Mother Goose: Leg 1, Day 16 – Shearwater to Rescue Bay

The sun was shining was we started our leisurely morning here in Shearwater. We weren’t scheduled to depart for Rescue Bay until 10 am, which gave us plenty of time to grab breakfast at the pub and take a morning stroll along the docks. We helped see off another Grand Banks that happened to dock right next to our fleet the night before. The couple cruising aboard her asked where we had come from. When we explained that we had left from Bellingham, WA and come up the outside of Vancouver Island the woman giggled and said “No really, what route did you take?” We assured her we weren’t kidding. They were impressed and we felt proud to have taken the road less traveled.


As we headed for Rescue Bay, we hugged the coastline looking for wildlife. We wandered up Seaforth Channel, rounding Cambell Island and hooking up with Reid Passage. Reid Passage cuts in between Cecilia Island and Don Penisula before becoming Mathieson Channel. It’s along here that we start noticing a change in the topography. The hills around us seem to be getting larger, the trees more full and lush, the deep channels even deeper, the edges of the coastline more sheer, and the snowcapped mountains in front of us appeared much closer and more prominent. As we cruised along, we were lucky enough to see 3 black dorsal fins splitting the surface of the water. We also began looking along the shoreline for spirit bears. Spirit bears, also called kermode bears, are a subspecies of black bear which have an interesting and unique trait. A large portion of the population of spirit bears contains a recessive gene, which causes their fur to be pure white. These bears are not albinos, a condition which is characterized by the inability to produce pigment. These spirit bears are found only in this part of the world, and they have special significance to the native people in this area.

Once we reached Rescue Bay and were all anchored, Casey led an exploratory dinghy tour up Jackson Narrows. With deeper depths, RJ Cree of Mystic Eagle attempted crabbing once again and was very successful – he caught a whole pot full and kept roughly 12 Dungeness crab. Jordan, Commander of Small Vessels and Master Crab Cooker, worked his magic and cooked the up the crab for the Crees. Hopefully this is the first of many big crab catches!