West of Seymour Narrows the country becomes much more remote. We do not have to share anchorages anymore or even the dock in port. After transiting Seymour we took advantage of the favorable current and wind from behind us an made it all the way to Helmcken Island, a tiny island in the middle of Johnstone Strait. It was a cold and rainy day but right after we dropped the anchor in about 30ft of water the sun broke through the clouds. This was what we had come for. We cracked a beer and then in the excitement of the moment also discovered that we are outstanding drone pilots.
In the morning we went on a little shore expedition with the dinghy but the forest is so dense it is impossible to penetrate. With the currents against us until after 2pm we spent a nice relaxed morning soaking up the sun before getting back into Johnstone Strait. With almost no wind we did not quite get the full Johnstone experience which usually means strong winds from the North in the afternoon. We did get soaked by rain pretty thoroughly. The night we spent anchored on Hanson Island which is at the western end of Johnstone. Tee following morning we weighed anchor a little earlier, the wind forecast was NW and we knew we would have to beat into it to reach Port Hardy by evening. It was a rough ride. Queen Charlotte Strait definitely shook us up. We are spending today to reprovision and get the boat ready to round Cape Caution early in the morning tomorrow. After that we will be out of internet range for a while. Follow the satellite tracker https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Sage