We come fully prepared.

April 27th,2023 is the day that the Golden Globe Race – a single-handed, around-the-world yacht race – was won by Kirsten Neuschäfer, after 233 days of being non-stop at sea without the use of satellite based navigation guides. RESPECT Kirsten!

April 27th was also a kind of D-day to us, at a completely negligible level of course. At 7 AM sharp Alaska Day Time, we applied for a private boat advanced notice entry permit into the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Glacier Bay National Park. Each summer day, only 25 private vessels are allowed in.

At 2 PM of the same day, we joined a 1,5-hour virtual “orientation” video as part of the permit process to visit Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve. (Without our “satellite based” internet connection called Starlink, this would have been impossible.)

In the meantime, both National Parks have congratulated us and welcomed us in. Hurray, hurray! Our ETA (estimated time of arrival) into Gwaii Haanas is mid-May. June 27th will be the day of our glorious entrance into Glacier Bay in the company of our son who will be flying in for the occasion.

Adding to our exaltation is the fact that our ceremonial sun dances are starting to pay off. For several days in a row now, the sun has been beaming down on O2 and her de-frosting crew. My noise making song of choice is now Sunshine Reggae.

Summer may be near, but so are the bears.  We spotted our first specimen lurking in the bushes by the side of the dirt road on our way to Cape Scott Provincial Park. We had rented a 4-wheel drive Chevrolet Silverado to explore the area, which is part active logging territory, part protected forest. The bear was not very impressed by the noise our 4-wheel drive made on the gravel. He just stared us down as he stood his ground. This cocky behavior does make me rather doubt the effectiveness of singing on the trails to shoo feeding bears away. So, whenever I walk the woods, I now always carry a can of bear spray on my hip like a desperado carries his gun. But every sudden noise still freaks me out to My Captain’s amusement.

The trails themselves were awesome, despite the nearness of the logging industry. And even the latter, we found extremely interesting. The forestry cycle can take as long as 150 years, depending on the type of tree. As we were returning from our hike, the logging road that we were on was temporarily blocked by hardy blokes (amongst them again a ZZ-Top look-alike)until the blasting was done: an additional log transport road was being blasted out of the rocks.

After having returned our car to Budget Rent, we needed to hitchhike back to Port Hardy. That’s when we met our first “heli-logger”. This friendly young Canadian who gave us a ride explained that a “heli-logger” scouts and selects the individual trees in remote areas and then prepares them for the helicopter to lift. No need for roads to be blasted out of rock. But one helicopter hour costs 1500 dollars. The trees removed this way aren’t meant to be turned into paper pulp. 

We are also looking forward to streaming the world premiere of Silvicola, a Canadian documentary about the loggers, the planters, the conservationists and how to balance our dependence on lumber with sustainability. As the wood dwellers that we have turned into, we dare believe that the Canadians take this challenge to heart. And a serious challenge it is, judging from the “Forestry feeds my family” messages we saw displayed in Port Hardy.

On our way to Eucott Bay, we were joined by hundred of Pacific white-sided dolphins. They performed their daredevil acrobatics all around O2, doing somersaults and frolicking in our bow wave. At times they rolled on their sides to better check us out. They stayed with us for over an hour, bringing us sheer joy. We will never tire of dolphins !

Eucott Bay itself is an out of this world marvel with a natural jacuzzi just a dinghy ride away. British Columbia really has us hooked.