Orcas in Graham Reach.

Tuesday, May 25 …

What began as another gray and rainy morning, opened up into sunshine later as we left our anchorage in Mary Cove under the watchful eye of a majestic Bald Eagle sitting at the point.

Today we saw our first pod of orcas as we were half way up Graham Reach after leaving Finlayson Sound. There must have been 3-4 orcas in the pod, and they were definitely at play. We put the boat in neutral and watched as they jumped in and out of the water, finally swimming right by the boat and coming up behind us. What a treat!

We spent the rest of the day heading up Graham to Fraser Reach, and without exaggeration have seen at least 100 waterfalls streaming down the mountains on both shores surrounding us along the way.

At the junction of the two Reaches we passed a sad little town called Butedale, where all of the buildings are deteriorating into the ground … sitting next to the most spectacular set of waterfalls we’d seen all day. Redevelopment anyone?

We had hoped to stop at Hartley Bay, a little town close to the mouth of Grenville Channel that is reported to have wireless internet so we can upload some of these blog entries, but after some back and forth with the marina over the radio decided to anchor in Coghlan Anchorage for the evening and wait until we are in Prince Rupert tomorrow to use the internet there.