Shearwater to Ocean Falls

The forecast, sadly, remained gloomy, with more rain and more wind predicted. So we agreed we’d rather wait out the inclement weather at Ocean Falls, a place known for its high total yearly rainfall. Home of the Rain People? What better place to wait?

Ocean Falls is one of our favorite places in this part of the Central Coast. And Karen has been dreaming about the banana bread we bought there in 2022, sold at the Little Licker ice cream shop adjacent to the Olde Bank Inn. Maybe we can get some more!

The trip was uneventful, though with low clouds and on and off rain. As we made our way up Cousins Inlet, we once again saw a commercial prawner setting tons of traps in the downpour. How wet and cold they must be.

When we arrived at Ocean Falls, the outer dock was wide open. We backed in, port side to, in the exact same spot as in 2022. When we went to plug in shore power, there was no joy. We tried both our bow and stern power sources to no avail. I got out my trusty volt meter and low and behold – there was no power on the docks at all. This is atypical, to say the least, given Link Lake Hydro! We decided to walk into town to see if we could find out what was going on.

oceanflyer on the outer dock arm

oceanflyer from the docks to the old paper mill, now home to crypto mining

Of course, as we walked, it started to pour, but we were ready in our foul weather gear. Our destination was the Olde Bank Inn, because we figured that they were mostly likely to be around on a weekend in this sparsely populated town. As we walked past the Court House, we ran into another couple who jokingly said they were there for Jury Duty (Trump had just been found guilty on 34 counts, so it was really funny). They were on the inner dock on a boat called Yofii, and said that they hadn’t seen anyone around at the Inn or the Bakery. We made plans to hook up at Happy Hour and continued on our way.

karen’s favorite place in ocean falls. the bakery.

the dam and spillway is the heart of oceanflyer

a look at the breakwater at ocean falls.

We did find Les at the Inn,  and he said work was being done on the power system. The repairs were supposed to take two hours and they started at 9am. It was now about 2pm, and nothing was back on yet. Karen asked him if the bakery was open (it had moved across the street to the converted Firehouse), and he said yes just ring the doorbell.

many abandoned buildings are atill used. But we never go in as the ceilings and floors are deteriorating

We traipsed over and rang the bell, but no one was home. At long last, we realized that with no power, the doorbell probably was not working. With a manual knock, we had success!

The bakery now also carries frozen meats and some supplies. The owner, Marc, invited us in to look around. He did not have any banana bread but was willing to make some we could pick up tomorrow. Karen told him how much she loved that bread two years ago, and placed an order for 2 loaves. All is now well in the world. We bought to cinnamon buns to tide us over until tomorrow.

The power came on around 5pm, and we had a lovely time chatting about boats and destinations with Greg and Ruth on Yofi. I think we convinced them to have a Starlink shipped to Ketchikan!

evening falls on ocean falls