JULY 25, 2002 – CULLEN HARBOR TO MOUND ISLAND

Boy are we looking forward to leaving today. We enjoyed swells from the outside most of the night which was interesting because during the day we didn’t have any swells, so what gives? It is socked in with about 1/8 mile visibility, and the area we are transiting today is rock strewn, so best if we have a visual. I spent an hour shelling the batch of shrimp I cooked last night and yielded about 2 lbs, and that was just all of the smaller salad sized shrimp. The larger ones went into the freezer last night uncooked. I packaged up the cooked and peeled small shrimp for future quick appetizers, and left the larger ones out for our lunch today – Shrimp Louis Salad.

We are now slowly making our way down to Mound Island to anchor out in a more protected cove, should the winds materialize. I checked the Windy and Predict Wind apps this morning and neither concurred with what the marine weather forecast is saying, so we aren’t sure what exactly to expect. It’s 11:15AM and we are now out in the middle of Queen Charlotte Strait, well.....really just skirting the edge of it, we can duck into more protected waters at any time. It’s pretty soupy out here now that we are away from Cullen Harbor, but calm, and radar is spinning. We are now on a countdown to get south by Friday to hook up with friends, and have a course plotted for the next 4 nights to get us there, only about 60 miles away but a semi-major crossing is involved. We’ve been sitting on the edge of Queen Charlotte Strait for the past 24 hours so we get the occasional 1 bar of 5G that comes and goes. I am hoping these blog updates post! Not sure when I’ll get service again but will post again soon. 

Over and out for today.

JULY 24, 2022 – CLAYDON BAY TO CULLEN HARBOR (BOOKER LAGOON)

Today we are moving campsites so first order of business was to get the shrimp pots that we left out overnight, and the crab pots that I put inside Claydon Bay near the boat. We got a few more shrimp, but overall it was a disappointing shrimping session the past couple days. Same with crabbing, my pots were full of females and one molting male so couldn’t keep him. And I fed them SOOOO well with fresh salmon heads and pieces. Our cruise down to Cullen Harbor couldn’t have been better with glassy smooth water and sunshine trying desperately to penetrate the cloud layer creating a greenhouse effect – meaning, it was toasty inside. We arrived to find that this is a very popular place, about 10 other boats already here, but we found a niche in the corner of the bay and got the anchor set. Unfortunately, this spot was a bit open to the outside but with settled waters we hoped for the best, not like we had a choice as it was the only spot left. We had read about really good shrimping inside Booker Lagoon which is accessed through a narrow channel off Cullen Harbor that has some respectable rapids when the tides are running, so we timed our access at slack and dropped the pots inside in 300’ – the only shrimp hole in the lagoon as far as we could tell. Many others were already there, so it looked popular. We had a low-key afternoon on the boat puttering about and reading as it has been an active few days of fishing so we were both kind of beat. At the next slack we went back in to collect our pots, they’d only been down for 3-1/2 hours so I wasn’t super optimistic, but hallelujah! We found the mother lode. Both pots were teeming with shrimp and our 5-gallon bucket was quickly 2/3 full. It was the best shrimp haul of this entire trip and renewed my faith in the process!! Makes all the effort worthwhile. Back at the boat we had an assembly line where I headed them and John rinsed and packaged them for freezing. Dinner was ling cod piccata again, along with pearl cous cous and roasted broccoli. A great day!

JULY 23, 2022 – CLAYDON BAY

Today was a busy day of fishing and harvesting. We headed out fairly early to put the shrimp and crab pots down, and also because John needed to get cell service which meant a half hour run out into Wells Passage. We dropped 2 shrimp pots and also an experimental crab pot drop. Several years ago when we were here we pulled up a shrimp pot out of 200’ + water and it was full of baby Dungeness, all about 3” wide at most, so we figured that was decent evidence that the bigger crab were there too! So down went the pot to 224’ along with 1 shrimp pot, the other we placed across the bay at a different location The ride out Wells Passage was beautiful and smooth, and the temperature already warm so a nice dinghy ride is always enjoyable! We headed back in near our bay and tried to get on a halibut spot at this morning’s slack but as soon as we let down sure enough the wind came up and made it super difficult to stay on our spot. We have had a frustrating time with halibut fishing so far. But the good news is that we have rediscovered our youth in the delight of a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich as today that served as our breakfast! I make strawberry freezer jam every year so that makes it a lot better than average. John discovered yet again, that his email didn’t go through so back out to Well’s Passage we went for another try. 

