After our week in Seattle we flew back to the Toba Wilderness Resort, boarded the True Love and headed into Toba Inlet. The flight was lovely, I got the front seat and we even saw a breach whale outside of Nanaimo.  Alas no picture.

Our goal – anchoring at the head of the inlet and enjoying some peaceful time, star watching and exploration. Thanks to a special tip from a local we have anchored in a very special gunk hole. The anchorage is completely out of the scary afternoon winds and also gets great shade from the hot sun in the afternoons. The bugs are a non-issue, there is a little stream and the star viewing, although somewhat narrow, is superb. We have been sworn to secrecy, so our anchorage is a secret undisclosed location.

Last night we stayed up late to watch the stars both from the True Love and the Tender.

Although smoke has plagued the area from fires farther south, Toba is pretty clear. We were treated to many satellites, the Milky Way and quite a few shooting stars including a super big one early in the evening. The Perseids meteor showers peak this weekend but the build up is still worth staying up until midnight or later.

We stayed up past 2 am looking at the sky and slept in pretty late. It was low-tide when we woke up and the view around our anchorage was quite different. The undisclosed location gunk hole continues to amaze us. After getting up we quickly grabbed some food and headed out to explore the head of the river and hopefully spy some bears. Although we didn’t see bears, we discovered the Toba River. It was a complete surprise.

Once we left the churning water behind where the sea meets the river we entered a huge and long river reminiscent of big southern rivers. We were off our GPS and had no map, so we felt a little like “Captain Vancouver” type explorers. Except of course for our 40 hp engine and the electronics showing us our depth. The river is big and powerful and would have been quite impossible to explore rowing, but the True Love tender was the perfect boat for the exploration. The Toba River is lined with deciduous trees and surrounded by massive mountains and some truly amazing waterfalls and glaciers. One of the powerful abundant waterfalls up the river is being harnessed for hydro because Canada rationally understands that water power is a clean, renewable resource.

We both loved our exploration of Toba river (which runs from the Toba Glacier to the head of Toba Inlet) and the other smaller Tahummer River. But the Captain especially loves navigating the river like he did in his youth on his little skiff. On our way back we did see from a distance a couple of bears.

This afternoon we scoped out some possible spots for an astrophoto shot near our undisclosed anchorage and are looking forward to the star show as the sky darkens. In the end we were too tired to head off the boat so I took a moving star shot from True Love.

Tomorrow we head south and then east for another visit to our favorite location, Princess Louisa Inlet, before we head home. We will need to make a stop in Powell River for some reprovisioning before heading on to PLI. The forecast is calling for some rain his weekend, which isn’t good for the Perseids, but it’s good for containing the wildfires and great for expanding the many waterfalls in PLI.

Powell River Docking Adventure in the wind. Our cruise from Toba to the Beach Garden Marina in Powell River was easy. I even went for a swim in the 75 degree waters of Desolation Sound after doing my yoga. But as we approached Powell River a fierce wind began to blow. The Beach Garden Marina is a sweet spot but it is very narrow with the rock jetty only about 40 feet from the dock (the True Love is 15′ wide). The Captain positioned us perfectly but the wind gusted and began to blow us away from the dock toward the rocks. The young man working the dock was flummoxed and didn’t tie the stern line right away even though we repeatedly asked him to do that. The side thrusters work best in short spurts but the Captain had to use them continuously to make any progress against the wind that was blowing us away from the dock. We were both worried that the thrusters would fail at any moment from overuse! (It has happened before).

Other boaters who had already docked came to our rescue and we had 4 different people helping, including a professional captain in the big yacht at the front of the marina. Once tied down we needed to move the True Love back 10 feet to make room for a boat that was supposed to arrive later (and never did). So we all worked together to move the True Love one line at a time fighting the wind the entire time. But we were successful. Exhausted, we decided to have dinner at the restaurant right here before walking up the hill to provision at the little Pacific Point Grocery Store about a half mile away. . The sunset was lovely and we sure slept well last night.

Thanks for reading!

The Captain and the First Mate of the True Love