As we’ve said before, Princess Louisa is our favorite place in the world during the summer. Over 15 years ago, after purchasing the first True Love (a 1991 Silverton cabin cruiser) our friends, April and David Humphrey told us that our first voyage in Canada should be to Princess Louisa Inlet because it would “transform” us. We were skeptical at the time, but they were absolutely correct. We now visit this amazingly beautiful cathedral of stone, waterfalls, glaciers, warm glassy-calm water, seals, phosphorescence and serenity as often as we can every summer.

Sharing this amazing place with people we love brings us great joy. This summer we were finally able to schedule a trip with Jasmine, David, James and Robert for the first time. It’s awfully hard to make this work with their busy work, camp and baseball schedules. And although Jasmine and the boys have been up north on the True Love many times, David can’t always join in the fun and none of them had ever been to PLI.

Before meeting up with the Donovans in Egmont we left our dock at Pender Harbour for a couple of days to spend more time back in Sechelt Inlet, which is on the south side of the Skookumchuck Tidal Rapids (aka the “Skook”). First, we explored Salmon inlet and then after one night in Misery Bay (we don’t know why its named that as it’s a lovely little bay) near the head of that inlet, we left there and went back to Narrows Inlet through the Tzoonie Rapids for a couple of days to enjoy the calmer and quieter waters there.

Before leaving Misery Bay in Salmon Inlet we had a crazy experience with an extremely large school of salmon waiting for a nearby stream to fill with rain so they could go up the river and spawn. The large salmon were jumping like crazy and swimming close together in circles. We thought they might be spooked by all of the seals nearby but we never saw a seal “make a run” into the school of fish while we were there. We think the seals were delighted that so many salmon were delayed in their voyage to their spawning grounds and were thus available for a good meal whenever the seals got hungry. We had a blast in our tender just drifting on top of all the fish and watching them take turns jumping high into the air. The next day we rose early to retrace our path back through the Skook at slack, tie up at the Backeddy Marina and walk to the Skook Bakery for yummy treats for ourselves and for the Donovans when they arrived later that day.

The True Love definitely feels extremely full with all six of us aboard. But there was a lot of love and joy too and we were all excited by the challenge of voyaging together to PLI. The Donovan family journeyed by car and ferry to meet up with us in Egmont at the Backeddy Marina. After unloading the food and luggage we all enjoyed dinner at the pub, followed by some running around time and a good night’s sleep.

After breakfast the next day it was time to take a walk and pick blackberries! The BackEddy has lots of blackberry bushes that are ripening to perfection in August. With the six of us picking we soon had a big bag and headed back to the dock to launch and begin our summer boating journey together to Princess Louisa Inlet.

Late summer smoke affects everyone in the PNW. Thankfully most of the time the smoke was 500+ feet higher than where we were at sea level so it mostly affected your views rather than your breathing. Our cruise into PLI was under this kind of a smoky, higher altitude haze so the dramatic mountain views were somewhat obscured, although you could see 5+ miles in any direction. But the forecast called for the smoke to clear up a lot on Tuesday, followed by rain on Wednesday and sun Thursday for our journey back, and that’s exactly what we got. On our way up 30-mile-long Jervis Inlet (which leads to PLI) I hoped to show the boys the petroglyphs near False Patrick Point and we successfully found them together. These show the story of an Orca dramatically caught in the fishing lines of the local tribe and then breaking free.

Of course the first views of the glaciers on the mountains surrounding PLI, the Malibu Tidal Rapids and Malibu Young Life Camp at the entrance to the rapids all worked their magic. But the boys were most excited after we were anchored in our favorite spot, inflated the Pizza floaties and they got to go play in the water while surrounded by the beauty of this very special place.

Over the next days we did all the things we hoped to do and share: Lots of floating time, taking the trail to Chatterbox Falls, teaching James to play bridge, visiting Malibu Camp with our future campers, seeing phosphorescence and shooting starts after dark, sharing good meals and even watching the Northwest Team from the Seattle area play in the Little League World Series (thanks to our Starlink satellite).

One of our favorite moments was watching the boys get into kayaks for the first time and then explore PLI on their own. Our first morning in PLI was beautiful and the reflections of the mountains towering above surrounded James and Robert as they paddled and explored. The freedom to explore safely in the inlet, surrounded by beauty and curious seals was magical. Seeing the boys so free and safe and surrounded by nature helped reignite our first memories of this place and the transformation we experienced in our first visit so many years ago.

Our last full day in PLI the rains came and cleaned out the high altitude smoke and filled all of the seasonal waterfalls. During the rain we needed to find a way to get moving and exercise as a group even though we were all together in a very small space. So we did group exercises in a circle! We each picked an exercise and then used the deck of cards to choose the number of reps we would do of each exercise. It was a great success and the rains passed after a few hours so we decided to head out on our tender to Malibu Camp. Our tender is pretty good sized, but the six of us filled it up and some of us don’t like going faster than 5 knots on the tender so the 4 mile journey to the Malibu Camp and back took quite a while. But everyone loved Malibu Camp, especially the swimming pool, beach volleyball, indoor basketball courts, friendly campers and staff, and of course, the ice cream.

