Day 104: Hardy Island Marine Park to Princess Louisa Inlet

Another day another stunning fiord - life on the Inside Passage is not too bad! We said good-bye early this morning to the Float Plane crew and made our way toward Princess Louisa Inlet through the scenic passages of Jervis Inlet and Princess Royal Reach. We left before the sun rose in order to arrive at Malibu Rapids at the entrance to Princess Louisa Inlet close to high slack, around midday. It was a beautiful, clear morning, so our ENE course gave us a perfect view of the sunrise—which was great until the sun got over the mountains and started stabbing us in the eyes, making it impossible to see anything on the water in front of us for a while!

The sun was almost too bright to take good pictures today. On our way up Princess Royal Reach (I feel ridiculous writing that name), we saw some more heli-logging. We passed right by the log boom where the helicopter was dropping the logs it carried.

The reddish-orange things you see on the water are branches on some of the logs that have already been dropped.

The logging operations are far away from roads and civilization, so the logging camp is on a barge floating near the log booms.

When we got to Malibu Rapids, we found others there before us, so we had to wait for our turn to transit the narrow opening into Princess Louisa Inlet.

Waiting for a sailboat to come out through the Malibu Rapids before heading in ourselves

On the other side of the entrance, we saw this oddly miniature boat heading in the opposite direction. The scale of the landscape can make even cruise ships look small, so I kept peering at it, trying to figure out if it was actually as small as it appeared.

The dinghy is almost as big as the boat!

Princess Louisa Inlet is beautiful, and the head of the inlet is stunning. Myriad waterfalls cascade from the granite faces to the west, and the steep river to the north empties into the bay via the spectacular Chatterbox Falls at the head of the bay.

The head of Princess Louisa Inlet

There is a dock near the waterfall as well as five mooring buoys to the east, so plenty of secure places to moor in this steep-sided inlet. The dock was full when we arrived, so we chose to anchor near the waterfall and stern tie.

Wild North at anchor (on the right), as viewed from the base of Chatterbox Falls

After lunch we jumped in the dinghy to go to shore and check out the waterfall and go for a swim on the beach.

The public dock at Princess Louisa Marine Park

The blob of white on the right is Chatterbox Falls; the bright sunlight made the white blow out in the picture.

The swimmer at the bottom of the picture is Ryan. Also, Wild North can be seen in the front of the line of boats behind.

The temperatures got up in the 80s today, so we eventually had to go inside and nap till the sun got a little less intense for us heat-wimps. After a BBQ dinner (the last of our Alaska salmon), we ventured out again for an evening cruise in the dinghy. I love these mirror-calm evenings!

While it is very beautiful here, we decided not to stay another night: there are too many other people around. We checked the tides for tomorrow to figure out our departure options before settling down for the night. Since we have a long way to go, we decided to catch the 6AM slack at Malibu Rapids. To facilitate the early, pre-dawn departure required for this, we upped anchor and moved to the dock (which had some space open up in the afternoon), so we didn’t have to mess with dinghies and untying the stern line in the dark tomorrow. Sitting on the float plane dock and eating the last of our ice cream, we listened to the falls and watched the evening light fade on the mountains before bedtime.

Today’s route (52 miles)