Back at the boat later that morning, you guessed it, John discovered his email still didn’t go through. ARGH.  So we made a plan for the afternoon to get back out there to Wells Passage, refuel the whaler at Sullivan Bay (which was packed by the way) and go ling cod fishing in Drury Inlet again. Sullivan Bay has new managers and is doing a booming business – and if you are a boater reading this, make your moorage reservations ahead of time.  They continue offering meals on certain nights and also lunch, so check their schedule and get on the reservation list for dinner as well! The manager told us they were sold out for 2 seatings at the Friday night dinner so people are clearly patronizing them this year, which we are so happy to hear. These small businesses in remote BC need our business to stay afloat, so to speak. After the 3^rd run for cell service, we had another fun afternoon of ling cod fishing with little rockfish getting on (released) along with a few big ling cod that got away, and one smaller one we let go, but I finally landed a nice 12 lb ling – they are so fun to catch. Afterwards we checked our shrimp pots and pulled in a respectable amount of shrimp, enough for a couple meals. Interestingly though, one of the shrimp pots only had small salad sized shrimp, very curious about that because usually they are mixed in with all sizes. I don’t mind though, they are super easy to peel and make a nice salad topper. The other shrimp pot had nice big ones in it. The deep crab pot didn’t yield any male keepers but it did contain the most enormous female crab I have ever seen, she had to be 8” so that proves that at least the females are down there, maybe that’s where they have their babies, hence the babies that we caught a few years ago. Tonight I made crab stuffed chicken breasts with the 1 crab I caught a couple days ago. I didn’t want to use up my panko for coating the chicken as I only have 1 box left and need it for crabcakes, should I find where the crab are up here. We were told it is an off year for crabbing for everyone, including commercial. But I hear it is booming at home in the San Juan Islands per my brother Scott who says they are slaying them right and left.  Anyway, I improvised for panko using crushed ritz crackers instead and you know what, it was pretty darn good! Just a note for the cooks out there. John continues to beat me harshly at rummy, he remains 800 points ahead of me at this point. Frustrating but I try to be a good sport.

Sullivan Bay - just packed with boats

There appears to be a new float plane service up here called Friday Harbor Air, never seen them before. Kenmore isn't flying too far north this year we are told.

Visited Jennis Bay at the head of Drury Inlet and the logging business is booming again here, very active operation, this appears to be the log camp. Below is the "marina" and residence of the owner/operators we believe. We didn't stop to visit but that is where we stayed about 15 years ago when we visited here.

JULY 22, 2022 – DICKSON ISLAND TO CLAYDON BAY (SULLIVAN BAY AREA)

Super fun early morning fishing out at James Point. After trolling the shoreline for a couple hours and getting nothing but the occasional rockfish, we went deeper and farther away from shore and started picking up the bite! Ended up with 1 nice silver salmon for our freezer so that was a score! Soon we were off to Claydon Bay for a couple days, just a short hour run around the corner to the inside. Once settled we headed to Drury Inlet to try for some halibut and ling cod, and boy did we hit the ling cod! We found a sweet spot right at slack tide, put the gear down and gently drifted past a rock face, and bam bam bam, we were getting fish right and left, not all keepers of course as some were just the basic small rockfish. We hooked up a few big ones that got away, but the final count for keepers was one very large ling cod, a smaller one, and a medium one that I decided to let go, not sure if our freezer could accommodate more fish! Very fun fishing! Around 6PM that night, we were prepping dinner, and just chilling out on the boat when a working skiff was headed our way. As it motored towards us I wasn’t sure what was up, was it fish & game or First Nations officials? Turned out it was a group of loggers coming around to warn us that there will be a dynamite blast on shore in our bay just as soon as they can notify all the boaters in the bay. Sure enough about 20 minutes later a sonic boom shook our windows! Apparently they are blasting rock to build a logging road. I felt sorry for all of the woodland animals who probably still have PTSD. It’s a shame for us boaters that they are going to log inside Claydon Bay as it will make it unattractive to visit.

