Thursday, June 19, 2025

The mechanic showed up this morning to assess the diesel heater!! Yippee. However after 2 hours of trouble shooting he could not seem to fix it so pulled it out of the boat and took it back to his shop to see if he could repair it. While this was going on I did my grocery run since we will be out for a week on the anchor so had to stock up on fresh produce, which went pretty quickly. Grocery store drama. The checkout lady admonished me for putting two different items (in this case, asparagus with 2 jalapenos) in the same bag. She looked at me and said “DON’T do this, I just have to dump it all out of the bag” to which I replied, “I was trying to minimize my use of plastic produce bags”.  She just glared at me and kept checking. Sheesh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  Remember yesterday when I listed all my mistakes so far??  Here’s #5.  While unloading the groceries back at the boat, I accidentally bumped into the touch controls on the oven, I heard the beep but didn’t think anything more about it because often I push the buttons by mistake with my hip but it’s never the one that turns the oven on. Except, apparently, this time. A little while later I am puttering around the galley finishing up wrapping all my produce in green bags when I say to John “I smell something burning” thinking it had to do with the diesel furnace repair. He says “is your oven on?” and I look down to see that OH CRAP yes it is!! As previously mentioned the toaster lives in the oven and I was pretty sure this was going to be the last of that toaster. Using a hot pad I gingerly removed it from the oven to let it cool off. Later when it had cooled, I plugged it in and attempted to push the lever down but it was clearly impaired. That’s when I also noticed that the dial on the front was melted and disfigured. The toaster was toast. It was 20 minutes to go until we had to check out of the marina, so I set out on a very brisk walk (1.5 mile round trip) to go buy a replacement so I guess the good part of this story is that I got an excellent cardio session!  Let’s hope there are no more mistakes on this trip. We cast off shortly after 11 and made our way over to Prideaux Haven, our home for the next several days. It was a beautiful calm cruise all the way. The entry into this area is backdropped by a stunning theater of high peaks known as the Unwin Range, which jut straight out of the water to heights of over 4500’ – still snowcapped this time of year. It is very dramatic and on a clearer day than today you can see all of the peaks. We pulled into Prideaux Haven first to a spot we were hoping to snag only to find it occupied by 4 boats rafted together. Darn. We then found a spot in the main harbor, threw down the anchor and affixed a shore tie to one of the government installed chains ashore. Within the hour the wind whipped up, again on our beam, and John decided it was best to release the shore tie and just rely on the anchor. The holding in here isn’t always the best so it’s better not to stress the anchor any more than necessary. By evening the wind had died down, the sun was out intermittently and quite warm at times, I love to sit up top with a glass of wine, listen to nature, enjoy my surroundings. Tonight’s dinner was hasty because John had a board meeting to attend via Zoom. I overcooked a pork tenderloin, so it was disappointingly dry. Fish food. This harbor in the heart of summer is wall to wall boats, being one of the busiest and most populated anchorages. I counted 11 boats in our midst so clearly it’s still early in the season. I am sorry I don’t have any fishing news or anything more interesting to report. I am sure many of you are bored to absolute tears.

The can marking the reef off of Cortes Island appears to have been struck by 

a boat or maybe just one too many sea lions onboarded and it collapsed.

This was the view crossing over to Prideaux Haven, beautiful sunny skies and flat water

As we got closer you start to see the snowcapped peaks

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Things we have done wrong so far this trip. 1) When going through customs on Monday, we had turned down the VHF radio so John could have a conversation with the customs officer. Well, we forgot to turn it back up, which I only realized about 2/3 way across the Georgia Straits, 4 hours later. It wasn’t really an issue since there was no opposing traffic or anything, but we always have our radio on. 2) We failed to charge the handheld VHF which is what I take in the tender so John and I can communicate when we are trying to anchor or dock and are in separate boats. We got to Smuggler’s Cove and decided it was a great idea to use our cell phones. Not. We rely on Starlink to make calls in areas where there is no service. As soon as I got away from the boat of course my Starlink connection was lost. We tried to connect a dozen times only to have a few words before the calls dropped. So now we were reduced to hand gestures, both of us frustrated. Eventually I pulled alongside the big boat and just said “let’s get out of here and go to Pender” – which we did – it was windy and it just wasn’t working. 3) Lastly, I forgot to mention that last night when making my pizza, I had preheated the oven to 450 degrees. A couple things live in the oven when it is not in service because we have so little storage space in the galley. One is the toaster, and another is the pizza pan. I removed both of these things before turning on the oven! However, what I hadn’t noticed is a dishtowel that we sometimes shove in the oven to quiet the oven racks when underway as they have a tendency to rattle, and nothing drives the captain MORE insane than having annoying rattles when we are underway. When I went to put the pizza in, smoke billowed out of the oven, which then made me look deeper inside for the cause only to find a very brown dish towel. Sheesh. I sure hope this is the end of dumb boater mistakes. Whenever you hear of another boater making a mistake, it’s always a tendency to feel like you’d never do something that stupid. The truth is….remain humble and never judge. Even if someone puts their boat on the rocks. You just never know when your mind will miss a detail, and it’s you in that situation. Never judge. Ok yes we did judge the boaters that took 3 tries to anchor and reverse plow their way out of a good holding, but that isn’t something 99% of boaters would do. OH wait, I forgot #4 – I sent out the wrong link to this blog to 50 of our friends and relatives only to hear back from many of my mistake! SORRY!!

