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CHAPTER To Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Clover Bay To Partage, Hobart and Endicott To Funter, Tenakee and Saltery Bay To Still Bay, Ship Cove and El Capitan To Nichols and across Dixon Entrance Prince Rupert, Captians Cove and Ala Passage To Kwakume, Fury Cove and Blenden Harbour To Port McNeil, Neville and Gowlland To Henry Bay, Northwest Bay, Nanaimo and Pender Harbour
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The next am we found the end of a loooong log has caught up on the crab pot float ball and we were thankful everything was still intact. What with having cod, crab and shrimp on board I made a big Seafood Chowder which was enjoyed by all. So now we traveled down Laredo Channel, between Aristazabal and Princess Royal Islands and anchored in Smithers Island Cove on sw corner of Princess Royal Is. We fished in the Zodiac again and Norm caught a nice 4-5# ling cod. Fun!!
photos Now the next lap of the journey took us across Laredo Sound and it was a rough crossing. We "sailed" it out until we turned into Meyers Passage where we had to watch carefully as we passed through the Narrows. No passage here at low tide! Once through we turned south into Finlayson Channel and pointed toward Klemtu where we overnighted at the dock. It was great to make some phone calls home. Yes, we really do miss family and friends and are looking forward to being home around the 28th July. The little store here was pretty bare of produce so will make do! It is overcast and raining but found it was the same at home and in the Cariboo.
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. Next morning and we are out in Millbank Sound now and it is quite flat. In a few hours we will turn into Seaforth Channel to take us to Bella Bella. Norm and I have fond memories of summers here on Gospel Light having services and doing visitation. Many nice folk here. I have the memory of being 7-1/2 months pregnant with our first baby, Cheryl, and having to catch a ride back down to Pt. Hardy on a fish boat and across to Coal Harbour in order to follow my Drs. Instructions to be back 6 weeks before baby was due. It was no fun to be there by myself until Norm got back a few weeks later. And then I have no recollection of the Dr. ever being there during the time of delivery which just happened to be a Sunday. There was one nurse on duty tho! Life was an adventure in those days as well!! We were back up in this part again the next summer with Cheryl in tow and I will never forget how sick she got with diarrhea. She is to this day a survivor! The next summer Ron was born and I stayed home in Alert Bay while Norm and Ted Harper did the summer program. Enough, enough, so maybe we will be able to send this today. Love and hugs to family and friends – Norm and Mary Lou – Dave and Marg "MaggieLou" - over and out!! (and I can hear you all saying – "thank goodness"!) Oh, oh, we couldn’t send out so this "will" be a long letter. As we approached Bella Bella and realizing we were in need of more fresh produce and knowing there was a good store there, we asked the Captain if we could stop off and he kindly obliged the cooks by pulling in and taking the Zodiac down so that Norm, Mary Lou and Carol could go ashore to shop and take the doggies for a walk. It was a treat to find fresh lettuce, celery, etc., and while at the store we met members of the Wilson family who remembered us from back in the late fifties when Norm and I traveled up there several summers on "Gospel Light" to have service and do visitation. We were newly-weds (very early twenties) and these boys were about 10-14. We didn’t recognize each other but as Norm talked to them and asked them if they remembered when the "Gospel Light" came into their village way back then, they said, "oh, yes, we remember a Norm Williams". We laughed!! Could it have been because Norm used to swim with the boys down at the dock?? It was their dad who took me back to Pt. Hardy on the seine boat in 1958 when I had to be back home in Coal Harbour six weeks before baby was due. They are a very nice family and we could tell they have remained steady walking with the Lord through the years, as have many others. What a pleasure to have been able to have this visit. It was a drizzzly afternoon as we made our way through Lama Pass and there we found a good anchorage at Fancy Cove on the N.E. side of Hunter Island. There is a gale warning out and so we have to watch carefully to be in good anchorage when it arrives. |