We found this tree growth very odd, almost like a seedling attached itself to the top of another tree. It was just a thick mound of pine sitting up high. Curious to know why

JULY 21, 2022 – DICKSON ISLAND

John left for fishing this morning at 6:45 and I opted out, as it was 53 degrees, threatening to rain, and virtually no visibility with the fog. Not this girl’s favorite fishing weather. Soon he was back with a nice Chinook and a Black Rockfish (different species than Black Cod/Sablefish) so of course I have regrets I didn’t just suck it up and go! We’ve heard from two people now that Black Rockfish are really delicious so we are going to eat it for dinner tonight. He is now back out fishing again, perfecting some new way to attach herring so it rolls just right to attract the King Salmon. I rallied later in the day and checked the crab pots (1 keeper), then went fishing with John for the afternoon bite. The afternoon was beautiful, sun came out, but not the fish unfortunately. Pot yielded 1 rogue crab as clearly this spot wasn’t quite right, although I had caught crab there prior years so that’s all I have to go on! This evening I prepped the black rockfish with a tempura type batter, made some homemade tartar sauce, and boy that is some good fish. The batter wasn’t super exciting (new recipe) but the fish was super flavorful, so next time no coating. To be honest I am writing this recount of our day three days later so my memory fades as the days run together. Doesn’t make for exciting reading so my apologies!

Beautiful Mount Waddington soaring over the Broughtons

Caught this funny looking little bullhead type fish in my pot! That and a starfish, along with the one crab!

JULY 20, 2022 – PORT McNEILL to DICKSON ISLAND

Headed out early to do our short crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound which was glassy smooth but full of sticks, kelp and other debris so one had to pay close attention. Ran into some fog as we neared Wells Passage which is typical weather for this area. After getting settled into our bay, anchor down and all that, John extracted all the fishing and crabbing gear and we soon set off for a morning/afternoon of fishing, with a picnic lunch packed. First stop was to let down the crab pots at a place that was reportedly good for crab, (per the manager of Sullivan Bay Marina). I had serious doubts about that referral when we arrived to the bay and found nothing but kelp beds at the edges which isn’t typically indicative of good crabbing conditions, but I figured maybe he knew something I didn’t so we put them down with fingers crossed. As we were doing so John noticed a little black bear on shore just watching us, so of course I dropped what I was doing and took photos, but with all the fog they didn’t turn out too great. Anyway, after that we went to James Point and beyond for some salmon fishing. The water remained calm throughout our adventure even when we ran to the outside shoreline of the sound, so in that respect it was a super pleasant outing. Additionally, the sun was gallantly attempting to penetrate the fog, creating a nice greenhouse effect resulting in warm temperatures on the water.  Alas the fish were not there today, except for these cute little rockfish that we just released. As the afternoon progressed by 3PM the fog burned off and we enjoyed a beautiful sunny afternoon on the hook, except for the cool wind that decided to show up late in the day.  John puttered away the afternoon and fixed a few nagging things around the boat while I took a much-needed nap. After dinner, the wind had died down and the sun was still shining so we took a ride around the bay soaking up our new surroundings, and had a most delightful cruise. In Port McNeill I downloaded a new TV series to try called “Pieces of Her” with Toni Collette, whom I like. We watched two episodes this evening and it’s quite the thriller so far. 

Cute little black bear foraging on the beach

Eagles are Always watching and waiting for a fishing opportunity

JULY 19, 2022 – PORT McNEILL

Today is our last full day in Port McNeill. We have to stay in port for the cell service for John’s conference call tonight, then tomorrow we will be on our way to the next 10 days of being off grid for the most part. It’s raining! What the heck. Residents here are grumbling about their “non-summer” as well, I guess the rain and chill has been pervasive for them as well. Today is the rest of the dreaded provisioning day so that awaits me. Supposed to stop raining later this morning so I will of course wait for that before embarking on that marathon. The store is close enough to walk to but without a car I have to roll the grocery cart all the way back to the top of the dock where there are dock carts for the rest of the journey…..sometimes there are….yesterday I wheeled a cart all the way down the dock, it’s pretty common practice here with the boaters. I will also hopefully get to post the rest of my blog days up until today since wifi will be scarce. T-Mobile has once again already reduced our data speed to the ice age, making it impossible to do anything much over cellular data. I am hoping to get my chores done in time to go visit Alert Bay but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Finished the shopping and stowing, cleaned, dumped garbage, and fueled up the boat, so we are ready to head out early in the morning. The winds are kicking up tomorrow so we want to get across Queen Charlotte Sound as early as possible. We are hosting Bill and Kim Halley for happy hour late this afternoon, they just pulled into Port McNeill. I don’t have any pictures for you today, and we are going off grid for another 10 days – maybe we’ll get service here and there who knows. Anyway, I’ll be back eventually! Until next time….. 

