Will Butedale morph into Broadband Bay?

We departed Prince Rupert at 0200 in order to have the most favorable tide and wind conditions for our long run to Butedale. We also wanted to have a lot of the day left to explore. Other than hitting a log head on (no damage) just minutes after leaving the dock, the rest of the journey was beutiful and uneventful cruise down the full length of 'the Ditch' -- Grenville Channel -- and then some.

As it turned out, both Patty and I had work calls that pinned us down to the boat until dinner time. But, Shore Leave took off and hiked up to very rugged trail to the lake for some fishing. He and I also did radio checks to confirm that yes, indeed, radio communication is possible from the lake to the dock by VHF handheld and using our crew radios. We didn't have unlicensed/FRS family radios to test.

In keeping with my Starlink expeditionary spirit, I also did speed tests from Butedale and confirmed that the line of sight angle chosen by Dishy pointed almost due south, through and over a gap in the surrounding mountains and we had great connection speed.

Now, it was nice to confirm that Starlink works great here. But, if you walk around the site a little bit you can see that fiber optic cables are landed into Butedale. This is, I’m told, part of the fiber backbone laid up and down the Canadian inside passage. Who knows how long we need to wait until Butedale has high speed wifi at the dock. But in the meantime, if you have Starlink, you’re golden.