This morning I decided to get the liquor store run out of the way first thing. When I was there yesterday scoping things out the lady in the liquor store told me I couldn’t use their shopping cart to haul my purchases back to my boat because (she said) “I have no way of knowing that you’ll bring it back” yet she offered no solution to this dilemma. I was thinking maybe I could leave her my license to hold? But I figured I would solve the problem tomorrow (meaning today). So instead I decided to push a dock cart up to the liquor store, which are noisy and heavy but then I wouldn’t have to leave my license. As I made my way back to the boat with my load, I had to stop mid dock to nicely ask this family to move their pile of stuff out of the way so I could pass. This darling little girl in her cute little xtratuf boots proceeded to move the pile onto their dock finger. In the process she accidentally dropped a rubber glove in the water. While bending down to retrieve it the most beautiful spotted harbor seal appeared out of nowhere thinking this item it heard splash was actually some food! We all met eyes as it realized it was not indeed food and he turned around and went back to the deep, it was a pretty close encounter for the little girl. Meanwhile back at the boat John waited, and waited (and waited²) for the diesel furnace mechanic to show up or at least call. That turned out to be an all day wait. He called them a couple times to find out when they might show up and they kept being vague and non-committal. Needless to say the captain was a bit surly over this situation. I had a much better day as I found myself a massage appointment and had the most wonderful massage and a very long walk to get there and back, so it was a good day. BUT, on the way home I passed Dairy Queen, and then could not get ice cream out of my mind. Stopping at Canadian Superstore (a giant grocery and home goods store) I loaded up on various options, as they say never shop when you’re hungry. John just rolled his eyes when I showed up with two different kinds of ice cream bars and another tub of ice cream, especially when freezer space is somewhat limited.  Teriyaki rice bowls with fresh herbs for dinner and more Joe Pickett, Season 2. It’s kind of been a weird series at times but we will finish it.  If anyone watched the Goliath series with Billy Bob Thornton and recall the season about water rights and lots of opium use with hallucinations, Joe Pickett Season 2, Episode 2 reminded me of that. 

These two photos above and below are an hour apart showing the nasty 

thunderstorm that rolled through today

This pretty juvenile eagle was swooping and diving near the boat last night before landing on the breakwater

 Tuesday, June 17, 2025

 

Ahh we both slept in a bit today. SO nice. But the wind was predicted to be bad today and we wanted to get to Campbell River to get the heater fixed. Not that we really need it right now, but when we get farther north we will want it working for those chilly mornings. Pulled anchor in beautiful Garden Bay and slowly made our way out to the channel to begin our journey north. The water was a little choppy at 8AM when we departed and grew as the day went on. We had pretty large swells on the stern all morning long resulting in wallowing seas, where the boat just sort of rocks back and forth as the surf hits from behind. It could have been worse if we were cutting that water head on, we’d have had a really rough ride. We arrived in Campbell River at 12:45pm, tied up to the dock, and it immediately started raining and the wind began to howl. Today I tested NEGATIVE for Covid so I got my walking papers!! Yay! John is still feeling a little peaked so he took a nap and I went out exploring and did a little shopping. It was nice to get off the boat and get a little exercise. I finally took a shower today after roughing it for a couple days, as I had debilitating nausea from Covid and haven’t felt like doing anything except sleeping. I was going to make Chicken Piccata tonight but fatigue set in and I lost motivation, so ended up making a pizza for dinner, an easy escape route. It’s now 8:15pm, John already went to bed, and I am heading there soon. Good night all. 

