Princess Louisa | Day 2

We woke up to 32 degrees and sun. Princess Louisa Inlet is a deep fjord surrounded by very tall snow-covered mountains, so it’s tough to get good photos on sunny days due to the extreme contrast of shade and sun.

Chatterbox Falls:

We got some work done after breakfast on Sam’s boat, and then decided we were brave enough to layer up and take a dinghy ride to explore the inlet a bit. The walls were covered in frozen waterfalls:

We made it all the way back to Malibu Rapids and decided to walk around at the Malibu Club (a Young Life summer camp). This is from the dock at the Malibu Club, looking back into Princess Louisa Inlet:

Just after we arrived, two guys on the Malibu Club staff arrived by boat and one of them offered to give us a tour. This place is impressive!

By the time we headed back to the boats, the wind had picked up and we had an extremely bumpy and wet dinghy ride back up the inlet. Always an adventure!

We made some hot tea, got some more work done, and then had pasta/chicken/zucchini/garlic bread for dinner on Sam’s boat and called it an early night.

In the morning the wind had died down considerably:

We left the dock at around 10am to time getting to Malibu Rapids at a non-dramatic moment, current-wise. Looking back toward the dock as we pulled away:

We could see whitecaps out in Jervis Inlet (which momentarily bummed us out, since there was hardly any wind at Princess Louisa and we had all anticipated a MUCH calmer cruise out than was our cruise in), but not to worry. It was just a little breezy but still nice and calm. Sam stopped his boat and launched the drone (then carried on a bit) to get some nice footage and some stills of Safe Harbour and Airship underway:

The scenery in here in the winter is just breathtaking.

It’s difficult to describe how incredible it feels to cruise up here in the winter. A trip like this definitely requires a higher level of self-sufficiency and confidence, but the reward is so high.

More frozen waterfalls in Jervis Inlet:

The winter daylight hours are short, so we figured we’d at least make it back to Green Bay, with alternative (further) destinations of Pender Harbour and Smuggler Cove. The conditions were so lovely that we decided to go all the way to Smuggler Cove. We’d arrive just before (or shortly after) sunset, and none of us had ever been there before.

So calm!

The entrance to Smuggler Cove is very narrow, and there’s not much room inside for more than a few boats. Apparently there are stern tie rings around the bay, but we anchored and rafted up in the middle and made dinner on Airship while reminiscing about our trip.

In the morning we’ll head for Ganges Harbour on Salt Spring Island. Forecast is for another calm, sunny, cold day.