, and enjoyed our first delicious meal.

Our cabin. One person only can be in the standing area. But very comfortable.
Note the napkins, two on each row, assigned by cabin. Mine was lower right. But at dinner we had crisp white napkins, every night.
Through the door, forward, was the crew area. The focaccia bread was amazing. I wanted to take both pieces of artwork in the picture home.

Think of the boat as being like the tardis from Doctor Who. Looks small from the outside, but goes on for ever on the inside.

The wheelhouse and lots more seating.
More seating aft, covered by a canopy.
Finally, the front, of the boat, or correctly, forward. And more seating, on the lifeboats.

Now to the stray guest, Nancy. She had to join us after we departed, and arrived while we were under full sail. It was quite something for her to transfer from the “taxi” to the skiff, but more so, from the skiff to us. A bit of fine manoeuvring in a sailing sailing boat.

A break from reading and admire Ocean Wayfinder in full sail.

Cathy in her happy place. She is an avid lifetime sailor.

Let me introduce the crew, not least because they were all exceptional at their jobs, but also interesting to get to know. We, both crew and guests, meshed well, and joked and laughed with each other very quickly. And we did not talk about Trump. From now on many of the pictures will have been taken by Gary, Garrit, Mark, Ashely, Maurice (big lenses), and the rest of the guests. My iphone did not cut it for the extra special shots.

Our Captain, Ashley. Cool under pressure. Calm, confident, competent, experienced.
Giving us the low down on where out trip would take us on the coffee stained map.

Ashley steered us through a couple of interesting situations, more of that later.

Piloting the skiff in the pouring rain, smiling. Somehow, being all together in the same boat (pun intentded) while it is pouring with rain made it an adventure rather than a misery

Maurice and Ashley have worked together many times on Outer Shores expeditions, and as with Gary they work like a well oiled machine

Maurice is contemplating a PhD. It felt strange to have our comfort so ably provided by people with advanced degrees.
Using one of the big lenses photographing bears.
Maurice indicating to the helm 4 x 50ft of anchor chain had been unreeled, and we were in a cove. Sometimes there was up to a 1,000 ft of water under us. A bit daunting.
Gary with the really big lens.

Gary has worked with orca’s and more currently with humpbacks. His other job is with Ocean Wise. Well worth a look: https://ocean.org/ I thought they just certified sustainable fish, but they do so much more than that, such as studying humpback whales, restoring kelp forests. It rebooted my interest in sustainable seafood, and I found a couple of other organizations on line that seem legitimate. ASC-aqua.org and msc.org. Both have very strict standards for all types of fishing and fish farming. msc.org is the one I have seen the most on cans of tuna. All are international organizations for those of you living outside Canada. Monterey Bay Aquarium is another source of information.

Gary identified these humpbacks using a now unified system of identification. Different parts of the world used to have different identification systems but now they can see where in the world’s oceans these humpbacks travel too. Among other things this identification system can be used to let sea going vessels know where the humpbacks are and avoid them. I am very sad to report that Notcha, a humpback, was hit by a BC Ferry and died just days after the end of our expedition. Cold comfort that it was not one we had seen.

Nick was our chef par excellence. Meal times were eagerly anticipated.

Nick completed his qualifications after he learned how to be chef, and had just completed his final final practical exam before the trip.
Stretching his legs at Butedale, an abandoned salmon cannery. The once bustling settlement used to have a bowling alley and an ice cream shop. You can just see the words Ice Cream behind Cathy’s head.

Nick in his domain. As soon as his day’s responsibilities were done he was up on the deck or in the wheelhouse exercising. After the trip he was going climbing.

His mouth watering food.

Seared tuna
For the avocado lovers among us.
Dairy and egg free carrot cake with I think marscapone sauce. If not it was ricotta.

