Tenedos Bay to

Since Monday May 18th was a Canadian National Holiday and we couldn't get out new cable made until Tuesday, we decided to spend a couple of nights at Tenedos Bay. A very good decision.

Tenedos Bay is a dreamlike place of wonderful brown, black and dark gray cliffs that drop in fractured steps to the water. The whole effect is softened with a covering of velvety yellow-green moss interspersed with Madrona and evergreen trees. Beautiful! We spent two nights; I could have spent weeks. I was able to spend some time and found the bad wire that was keeping the ignition switch/starter button from working. We're all back together. While there, we met a young couple from Yellowknife who were exploring Desolation Sound from a canoe. We all had a very pleasant evening chatting over snacks.

After an overnight stop at the Copeland Islands we arrived in Lund early on the morning of the 19th where we tied up to the outer floating breakwater. I pulled the bad cable while the sibs had the run of the float. Then, we all dinghied over and walked up to the parts store. $75 cdn lighter, it was back to the grocery store for provisions. We left the next morning, after a stop for gasoline for the generator, heading north.

First night we headed back into the head of the Teakerne Arm to anchor in a small nitch right next to the Park dinghy dock. Another spectacularly beautiful place. From the dinghy dock a natural staircase of rock leads straight up the side of the cliff next to a waterfall to the top of the cliff where we found a geocache (see picture at top of entry. I'm practicing with the timer feature on our camera and took a bunch of pictures of my butt before we got a few of us all together). The anchorage was a little exposed and choppy but calmed down in the evening for a quiet night and an early start north to the rapids.

Even though I'd calculated the transit time and slack water at the Yuculta Rapids we still arrived 2-hours early. The Yucultas are not something you fool around with so we spent the next couple of hours jilling around in great big circles til we just couldn't stand it any more and headed north. We entered the rapids about 1 hour before slack and battled our way up the current running against us at about 4kts. Throttle wide open we continued to make progress through the boils, eddies, upwellings and overfalls to the pass at Gillard Island. This small stretch of about 200 yards had us slowed down to 1.6kts but we made it through and into the Dent Rapids on the other side. After all the dramatics of the Yucultas, the Dents were a breeze (we actually hit the Dents just at slack water) and we passed through them with hardly a ripple. From the Dents it was another 2-hours to our night's anchorage at Bickley Bay.

We're up early today to head north through 2 more sets of rapids (Green Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids) before the day's done. Thankfully, these are the last of the rapids we'll encounter as we head north.

David and Christine and Sibs
SV Raven
Juneau, AK

Currently lying: Bickley Bay, East Thurlow Island, BC