Day 90: Ire Inlet to Kent Inlet

Despite the fiery name, Ire Inlet treated us to a peaceful night, and we woke to mirror calm waters reflecting the shore line in every direction.

You could turn this photo upside-down and hardly tell the difference!

It looks like a Rorschach inkblot test

Do you see the eagle on the tree? I didn’t notice it until I was sorting the day’s pictures.

The dark, peaty waters make the reflections amazing when it’s calm, which was the case this morning. So, yay, no wind or waves. Sadly, the day was still foggy and overcast.

The mist was creeping into the bay as we left Ire Inlet.

Going down Ala Passage toward Principe Channel, you can see how low the cloud is. Kind of eerie.

Today’s trip was fairly monochrome. When we could see the coastline, it was lovely, in a mist-shrouded way.

There are noticeably more logs in the water in British Columbia than in Alaska, so we had to keep a sharp lookout while cruising. Luckily, the seagulls continue to help us spot them.

A lucky seven-bird log

The entrance to Kent Inlet

Kent Inlet had another one of those enter-on-high-slack-only entrances. It has a narrow channel with a rock right in the middle (which you can’t see at high slack), so it gets a little tense, particularly when you enter like us, not quite at slack. The current pushed us around a bit as we passed the rock, but we stayed well enough on course and made it safely inside.

Kent Inlet is similar to Ire Inlet in that it is well-protected, has a rocky shoreline with trees growing down to the water, and dark, peaty waters. We saw lots of fish jumping as we came in the narrow entrance and also inside the cove. The sounder also indicated the presence of fish for the first time this trip.

Once we anchored, Ryan got out the fishing gear and did a little spin fishing from the back of the boat. The rain chased him inside before he got any bites. Once the rain stopped, we took the dinghy down to investigate the tidal waterfall that empties out of a nearby lagoon. Kent Inlet is part of the Kitasoo Spirit Bear Conservancy, so we secretly hoped we’d see white spirit bears fishing for salmon at the waterfall. Sadly, there were no bears, white or any other color, though we saw plenty of salmon. Unfortunately, we didn’t catch any of them during our rather desultory attempt at fishing on our way to the waterfall, though Ryan did catch a baby rockfish.

This is the “waterfall” at high tide, leading back to the lagoon. Since it’s a tidal waterfall, it only has falls at lower tides.

This little fellow was following us around the cove.

I went back later in the evening to see the falls at half tide (low tide was around 11 PM). It wasn’t too much of a fall, but enough to churn up a little foam.

It’s been a long day, and tomorrow will be an early start to catch the 6 AM high slack tide. We’ll be moving eastward now, back into the more protected waterways. Also, sunshine is cropping up in the forecast—hurray!

Wild North at anchor in Kent Inlet

Today’s route (72 miles)