After crossing the fabled Dixon Entrance, the Cape Horn of these waters, we were finally in Canada. British Columbia, to be precise. We took the "Inside Passage", avoiding the wild and wicked exposed western coast. We motored through deep and narrow channels. Dark granite cliffs rose into the rain filled clouds. The peaks seemed to tear open the very seams of the heavens and the deluge cascaded down. We drank hot chocolate and marveled at it all. Hundreds of waterfalls bewitched us.

Princess Royal Island didn't honor us with a sighting of the mystical "Spirit Bear", a rare color phase of the black bear. The Spirit Bear is a symbol of the blossoming movement to protect the rapidly vanishing pristine parts of these watersheds from the ravages of unsustainable logging. But our spirits weren't dampened. More than half the fun of exploration is in seeking; just because we didn't find it didn't mean it doesn't exist. Elusiveness is as ephemeral as the lunging waterfalls in these torrent-filled fjords.