JULY 18, 2022 – PORT McNEILL

Up at 5AM for my morning routine because today we are going fishing! The weather is nice, the wind is calm, and we are excited. It was about a half hour run over to the other side of Malcolm Island where the fishing grounds were located and I was bundled up properly so as to enjoy the early morning ride. I will summarize our 4 hours of fishing: “Humpies” Humpback or Pink Salmon as they are also known. These are relatively small salmon that are mainly harvested for sale to canneries as it is a very soft fish that literally goes to mush within a few hours. It’s fine if you cook it right away, or quickly get it into brine for smoking, but this isn’t a fish you want to keep for more than half a day without doing something, the flesh just deteriorates. Anyway, we could not keep them off the lines! They were fun to catch and we pulled in probably 20 of them, but it was catch and release all morning. We tried fishing shallow, then deep, changed the lure and bait, changed our trolling speed. Nothing worked. We also caught a few Chum Salmon, or Dog Salmon (or Keta as it’s also known) but we weren’t interested in keeping them, as it’s not the best eating fish. So all in all we caught a ton of fish but kept nothing – we still had fun! Weather cooperated; seas stayed calm all morning. Back at the boat after cleaning up and having some food, I set out for some errands and John was fixing things as usual. Our diesel heater decided not to work again, so he had to look into that, and something else I can’t remember. Anyway, walked up to town and popped into this nice new home furnishings/gift store at the top of the hill. I casually asked the ladies if there was anywhere to get a pedicure, as it has been soooo long, my feet were in desperate need of attention. I had been researching online before I left the boat and could not find any nail salons in this fishing town of Port McNeill, not a big surprise. They dropped what they were doing and spent the next 20 minutes calling all around town to their friends and contacts to see if they could find out who was doing nails out of their home and voila! We found April who said “get here in 10 minutes” so the lady at the store says “I’ll drive you up to her house” which she did – small town hospitality!! So kind. April worked me over and gave me a fresh coat on paint on the toes, working out of her house. She preferred cash over credit and I hadn’t brought any with me so she said “oh I will catch you later, no problem, we’ll figure out how to hook up.” Again, small town trust and hospitality. I had a nice “soaked in warm sunshine” 20-minute walk back to town through the pretty, manicured neighborhoods, grabbed a few groceries then met April at the local bank where I was able to get some Canadian cash and pay her. We hugged goodbye as we had become friends over the past hour and I was SO grateful. Anyway – I was just touched by the generosity of the residents here in town. We had dinner at Gus’s Pub tonight at the top of the dock, the only restaurant open on Mondays, and it showed as it was packed to the gills. Again, fellow boaters heading this way be aware of that – lots of businesses closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Just a snapshot of a boat that came in ahead of us at fuel dock. It's the new Ocean Alexander model. Not sure how I feel about it. Seems very bulky, and like it should be in a Bond movie

JULY 17, 2022 – PORT McNEILL, SIDE TRIP TO SOINTULA

It’s a beautiful morning today and our plan is to visit Sointula, which is a Finnish settlement on neighboring Malcolm Island. We walked on the ferry at 10:30 and enjoyed the 20-minute crossing – we can see Sointula from the harbor and probably could have driven ourselves but the ferry dock is right next to us so we decided to be tourists. Sointula means “place of harmony” in Finnish. It was established in 1901 when a colony of Finnish settlers arrived with utopian dreams of building the perfect community. The vibe is super peaceful over there, with some homes sporting beautifully manicured lawns and gardens, and others more left to nature but still tidy for the most part. There are many Finnish residents and seasonal workers from abroad as well. After grabbing a late breakfast, we set off to walk down to the other end of town where the main harbors are located, about 2km away, desperately needing to put some miles on our legs after sitting on the boat for so long. Talked to some locals on the docks that were cleaning fish and got the scoop for where to go fishing, visited a couple gift shops and galleries along the way, and found ourselves back on the 1:45PM ferry to Port McNeill. One of the shops sells art on canvas of actual fish that have been laid on the canvas with ink making an imprint, very well done. The artwork was created by Alexandra Morton, a whale biologist turned activist who has written a book “Not on My Watch” exposing the corruption and cover up by the government regarding the devastating effects on wild salmon by farming salmon in British Columbia, who still pick up diseases and parasites from the farms as they pass by on migration. I will know more later as I bought her book to read, certainly relevant to our State of Washington as well as everywhere in the world that farms fish. I’ve always been against farmed salmon, looking forward to getting more educated on the topic. Back at the boat we had a nice catchup facetime call with John’s parents, then I spent 2 hours planning meals and making up various shopping lists as this is the last provisioning stop for next 3 weeks. Dread the shopping coming up but it’s a necessary part of our trip.

