MAY 7, 2022 - PRUTH BAY ON ANCHOR

Awoke to glorious sunshine this morning in our pretty Little Pruth Bay anchorage. Since it was our first truly leisurely day with no maintenance or chores, and with Cape Caution (thankfully) in the rearview mirror, we slept a little later, lounged a little longer over coffee, and enjoyed our first relaxing morning. Around 9 it was time for Shannon and I to go check our 4 crab pots and see if we caught dinner. The first pot in the next bay over yielded 2 keepers but one was soft shell so we had to throw it back, along with one large rock crab which we threw back as well. Next 3 pots yielded one more keeper for Shannon, but we clearly needed new locations so reset them farther into the bay close to the Hakai Institute docks. Next up was our planned excursion for the day of our hike to the white sand beaches on Calvert Island and our traditional weenie roast! Once we arrived at the west beach the boys built a nice beach fire and proceeded to cook our lunch. The ravens were also present, circling us in a wide arc, but clearly watching what was going on. We had one cooked weenie leftover so Shannon walked down the beach a ways and put it on a log to see what would happen. 5 minutes later we’d forgotten about it when suddenly John sees the raven swoop down and grab it and fly off, the other 3 ravens in hot pursuit. Shannon then proceeded to put out the two extra hot dog buns and see if we can get them to come back, but not while we are watching of course. We grew tired of waiting for some action and packed up our stuff and set out on the next activity, hiking the beautiful beaches. The west and north beaches of Calvert Island look like beaches you’d find in Hawaii except lined with fir and cedar trees instead of palms. The west beach is a stunning half moon pristine white sand beach where at low tide it’s a 1/8 of a mile walk to the water’s edge. The beach is lined with huge piles of driftwood bleached white. Not many shells on the west beach but then we hiked to north beach where abalone shells pepper the also white sandy beach. I found a baby sea urchin, perfectly dried out and fully intact which was a great find, along with some tiny abalone shells. We found this enormous chiton on the beach that looked nothing like the chitons I’ve seen in the San Juans, no louvered shell on it’s back, rather it looked like a melon skin on the outside and huge in size. Back at the boats by 3:30 and time to check the pots! This time we netted 3 more keepers so that is the perfect amount. Our arrangement for dinners is that we each take a turn cooking for the group, then every 3^rd night we dine alone, respectively, and tonight was dine alone night. I was too tired to pick the crab, so instead John and I enjoyed a dinner of steak and brussels, played some cribbage, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Such a great day. It is light later and later as we transit north so it’s weird to be going to bed while it’s still light, soon to be light nearly all night long when we get to Glacier Bay, our farthest north destination.