Friday, May 31 Pender Harbour to Princess Louisa 47 miles 5 hours

Today we enter Princess Louisa Inlet via Malibu Rapids.  Again we have to plan our journey based upon slack water at a narrow passage.  We have a rainy and cloudy day to travel.  It is nice not having the bright sun reflect in the window.  We will be heading up four large waterways that do not have any safe anchorages along the way.  Agamemnon Channel, Prince of Wales Reach, Princess Royal Reach and finally Queen’s Reach.  We never saw another boat until we reached the entrance to Malibu Rapids.  Three of us are going in this morning.  We passed through at 10 minutes before slack and had practically no turbulence.  Current can run up to 9 kts which would be very dangerous in the narrow, dog-legged passage.  No matter the weather, this is an awe inspiring inlet.  According the Waggoner, this 4 mile long inlet is the “holy grail” for cruising people from all over the world.  Entering Princess Louisa Inlet is like entering a great cathedral.  The author Earle Stanley Gardner wrote that no one could see Princess Louisa Inlet and remain an atheist. As you enter the head of the inlet you are surrounded by mile-high mountains that drop almost to 500 ft vertically.  There is an 895 ft dock and paths that lead to Chatterbox Falls and a rocky beach.  The max boat length that can stay on the dock is 55 ft and we are 57 ft.  We don’t want to annoy anyone so we anchored out directly in front of the falls.  What a magnificent view!  The outflowing freshwater surface current is strong enough to keep the boat from swinging into the shallows at low tide.  Poor us…