Scenes from Sointula (pronounced (Sun-Toola)

Very clever fence decorating with fishing floats

Don't think these two will be going anywhere

Couple more decorating ideas below

Driftwood with float in center

 

JULY 16, 2022 – FOLLY’S BAY TO PORT McNEILL

Yay! We get to move along and it is NOT RAINING! They don’t call it the Rainforest here for no reason. Today is a major crossing as we transit Cape Caution, a 7-8 hour run with about 3 hours of open water with nothing out there between us and Japan. We have been listening to the weather reports daily and knew that today is the day we go for the best crossing, even though it’s 2 days earlier than we had planned. While we did have very large slow swells, maybe 10’ from trough to crest, it was a nice crossing, with little to no wind or chop. I drove most of the way to keep my stomach contents intact, as the slow wallowing seas really get me. We were quartering the swells most of the way but when we turned south they became following seas on the stern. We arrived in Port McNeill around 3:00PM and got into a slip at the Public Harbor. After getting settled and registered at the Port office we did a quick stroll around town to stretch the legs, and went for a celebratory beer at the Devil’s Bath Brewery. We noticed a sandwich board sign on the way into the Brewery that said “North Coast Pot available after 4PM” – hmmmm….we thought. Didn’t know pot would be so blatantly promoted in a nice establishment! Turns out that it is a menu item! One which we came back later that evening to enjoy. It consisted of Steamed Clams, Steamed Mussels, Chorizo, quartered new potatoes, corn on the cob (cut in 3rds), topped with pickled sea asparagus and two spears of focaccia bread – all served in an old-fashioned metal sand pail. Like clam bake in a bucket! Clever presentation, and absolutely delicious down to the last morsel – of course we split it, tons of food. I had never had sea asparagus which is also known as Salicornia. For those traveling to Port McNeill, this is a dish not to be missed, so plan on it if you are passing through! The Brewery is right next to the harbor, but is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so plan your trip around that. I took the nightly beating at Rummy and then off to read myself to sleep.

On our journey across today we crossed paths with a tug owned by a friend of ours

JULY 15, 2022 – FOLLY’S BAY

You guessed it…..raining today yet again! I really wanted to go fishing with John this morning but the sheer volume of water coming down just couldn’t get me outside. He is a passionate fisherman and actually likes to go alone, so off he went. I decided to be super productive this morning so I indexed all of our charts by number, location and date, and put it in an excel spread sheet, bundled them up in binder clips and neatly stowed them all away. √  Next up I vacuumed and cleaned the boat. √  I then took it upon myself to completely empty, sort and restack everything in the chest freezer, since the top half was now fish. √  Lastly I cleaned out the fridge. Why are you reading this blog? So boring! I also began working on a photobook using BookWright, which is the only program I know where you can create offline then upload when you have internet, which is useful for me being mostly off grid. This evening it cleared off enough where I was reasonably sure it wasn’t going to downpour on me, so I cruised the back bays around our anchorage just to get off the boat and do something. Almost forgot, John came home with a nice fish today, so add one more thing to the freezer! Tonight we had ling cod tacos, which are always a winner! After nailing John badly on our last rummy marathon, the tides have turned and he is absolutely kicking my arse on this match. Oh well, it’s fun. And neither of us is any sort of competitive…yeah right.

Not much to show you today but this pretty little abandoned section of dock sits in the back of the neighboring bay to Folly's Bay

 

July 14, 2022 – FOLLY’S BAY

Pouring again this morning. I guess we are getting our due share of rain now to offset the nearly perfect weather and heat waves we had in Alaska! As I mentioned, our cove is right at the edge of the big water as we are right across from the end of Calvert Island, essentially the north shore area of River’s Inlet. Regardless of rain, John went fishing twice today while I stayed behind and remained dry and warm inside, reading and doing laundry and other tasks in between card games. I even dragged out a jigsaw puzzle, which I don’t normally do (John loves puzzles) and I actually had fun sorting the pieces and getting the border started. I made a really delicious Thai stew for dinner with chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, in a coconut curry sauce over rice. Half Baked Harvest winner again! J and I are playing endless rounds of rummy. Last night we reached a score of 10,000 (I won this round) so I told him that’s too many numbers to work with and we have to start over. Today/tonight we’ve already attained over 1600 points. Probably 20 hands. Yep we are going a tad stir crazy.

