Exploring Isabella Bay
Saxon Blue's Blog
Harvey Jones and Andrea Stokes
Tue 17 Aug 2010 01:45
It was another day of grey skies and limited visibility. We intended to set off at 0900 to explore into the fjord but the visibility was so bad that we stayed put until 1000. It was still very limited but I wanted to see into the interior. Luckily, we could see OK at sea level but nothing above about 100 feet so we could see the shorelines but not the mountains above them.
It was flat calm again so I was in high hopes of seeing some whales. Soon after we set off, Andrea did some filming of herself singing while we drifted in the fog and then we set off again. To be honest, that was about the last excitement we had for the rest of the day. I was navigating by radar and spent hour after hour looking at the shoreline through the binoculars in hope of seeing a bear but saw nothing but rock. We saw no whales either so I've no idea where they all went - certainly not inland, that's for sure. We did see a few seals and that was the lot.
We'd spotted a side fjord on the chart that looked good for anchoring and we got in here at about 1600. We were spoilt for choice on where to anchor as it's gently sloping all around at the head. By the time we'd finished, I was frozen and it took a while to thaw out down below with the heating on. Then it was fish medley for dinner. I managed to persuade everyone to go ashore for a look around after dinner as I wanted to stretch my legs and it's a shame not to see the land when we'd spent so long today getting here.
We found one ring of stones where a tent had been, this one even had some flat stones arranged as a threshold. There were some other piles of stones that looked man-made and a few more recent fire places. Apart from that, it was a lovely soft evening with the Brent Geese calling. It was great to get my legs working and get properly warmed up - it's much better to get warm from the inside. We're all off to bed soon as we need to make an 0400 start tomorrow to make it up to Clyde by a sensible time. It's about 100 miles so a fair trip in a day and we want to arrive in the light. Seems strange to have to worry about that again but the nights are getting pretty dark now. It's half past ten here now and almost dark.
We're all looking forward to Clyde tomorrow. I'd really like to see some proper Mounties in their red jackets so I hope they're not in plain clothes or something boring.
Harvey
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