Minstrel Island to Port McNeill

The trip from Shoal Bay to Minstrel Island goes up Johnstone Strait.

Johnstone Strait can be really nasty and often very windy – blowing 25-30 knots NW. Then with a wind against tide it can be a real miserable slog.

But we had flat calm seas. Slightly overcast and a little bit of a drizzle. So we were all happy. Including the cat.

When we got to the docks at Minstrel Island we discovered there are a couple of derelict boat squatting at the far end of the dock. And it was a mess.

Very disappointing to see such a mess there. One of the boats has a dog that is making a mess on the dock as well. Jim is going to report it to DFO

We left early the next morning for Port MCNeill.

Along the way we saw a raft of sea otters.

Three separate humpback whale sightings

And a Minke whale. Which is a rare sighting. We saw it surface a number of times. I didn’t manage to get the best photo.

You can see the difference between the Humpback – with the hump and the flat back of the Minke and the different shape of the dorsal fin.

We also had a very active pod of White sided Dolphins zip past. I tried to get some decent video but I was unsuccessful.

It has been raining and cold here in Port McNeill. We’ve done some grocery shopping and laundry and not much else. We did have dinner last night at Gus’s Pub.

Our plan is to head to Bull Harbour tomorrow morning.