John working the puzzle

JULY 13, 2022 – FOLLY’S BAY

John told me we were going to go fishing today early, and I like to not be rushed in the morning. I like to have time to drink my coffee, read, and generally wake up, so I was up at 5:30AM today. At about 6:45AM I went down to the stateroom and said “I thought we were going fishing?” to which he replied, “eventually, slack isn’t until 9AM today.” Well I wish I had known that before deciding to get up at the ungodly hour of 5:30. Anyhoo, we set out for the fishing grounds around 8:00. No rain thankfully and not very cold either, and best of all the water was much more calm today. Almost immediately I hooked up another ling cod, this one turned out to be 14LBS, a super nice fish. The total count for the day so far is 2 lings (threw the little one back), 3 red snappers, and 3 little rock fish. Clearly we have found the bottom fish. It’s starting to feel like the salmon aren’t here yet, or surely we’d have some sign of them, a small shaker, or something? We haven’t talked to the guides yet at Duncanby Lodge, maybe we will go there tomorrow.  Today was a rare day where it didn’t just pour all day. J went fishing midday (I begged off) and came back with a nice 17lb Chinook! Bummed that I missed the catch, but stocking the freezer!! We went out fishing again in the late afternoon in quite pleasant weather (my kind of fishing). We soon hooked up a nice silver, brought him aboard, tied a line around his head (through the gills), slit his gills and kept him overboard for the duration of our fishing. For the next hour all we landed were a few “catch and release” small rock fish, then hooked up another silver which John landed. He was holding it up for me to assess whether we should keep it as it was small-ish, maybe only 5-6 lbs, when it gave a good shake and popped out of his hands and back to the sea. Very slick move Mr. Silver Salmon! Cheated death again. After a few more turns, we pulled in the lines an downriggers and prepared to go back to the mother ship. John went to go pull in the silver we were bleeding out (makes it taste better) in the water and it was GONE. Not sure if something snuck up and grabbed it, or if the knot just failed!? Regardless, we were 0 for 2 on silvers today! Oh well, we had fun regardless, the best part not having any rain for a change.

John's nice Chinook

Another ling cod for me!

Scary ugly fish, but so delish

JULY 12, 2022 – FOUGNER BAY TO FOLLY’S BAY

The veil has lifted! Slightly, but a marked improvement from yesterday. I can see across the channel, no fog/rain to the deck today. We were ready for a change of scenery feeling so couped up for the past couple of days, going little stir crazy. Fitz Hugh Sound was lovely and glassy smooth and with a hint of blue sky on the horizon was very enjoyable. We decided to pull into a little bay at Folly Island that really isn’t marked as an anchorage on the charts, but looked protected and close to the open water where John wants to fish. It’s a scenic anchorage among the islets and exposed rocks, and best of all….nobody else here. Fury Cove is nearby and is a very popular landing spot for folks either waiting to transit south around Cape Caution, or those that just made the trip from the south. River’s Inlet is just across the channel from us, about 4-5 miles away. After getting settled we were both looking forward to being outside and doing an activity, so went fishing of course. The water was big outside our cove, I wasn’t super comfortable at first. John told me this was the norm for him, he’s fished in the whaler in even bigger water. Anyway, I donned my life jacket immediately and eventually got used to the waves and big swells. We trolled the north shoreline of River’s Inlet which is completely exposed to the Cape Caution entrance and seas beyond, hence the big water. Soon we had “fish on!” and I reeled in a nice ling cod, about 12 lbs. We then hooked up a small red snapper, and damn we forgot our device that allows you to put the fish back down to depth and then release it. If you release on the surface, they have to equalize before being able to swim back down, so in effect are paralyzed and floating on the surface, which is unfortunately where this fish ended up. They don’t call it “eagle eye” for nothing, as soon two eagles came out of nowhere and began circling the poor fish, one finally scooping it up and taking it back to its nest with the other one in hot pursuit. We hooked up a couple other small fish that we let go, then called it a day and headed back to the boat. Naps, cards, dinner, movie, bed. A day in the life of the Maddens.

