We woke bleary eyed to our alarm at 04:30 , fired up the engine and started heading out of Port Hardy heading for Bull harbour on the ebb tide.  We had one other sailing boat that left with us, what looked like a 30 footer with a jury rigged mizzen. We were glad we were in our more robust girl as we zoomed past them at double their speed.  The day was overcast with low lying cloud on the islands but there was little wind and we motored all the way to Bull Harbour, arriving to find ourselves the only ones there at around 09:00, just as the tide turned.  There was a small floating dock that we were able to tie up to which allowed us to at least get off the boat and walk the 100 or so feet the length of the dock.  As we arrived the sun came out and I was able to put out a chair, read my book and catch some rays as we waited for the tide to turn so we could make our bid to cross Nahwitti bar.

We knew the high slack tide was forecast at 14:40 and both watched to clock anxiously as the time approached.  Impatient as ever to get moving I cajoled Heidi to leave around 13:30 and we pushed into the straight with thankfully little wind.  As we headed towards the bar we could see the disturbed water but had no idea what to expect.  Luckily we saw a fishing boat crossing the bar ahead of us and it gave us some comfort seeing it power through the chop without being thrown about too much. 

The line of the disturbed water was very clear and we both looked anxiously on as we got closer.  Arriving at the bar at around 14:10 we knew we were early but decided to go for it and Heidi pushed into the chop.  Surprising, although it looked confused, there was little impact on us as we motored on through and with a sigh of relief, after about 10 minutes we were through and into smoother water.  What we hadn't foreseen was that the smooth water was running strongly against us and we only made about three knots headway for the next 20 minutes or so until we arrived at the marker buoy signalling the end of the bar around 14:40 (we subsequently found out that the tide time is actually set at the buoy and so purely by chance we had timed our crossing almost perfectly!)

From this point we set a direct line for Cape scott and started back on our shifts.  With an ebb tide pushing us we made good progress and we rounded Cape Scott at  around 18:00 in 1 - 2 meter swells and no wind.   As we changed course to the South we toasted Neptune and the boat, and had a small tot of rum ourselves.

We now had a choice, whether, having put two of the major west coast hurdles behind us, we should pull into sea otter cove or Winter harbour or whether we should push on to clear Brooks peninsula, the last of the major hurdles, in one long push.  With the weather benign and the sea state calming we decided to push on and so set a direct course to round Brooks Peninsula, and settled in for the nine hour motor ahead. 

Although we had a beam sea which mad ethe passage rolly we soon settled into a routine and made steady progress at about 6 knots through the late evening and into the night.  I warmed up the spaghetti Bolognase that we had made a couple of days earlier and we had a good meal before motoring on.  At dusk, we found ourselves going head to head with a large coast guard vessel (CCGS Arctic Raven) and had to turn significantly to starboard to avoid her but other than that the twilight shift was uneventful.  As Heidi came up to relieve me we were still suffering from a beam sea but it was still benign with little or no wind and so she stayed the course until passing the light.  With the sea pushing us on, and only the one light as a marker though we decided to play it safe and keep well off the coast.  The thought of being dashed against brooks peninsula's rocky shore was not appealing.  We were also making better time than expected and didn't want to arrive on the reef strewn shore to the south of Brooks in the dark so slowed the engine to keep us moving at around 4.5 knots.

As I took over at 4 the next morning , we were about 5 NM off the SW corner of Brooks and starting to head in in very confused and rolly seas.  We were both happy though and Heidi went straight to sleep as I steered us diectly into the lightening horizon.  As the sun came up we were just entering the treacherous reefs that mark the outside of the Barrier island.  It was sobering to see the big pacific waves breaking against the rocks even though the Pacific was probably at her most benign!

By 06:30 we were pulling into Scow bay in the Bunsby's.  Since seeing the coast guard ship we had not seen a single sign of humanity (on either AIS or Radar) and as we approached this new coast, we felt very much alone in a masive wilderness.  As soon as we dropped the hook we both headed to bed and grabbed another couple of hours sleep before emerging to a beautiful calm sunny day around 10:-00

To our surprise around 10:30 another sailboat pulled into the bay and then a dinghy from yet another boat that we had not seen when we came in, came into the bay to investigate.  We were not alone (and to be honest, feeling a little relieved that the human race was still here!).  That afternoon we went for an explore around the bay and associated lagoon and also invited the other boats crew over for sun downers at 17:00 .  The couple in the dinghy also stopped by and we invited them round too.

At 17:00 we started gathering, the couple form Paradise Club (Leslie and Bill)  and  Euphoria (Alan and Sidney) arrived.  Alan announced they'd found another BCA boat a little further round Syntropy(Kevin and Lee-Anne) and had invited them too so in the end we had 8 on the boat, sharing applies and drinks.  Quite the party considering we thought we were alone!

After this we had a very tasty diner of Chicken Fajitas and then we settled down for an early night around 9pm.