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.
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| 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 |
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