Glad to see our logs found a home

Loved the expression on his face

Caught the snapper and.....

....worked really hard to fly off with it. One eagle actually came up and snatched it out of this one's talons midflight! Never seen that before either!

My ling cod catch!  

 

JULY 11, 2022 – FOUGNER BAY

We are sleeping later and later these days, why get up when it is a deluge? We briefly entertained leaving for another cove just for a change of scenery, but listened to the weather prediction of 3-4 meter seas at Cape Caution, which means Fitz Hugh Sound (where we would be transiting) will be roiling as well and decided we’d wait it out here another day. So today is chore day – the laundry is going, the dishwasher running, and I made use of some aging bananas and whipped up some banana bread that is baking as I write. Now that’s a good smell in the cabin. The rain is truly impressive, hard to believe it is supposed to be summer. It’s not too cold, at about 60-62 degrees outside, but we have no reason to go outside. We have no internet or cell service of course so we can only wonder what is going on outside of our little sphere of existence. I hope everyone else is getting something better!

No photos today! 

JULY 10, 2022 – FOUGNER BAY

Raining incessantly today. J got up early and went fishing but caught nothing but endless bottom fish that he had to throw back. Apparently there were just schools of them, some sort of perch looking things – sea bass? Not sure. But he WAS fishing with the whales again -- the orcas suddenly exploded all around him as he trolled (which scares the salmon away), and two humpbacks feeding along the shoreline causing J to move out of their way so as not to get an unpleasant encounter (in case they didn’t see him). He says he’s done fishing in this spot. I spent the day reading my book, currently rereading (read it 4 years ago on our last trip to AK) “Tip of the Iceberg” by Mark Adams where he retraces the Harriman expedition to Alaska and Siberia in the late 1800s. The book is packed full of history and present day stories and delivered in a most entertaining way.  I highly recommend for anyone, whether you’ve been to Alaska or not. I was pretty much a slug all day as it just poured nonstop. Our entertainment for the day was wondering whether the log jam nestled against our boat was going to last, and then playing Yahtzee, cribbage, and we rewatched Star is Born for the 15^th time, one of only two movies downloaded on my iPad. We have a whole stack of other movies but agreeing on one is not our strongest marital strength. The wind did finally arrive today and we were swinging and rocking much of the day. (Happy Birthday Dad, he would have been 111 today.)

Whales John saw while fishing

The log jam against our boat

More whale photos from today

JULY 9, 2022 – SHEARWATER TO FOUGNER BAY

Once again, we didn’t know where we were heading today, but it was time to leave. They are predicting gale force winds for the next two days so we need to find a cove to hide out in for a couple days until the storm passes. After taking on some fuel for both vessels, we set off to find ourselves a place to hide and ended up in Fougner Bay, a place neither of us has ever been. It’s just south of Codville Lagoon on the Burke Channel that goes up to Bella Coola. We hope it turns out to be a good place, and if not we can relocate down to Pruth tomorrow, which will be rather unpleasant with gale winds, so I hope this works out. John went fishing almost immediately, and I am warming up from my sweep of the bay (in the pouring rain), which is becoming our practice when we are in an unfamiliar tight bay, given all the unreliable charting. The rain continued off and on throughout the day, and John caught a fish! We also were visited by two humpback whales that cruised by the entrance to the bay, along with some orcas that cruised by later in the evening. All is well when we get to see whales.

No Pictures today!

JULY 8, 2022 – KYNOCH INLET TO SHEARWATER

We pulled anchor around 8:30 this morning and motored out of Kynoch, again unsure as to where we are going, but we know we need to continue to make our way south. There have been very few other boats in the past few days, we feel like the only ones on this trajectory. It has been nice though. We ended up deciding to go all the way to Shearwater to refuel the whaler for the next 10 days as we will not have another opportunity until July 18 when we arrive in Port McNeill. We were also able to get rid of our garbage and recycling which was nice. Shearwater is a relatively big operation for this remote coast. It has a pub, grocery/liquor store, marine store, an espresso bar and gift shops, and laundromat. They have a huge boatyard for repairs if needed, fuel, and decent docks with water and power. Next to us was a 78’ West Bay Sonship and we struck up a conversation with the owner and his friends onboard. They’ve been at Shearwater for 2 weeks because they sheared off a prop on something submerged, like a cable or container, they are not sure. The route they took was one they’ve taken many times, so it wasn’t a rock or reef they had hit, they still aren’t sure. But they are stuck at Shearwater until their parts are flown up. They were nice enough to give us a tour of the gorgeous boat. We had dinner at the pub (night off for me!), cards, and bed. The usual. Pub food made me slightly sick though, I should have cooked after all.

