(Read more about Klewnuggit Inlet & view the photos.)
While cruising the Inside Passage is an act of freedom and personal adventure, there are also certain rules to be followed. There are of course the rules of good seamanship when you're on the water. The rules of etiquette around the docks. And then there are the rules you follow when you get OFF the boat.
Of course, up here on the Inside Passage, getting off the boat can mean getting into trouble. With bears…
As Bill Buckingham explained it, there are three key rules to follow when you encounter a bear:
1. Never turn and run.
2. If you have food, throw it to the bear.
3. Never crouch or make yourself look smaller.
Bill and his wife Connie are the proud owners of Best Ever, a beautiful 54 Eastbay SX they first took to Alaska in 2005. He was sharing his wisdom at a sunset cocktail party graciously hosted by Gunther and Christa Weiss aboard their GB66, Christina. A dozen of us were seated on the Weiss' aft deck sharing past adventures, and Bill was on a roll.
First of all, you have to know Bill. He's a bear of a guy himself, and he clearly knows how to enjoy the great outdoors. Hardly a day goes by without spotting Bill dropping shrimp pots or pulling in crab pots or puttering past in his dinghy showing off the day's catch. He's an avid and experienced outdoorsman, and cruising the Inside Passage in his 54SX gives him and Connie plenty of opportunity to zip around to all the hot spots and still make port with the rest of us.
So when Bill speaks of proper bear-encounter protocol, he speaks from experience. Up close and personal experience, as we learned.
See, last year when Bill was out on his Alaska trip, he set off for shore in his dinghy, tossed the anchor ashore and headed up the beach on a small mission. He began to dig up a few clams for that night's supper, armed with a small pail and hand-held garden rake. Bill was hunched over the sand and burrowing away when a shadow darkened the ground before him.
His first thought was that Connie had come to join him on the beach. Then it flashed into mind: HE had the dinghy. It couldn't be Connie.
That's for sure.
Looking up, Bill was momentarily frozen by the sight of a 1,500-pound grizzly, poised on all fours and studying him with mild curiosity. From about six feet away. Which is when Bill's wilderness experience kicked in:
1. He turned and ran.
2. He grabbed his bucket of clams to take with him.
3. He ran waist-deep into the water toward the dinghy, exposing just half his height to the pursuing bear.
Way to go, Bill.
Well, as they are wont to do in these situations, the bear gave chase. When Bill looked back from the water, the bear was now on its hind legs, menacingly flexing its massive paws and arms. Bill suddenly grasped the error of his actions, along with the fatal flaw in his current plan: although the dinghy was now between him and the bear, the anchor was firmly planted up on the beach. No hope for a speedy getaway.
Way to go, Bill.
Bravely facing disaster, Bill was spurred by some kind of primal instinct. He raised the (albeit diminutive) hand rake above his head and made a loud, low noise.
[Now it's at this point that our account of this tale suffers, for we cannot begin adequately depict the sound Bill makes and posture he strikes as he recounts the face-off. It's a primitive, guttural noise: not a scream, not a growl, more like a great and forceful exhalation. And to give us the full effect, Bill rises from his seat on Christina, holds his fist above his head and makes The Noise. Unfortunately, there's just no way to describe it here.]
Whether or not these acts struck a lick of fear into the bear is debatable, but the effect was promising: the bear paused and waited, studying Bill but remaining high on its hind legs.
Bill repeated. Bear retreated, if only just a step. One more time Bill raised his rake and his voice to the bear, until at last it began to back off. Maybe is WAS scared. Maybe Bill just seemed less appetizing now, apparently suffering from some sort of mad prey disease. Whatever the case, the bear moved off and up the beach, pausing occasionally for a curious look at Bill, still waist-deep in water. It wasn't until the bear was a quarter-mile off that Bill dashed to shore, retrieved the anchor, and sped back to safety.
The tale and (especially) the telling have us all doubled over, crazy with laughter. Bill sits, sips his wine and leans back in his chair.
"Best darn clams I ever ate."
It's moments like these that make this Grand Tour experience so much more than just a cruise, no matter how spectacular that cruise is. And today's journey was one of the best: eye-popping scenery at every turn as we moved out of Khutze Inlet and up the Fraser Reach. The morning was surreal and ethereal, the fleet emerging from a brief but thick fog and into a brilliant blue day.
Sea conditions were ideal, as was the weather. Here we are well above 53° N, still in May, and we're on the foredeck in shorts and T-shirts. A stop at Bishop Bay hot springs is in order, and before you can say "artesian waters" we're all in our bathing suits and up the dock into the small pools that flow with warm water from the natural hot springs.
Back out to Ursula Channel now, we're struck dumb once again by the scenery. These are narrow passages carved deep and rugged by retreating glaciers tens of thousands of years ago, and the snow-topped landscape is majestic, raw, and achingly beautiful. Lying now in the warm (!) sunshine aft of the flybridge, it looks and feels like we're moving through some kind of wonderland on steroids.
If it seems we're grasping for words here, it's because there are few adjectives that can convey the true sense of this place and this day, or the sense of spirit we all feel traveling together through these waters and on these boats.
As we turn from Grenville Channel into Klewnuggit Inlet, a group of GBs from the Tour are already at anchor. We have the cove to ourselves, and all of our faces seem to reflect the understanding that we have experienced something rare and wonderful today. And now, as our laughter continues and Bill savors the memory of those clams, we each know we will have our own memories of this day to savor and recount for a lifetime to come.
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- Day 1: Nanaimo
- Day 2: Pender Harbour
- Day 3: Prideaux Haven
- Day 4: Shoal Bay
- Day 5: Lagoon Cove
- Day 6: Sullivan Bay
- Day 7: Sullivan Bay
- Day 8: Sullivan Bay
- Day 9: Duncanby Landing
- Day 10: Shearwater
- Day 11: Khutze Inlet
- Day 12: Klewnuggit Inlet
- Day 13: Prince Rupert
- Day 14: Foggy Bay
- Day 15: Ketchikan
- Day 16: Ketchikan
- Day 17: Meyers Chuck
- Day 18: Santa Anna Inlet
- Day 19: Wrangell
- Day 20: Wrangell
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