I was amazed to learn that Nick re-supplied his larder from the supermarket in Shearwater, which was about the size of a very large convenience store. The pickings were slim when I shopped there for our meals when we were staying in Shearwater, so big kudos for Nick and his culinary imagination. They like to shop locally. Our first dinner was pear salad with blue cheese and a balsamic dressing, the main course black cod with miso dressing accompanied by roasted fingerling potatoes and peppers. Dessert was lemon cream with berries and roasted pistachios.

On the first full day we began to see humpback whales blowing in the distance. and one fluke, but on day two there were many, and they put on a full show for us.

Humpback whales, a huge part of what I wanted to see.
Amazing
Awe inspiring, that they can lift their massive bodies so for out of the water, amazing strength.
This is when I realized that my Iphone was useless for these action shots in dull conditions. These photographs are probably taken by Gary and his big big lense. If he was able to photograph the fluke as above he would use the identification system.
Often the angle was not quite right for a good shot, but it was quite something to see their names once identified. Or I should say our names for them, who knows how they know each other. On the bottom row is Sparky, and next to her, Sparky calf.

It was as if they were putting on the display just for us, blowing, surfacing, fluking, breaching, head lobs, chin slapping, cartwheeling and pec slapping. It went on and on. That evening during our days recap we learned about the resurgence of humpbacks in this region and what a new phenomenon our experience was. I think we all felt so lucky.

Others also saw Dall’s porpoises, and we all saw harbour seals.

One by one they all slid into the sea as we went by, at a distance.

The very next day was another incredible experience. We spent quite a few hours on a bear watching platform, and there were bears present from very shortly after we arrived. And the very very first bear we saw was a Spirit Bear, or a Kermode bear, and they are rare. Gribbell Island, where we were, is one of the places they are found. Not albino, both black bear parents have to have the recessive gene to produce a white bear.

Fishing. He or she had the river to themselves for a while .
Marvin, whose bear platform we were on.

Marvin said that he thought this Spirit Bear would dominate this part of the river next year. He also said that bears can be picky eaters. Some like live salmon, some freshly dead salmon, some only the egg sack, or rotting, or specific parts of the salmon. Who knew. But he also said that once they start eating salmon they can not stop, something called hyerphagia, a strong desire to keep eating, which causes them to put on a lot of weight in a short period of time. This gets then ready to hibernate. And their lips are so dexterous that they can completely remove the flesh from the bones.As we learned more about the invaluable role of salmon in the Great Bear Rain Forest, not just for the bears, I have begun to wonder if it should be called the Great Salmon Rain Forest.

Stipped clean. Good to the last lick.

From https://greatbearrainforesttrust.org/biodiversity/

Salmon are a vital key to the Great Bear Rainforest ecosystem, where more than 2500 salmon runs happen each year. A wide range of plants and animals, as well as humans, benefit from consuming salmon, including killer whales, sharks, sea lions, seals, otters, bears, loons, mergansers, heron and kingfishers. Insects, algae, mosses, terrestrial herbs, shrubs and ancient trees also benefit from marine based nutrients, including nitrogen from salmon.

And enough salmon get through the obstacle course of so many species trying to eat them that they fulfil their mission, to lay eggs or fertilize them. Even then the eggs are not safe. We saw these amazing birds flying around us one day when we were ashore.

I am really sorry but I do not remember what kind of birds they are, I tried to use Merlin. It said Bonapartes Gull but I don’t think that is correct.
They swirled and swirled around over the river, and occasionally one would swoop down to the water and grab something. I was told it was salmon eggs.

Back to the bears.

Got one!

The Spirit Bear eventually continued up stream and by then a black bear had appeared down stream.

The same log as the Spirit Bear.
I wish I could take credit for these photographs, but no, they are from one of the photographers with big lenses, Garrit, Mark, Gary, Maurice or Ashley.

Right in the middle of all the bear watching this little fella appeared from nowhere, well, actually, the forest, and the only person I could tell quickly was Garrit and he got this shot.

A Pine Martin. There for a few seconds, maybe 30, and then gone. What a delight.

There is just so much more to show, not least the grizzly bears and the amazing landscape, that I have to divide this post in two. So off this goes to the ether.