BUT WAIT! I almost forgot to tell the best part of today. As we were rounding the corner by the lighthouse on Ivory Island, in the Seaforth Channel, the bay all around us erupted in Orcas! They were on all sides so we shut the engines down and filmed and watched. One Mom had two babies with her, not sure if they were both hers or she was babysitting but super fun to watch because the babies were practicing their breaching skills and being very playful, was so cute! The adults were BIG, enormous dorsal fins. It was so great to see what appeared to be a very healthy pod. John got some great video footage (which is too large of a file for me to post) and I snapped so many pictures, a few of which are below. What a great experience! This happened to us once before in this exact location so they clearly live here. It was a whale of a show!

A Series of Orca Pictures, I won't try to caption them all

These two photos top and bottom were two baby orcas froclicking

This one did a tail spin for us

One last tail show, by the baby orca again

Shearwater is undergoing a huge construction project so these helicopters are running all day every day, it must be so annoying for the residents

JULY 7, 2022 – BOTTLENECK TO KYNOCH INLET

Words from the Supertramp song  “It’s raining again” – and we have no cell service to access any weather report that has to do with actual weather, just the marine radio that talks about wind and seas. Sometimes they talk about the weather too, will have to try to connect today. I have talked John into a detour that takes us east into “Fiordland” (which is a Canadian spelling) Recreation Area, which maybe means a national park? I don’t know, and don’t have internet at this moment so can’t look it up. Anyway, the descriptions of the area in our coastal explorer/active captain were intriguing, and even Waggoner Guide talks about it as spectacular. Today is a shorter run, all inside water (e.g. calm) so very pleasant, lots of twists and turns as we wind our way east. Upon the final turn into Kynoch Inlet, we were greeted by a powerful waterfall from an elevated lake on one side, rivaling the ferocity (just not the height) of Snoqualmie Falls. As we ventured farther into the inlet, we found ourselves cruising between impossibly tall sheer vertical shiny black rock walls, and snowy peaks behind them. How’s that for stacking the adjectives. Healthy fir and deciduous trees clung to the sheer rocky faces which is astounding given there is no soil whatsoever; the trees must be securing their roots into cracks and crevices to attain stability. Glistening with moisture, the walls displayed vertical striations from the ancient glaciers scraping them, which we have to look into once we have service again. Most of the evidence of glacial movement we have seen on this trip has been horizontal lines etched into the rock walls. Waterfalls are everywhere in this inlet, and one’s head needs to be on a swivel to take in the beauty 360 degrees. We anchored in the NW Corner of the head of the bay and John had me do a sweep around in the whaler just to make sure our charts were accurately displaying the shoaling shoreline. NOT. Once again, with the boat hovering in 90 feet I scouted the perimeter and just 20 feet from the boat it was only 4’ (not shown on charts) so we moved the boat farther away from shore before throwing down the anchor. It rained off and on throughout the afternoon, and during the “off” period, John and I took the whaler into “Culpepper Lagoon” which is a brackish lagoon complete with rapids at the entry, nothing serious but still whirlpools and currents during certain times. Culpepper Lagoon was beautiful and the head of the bay was surprisingly similar vista as where we were anchored. It is really stunning here and (for fellow boaters) if you have the time to go off the beaten path, you really feel like you are tucked away in a cove in Alaska. The scenery back here reminds me a lot of Glacier Bay.  Back at the boat I set up shop at the gas burner in the cockpit to cook up the crabcakes I had made earlier today, so as to not stink up the boat. It was another nice evening, with rain showers here and there but nothing too serious, and we got to see a beautiful rainbow across the back of the bay. Dinner tonight was a bounty of the sea, prawns with cocktail sauce, crabcakes, and Caesar salad. YUM.

Head of Kynoch Inlet

Fish Farms along the way

Powerful waterfall at entrance to Kynoch

These sheer black granite walls and the trees that defy gravity in being able to live under those conditions!

Entering Culpepper Lagoon at Slack

View to the head of Culpepper lagoon

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Cooking my crabcakes out back so I don't smell up the inside!