 Monday, June 16, 2025

 

Forgot to mention yesterday that we discovered our diesel heater decided to crap out on us without warning. We just used it in April when we went out for the weekend and had no issues. The diesel heaters are nice because you don’t have to fire up a generator to use them. Luckily we have redundancy in that we have electric heaters we can fire up, but as I said, it requires the generator to be running. At least it is summer (although the weather hasn’t heard this news yet, it is actually quite chilly) and we aren’t headed to Alaska this year, so we can manage without the diesel heaters at night and early mornings. Pulled up the anchor this morning  at 6AM and headed out to clear customs in Port Browning which was a breeze as always. The customs agent told us if nobody is on the dock when we arrive, wait five minutes and if nobody shows up we can leave. That is what happens every year, it is so easy! Within the hour we ducked out of Active Pass into the Georgia Straits (on a slack tide) and headed for the other side. Active Pass is VERY active as it is the main thoroughfare for the BC Ferries so it can be quite exciting at times! This time we just had one ferry coming at us so we loitered on the west side and waited until it transited. We had a really nice crossing, a little bit of chop but very pleasant. Arrived at Smuggler’s Cove on the mainland side, and attempted to anchor inside, but it is a very small harbor. A sailboat entered ahead of us and took their sweet time anchoring and shore tying and by the time they did all that we figured out that there really wasn’t a good place for us to anchor and shore tie or we’d have the wind at our beam, which just stresses the anchor and makes for an uncomfortable stay. We moved along to Pender Harbour, which was just 45 minutes north of us. Pender is a gorgeous bay with beautiful homes dotting the coastline all throughout, it’s the summertime playground for Vancouverites. We went to the back of the bay and settled into a nice anchorage among other boats, the sun beaming warm into our windows, the water lapping at the side of the boat. Great people/boat watching here, and the seaplanes land right in front of us as well, I love it here.  A beautiful 80’ Offshore flying a rainbow flag was anchored just off our bow and a rousing cocktail party was underway. The guests all appeared to be dressed in orange, so our binoculars came out (I know, voyeurs) and we saw that the guests were dressed in drag! WooHoo party on, having a good time! Another boat we watched attempted to anchor 3 different times and each time powered back on the anchor only to drag it right up so it wouldn’t set. Felt badly for them but given we had Covid we couldn’t really offer any help. Eventually they settled. Had a beautiful dinner of steaks on the grill, roasted baby reds, and salad. We both slept really well, water slapping alongside the boat lulling us to sleep. We are still somewhat fatigued from our Covid battle. 

2025 BOAT TRIP, WE ARE OFF AGAIN! 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

And off we go this Father’s Day morning, the Covid ship has left the dock! Yes, both John and I came down with Covid last week, quashing our fun for our last few days in town. We had planned dinner out for John’s birthday on the 12^th, a party to attend on the 13^th, and a wedding to attend on the 14^th. Instead we stayed home and binge watched Joe Pickett while whistfully looking out the window at the beautiful sunny evenings. Luckily both of us had already done our respective provisioning responsibilities the week before (I am in charge of food and beverage, John in charge of all things mechanical) so we were pretty much good to go. I was on Day 6 of Covid by the 14^th and as such was permitted (per my doctor) to leave the house with a mask to do a couple last minute errands. Earlier in the week we had the boat carpets cleaned so all of the furniture was stacked in the galley or on the couch, and by Saturday the 14^th the carpets were still damp so we were forced to stack everything on the couches and such, not wanting to go down below on the even wetter carpet. By 8PM on the 14^th, we had deposited the last of our bags on the boat, stacked three deep in the salon, and all over the galley counters. What a mess to face the next day but we knew we’d have all the time in the world once we hit the water. We pulled away from the dock at 7:30 and slowly motored over to the locks where we were the third boat in line, driving right in (no wait!) and by 9:45 we were out the other side, officially northbound with our nemesis, Point Wilson, just three hours away. Now Point Wilson is  where the open ocean flows into Admiralty Inlet which funnels down into the Salish Sea. It is a mixmaster of unstable water, with crazy tide rips and currents that don’t always make sense. We’ve had more than one unpleasant experience transiting the entrance. Well, she didn’t disappoint yet again, we found ourselves in a perplexing and what appeared to be isolated washing machine of ocean swells, all seemingly converging from different directions. The table tipped over, the basil plant went flying off the counter, and my cupboard contents were crashing into the doors, and the compactor was flying open and shut!! John quickly got us out of there and over to the shoreline where the water was settled and we were able to continue our journey out into the straits of Juan de Fuca, which were actually quite pleasant. Nothing broken or damaged. We decided to get as far as we could so John spooled it up and we barreled across the strait at 1800RPM which means we were burning 40 gallons per hour, or as John says, throwing dinosaurs off the back, or throwing dollars overboard, lots of metaphors work here. I took two naps on the couch with the warm sun streaming in the windows, the water glassy smooth. We ended up in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island in the San Juans and anchored for the night around 4:30pm. It was a beautiful warm evening and after a fresh summer dinner of BBQ salmon, steamed corn, and asparagus, we played a couple hands of cribbage and fell into bed, both of us still fatigued.

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