Our Malibu Camp tour guides were a lovely couple who met at the camp as young people and have now been married over 60 years. The husband was even there on March 27, 1964, the date of the Great Alaskan Earthquake (a 9.2 magnitude, 4 minute long “megathrust” quake that generated tsunamis as high as 200 feet tall, killed 131 people, with some tsunamis crossing the Pacific and other smaller waves reaching the Malibu Rapids at PLI. Although he didn’t feel the quake, he watched the Malibu Rapids go from slack to full flood, to full ebb every 5 minutes, several times in a row. It wasn’t until he learned of the Great Alaskan Earthquake later that he knew the explanation for what he witnessed.

Stars and the Phosphorescence amazed everyone our final night in PLI and Robert decided he wanted to sleep under the stars up on the top deck of our boat. James wasn’t interested, so Jasmine and Robert were the astronomers that night. Robert told James “he wasn’t sure he would like it, but he had to give it a try.” After he was in his sleeping bag, he was rewarded with a shooting star and said the next morning that he was very glad he gave it a try and wants to do it again next time.

Our final morning in PLI was clear and warm and the kids did their final “pizza float” and swim before we released the shore tie, raised the anchor and headed back to Egmont.

After the cleansing rain, the smoke cleared so the mountains and glaciers glowed in the sunshine and David piloted the boat all the way back to Egmont.

In Egmont we enjoyed dinner with the boys while Jasmine and David enjoyed a quiet adult dinner together at the lovely Inlets Restaurant at the Northwest Wilderness Resort, which is just a short walk from the Backeddy Marina & Pub.

Friday morning we packed them up, took the mile walk to the delicious Bakery In The Woods, and enjoyed a yummy breakfast there. After we walked back to the marina, the Donovans loaded up their minivan and headed out on their journey back to their home in Seattle.

We are not going to lie. This amazing time together enchanted, enthralled and exhausted the Captain and the First Mate. After some cleaning we rested and enjoyed the quiet before having a nice dinner ourselves at the NW Wilderness Resort.

September 12th is the date we have to return to Seattle this year. That leaves us with about two weeks left in our 2023 Salish Sea Summer Adventure. The forecast for the next week includes quite a bit of rain and some thunder storms, but after that there should be some sunny days as well.

This summer we’ve definitely learned that August is dry in PLI. Yes, the water is warm and the phosphorescence abundant, but only the few glacier fed waterfalls (like Chatterbox Falls) continue to run; the 20+ other “seasonal” waterfalls only run after it rains. As we thought about our options, the idea of just the two of us cruising back into PLI for one last late summer storm that would recharge the seasonal waterfalls seemed like the right thing to do. So we left Egmont and headed back to PLI for our last visit of the season. After cruising through Malibu Rapids we were welcomed into the inlet by a very young but flying mottled eagle who seemed to be struggling a little with flying, but learning to do what eagles must do to survive and thrive.

Anchored and shore tied we’ve enjoyed the last couple of days floating, kayaking, “yogaing”, cleaning and making new boating friends in the inlet. Then at 4:30 AM Tuesday morning the excitement began with a major thunder and lightning storm. Sometimes the lightning was so intense on the high mountains surrounding us we were completely blinded for a few seconds as our eyes adjusted back to the darkness. The lightning and thunder in the distance preceded a heavy rain. But soon the sound of the rain hitting the towering mountain above surrounded us. It reverberated around us like hail, but it was just rain. The lightening, thunder and rain continued for over two hours before it stopped and we could go back to sleep.

The wind that accompanied the storm never exceeded 8 knots and our shore tie and anchor held, but the anchor scraped quite a bit on its underwater rocky perch as the boat shifted left and right. So this morning during a calm in the storms we decided to move to one of the five nearby mooring buoys just in case another thunder storm rolls into PLI later today. We never got any more thunder and lightning, but it did rain on and off the rest of the day on Tuesday but we still got out for a long kayak between the rain showers and enjoyed a nice visit with the people on “Nordfjord” on the buoy next to ours.

This Wednesday morning the sun is back and its a beautiful day with awesome reflections. We’ll probably spend a couple of more days here before heading back out and then begin our end-of-season journey south back to Seattle.

Thanks for reading the True Love Adventure Blog! When we are on our long voyages and not listening and dancing to music we like to listen to Podcasts and this one about history and the polarization of our time is fascinating, with Russ Roberts interviewing historian Walter Russel Mead on the topic “Innovation, Religion and the State of the World”. I especially liked the following observation by Dr. Mead: “Man is a pattern seeking, story telling creature.” I guess it’s why we like writing our blog and sharing story and photos of our adventures! Here’s the link. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/econtalk/id135066958?i=1000625118942

The Captain and The First Mate of the True Love