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Ciao Bella
Honolulu
I like sailing, diving, reading, writing, and studying the origin of life on Earth đŠ I was born and raised by the Jersey shore and started dating my now-fiancĂ© @David when we were just 12 years old. Weâve dreamed of sailing around the world together for as long as we can remember. We began sailing in 2020 on our 1977 Pacifc Seacraft 25â while I finished my Master of Science in Microbiology. We sold her a year later and bought âBria Miaâ, a 1988 Catalina 34â. After sailing around OÊ»ahu and Maui county, we realized she wasnât exactly the kind of boat we wanted to cross oceans in. So, we began searching for something bigger and better suited for bluewater cruising, something that could safely and comfortably take us around the Hawaiian archipelago and more đ Our search led us to âCiao Bellaâ, a 2007 Tayana Vancouver 460 Pilot House. Since then, we continued sailing around OÊ»ahu, Maui county, and KauaÊ»i, and crossed the Pacific Ocean for Alaska in 2025. We make really bad YouTube videos with our puppy @Port once in a blue moon if you want to follow along đ€đœ @The808Sailors
Anchored closer to Fisher Channel as weâd have a long day of motoring to Eucott Hot Springs the following day. Dinkâd around the nearby tidal lagoon and discovered @Port is obsessed with starfish. The bay smells like crabcakes.
Super convenient town. Moored on an empty dock and boats filled in throughout the day. Everything is within a 30 second walk of one another on shore, so we did a small reprovisioning trip at their little grocery store, filled up our propane tanks at their hardware store, did two loads of laundry, topped up our tanks, and cleaned the boat in a only few hours.
Nice, quiet cove along BCâs coast. Another sailboat weâve yet to see along the inside passage anchored nearby. We were hopeful to see the northern lights projected in our area, but it was foggy.
Nothing spectacular about this anchorage. We try to limit our motoring to 4-5 hrs or ~20 nm per day. Spent the day on the computer writing emails, trying to sort out the haul out in Port Townsend, and looking for a place to live while Ciao Bella gets worked on đ ïž
Motored to Bottleneck during the ebb tide and anchored just after sunset. The head of the cove was packed with boats, but we werenât going to find another place in the dark, so we anchored near the mouth of the cove and left early in the morning for a new place. Although we only saw the anchorage during the sliver of light that remains after the sun sets, the walls were blanketed with green foliage and the cove had a faint sulphur smell.
We left Butedale with the ebb tide for Kâootz/Khutze Conservancy and anchored near the estuary at the head of the inlet. Dropped our Rocna in approximately 50â beneath a cascading waterfall that looked like a painting. Looking inland, the valley opened to a wildflower-painted estuary framed by snowcapped peaks. This part of the Great Bear Rainforest, on Princess Royal Island, is home to the spirit bear, sea wolves, harbor seals, bald eagles, and more. Itâs a popular anchorage, and weâve seen more boats here than anywhere along the Inside Passage so far. We spent the afternoon relaxing and cleaning our fuel injectors.
Motored from Bishop Bay through Ursula and Princess Royal Channels en route to Butedale. In just a few hours, we saw more humpback whales than in all our time cruising Alaska and BC combined. @Port is so sweet when he sees and hears them. He lets out the softest, mournful cries as if heâs trying to call back đ Got permission to tie up at Butedale for the night to split up our travel time. This place is an old cannery town turned into a ghost town, with major development plans in the works. The caretakerâs only request for our stay was to take photos and send them his way.
Sailed (for the first time in forever!!!) around Gribbell Island to Bishop Bay Hot Springs andâŠjust wow. The landscape is breathtaking. It seems like Misty Fjords was the gateway into some of the most epic mountainscapes weâve ever seen. We entered Bishop Bay alongside a pod of humpback whales, their surfacing breaths echoing against granite walls, and later watched them from the warmth of the hot springs. The afternoon was ethereal. At the springs, we added a small artifact of our own (đđ€«) to the collection left by fellow cruisers, a quiet gesture of belonging to the unseen fellowship that threads through places like this. Dropped anchor in approx. 80â and stern tied to shore for the first time. Ciao Bella sat around 45â at high tide, and 25â at a +5â low tide. Not 10â from our stern, the shore quickly shoaled to 5â or less. Definitely a little precarious, but this place is worth it.
