Horsefly Cove Thankfully Bug Free

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6/22/18 Horsefly Cove



It is bittersweet to leave Hartley Bay with good friends waving us off as we start our downhill slide, returning slowly back home. Not long after leaving fishing grounds off Promise Island, a humpback whale surface beside us but the long view of her incredibly large tail fluke indicates a deep dive and sure enough, though we slow, she never resurfaces in our view.



We slow at a couple points to check for fish but mostly make tracks back the way we came through Wright Sound, MaKay Reach, Fraser Reach and down Graham Reach into Horsefly Cove, just inside Green Inlet. Never having been there, but hearing how popular it is, we expect a crowd and figure there must be good crabbing, prawning or fishing nearby but it’s deep, all the way, even in the cove where anchorage is supposed to be good. We creep slowly towards the end of the bay, hearing an invisible waterfall draining between steep mountainsides, straight up and down into the water. It seems we might have to stern tie, not hard for us, but time consuming and I prepare for a good row to tie ashore when suddenly the Captain says, “drop anchor,” and we are there, snug in probably the only spot in harbor less than 100 ft. depth.



Contrary to its name, we are not visited by horseflies and the little buggers that bothered us so much in Hartley Bay and easily deterred with a little Off. I desperately need the exercise and Peter his solitude, so I row off to drop a crab pot at the small cut that opens back into the entry of Green Inlet. Seabirds are plentiful and bird song fills the silence though we are reminded of home from the dull constant sound from the two other boats in harbor whose constant generator hum bothers us more than the insects. Still it’s a lovely, quiet place to anchor and we sleep like logs. Maybe all those lovely birds are keeping us bug-free!



Next morning, after a hot shower and hauling the crab pot (only caught a very large multi arm starfish) our path crossed a small orca pod heading north up the Graham Reach where we just came from. We slowed to neutral but the two full grown and two smaller orcas, quickly passed us, sounding like a kettle’s first blow when surfacing then diving in tight curves, tall fins silently slicing through waves, tail flukes disappearing last.

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