Monday, July 7, 2025
Our plan was to be off the
dock at first light which at this time of year is 4:30! Today we are headed for
Lagoon Cove. The forecast was for wind against tide increasing later in the day
so we wanted to get the Johnstone Straits behind us. We delayed until 6AM
because I just felt badly waking up the whole marina with our rumbling engines.
We quickly got off the dock and within 20 minutes were in the Johnstones with a
little chop but nothing serious. It’s about 3 hours to where we can duck out of
the straits and get to our destination. Today was a wildlife day! First came
the dolphins in a large pod racing directly towards our boat, so quickly that I
couldn’t get a picture of them. It was also kind of hard to see them because of
the chop, but it was over before we knew it! So fun. The Johnstones turned out
to be a non-event, pretty nice transit overall, as we exited into Havannah
Channel, then through the gorgeous Chatham Channel, which is very narrow and
shallow, and just so peaceful. We were doing a little research on weather
forecast along the way and noticed that a big rainstorm was set to arrive on
Tuesday so we changed gears and decided to power on past Lagoon Cove and get to
one of our favorite anchorages 3 hours beyond, Laura Bay, near Echo Bay. That
way we wouldn’t have to move on Tuesday during the deluge. We decided to go up
through Tribune Channel for a change, past Kwatsi Bay and out the top. We saw
two different sets of humbacks along the way which is always exciting! No
pictures taken this time, as unless they are breaching or bubble feeding, all
you get is a slice of their back with their tiny fin (gray body on gray water)
– unless you can catch them when they dive down, then they give you a tail
show. Anyway, I wasn’t prepared, thus no evidence to show. We arrived in Laura
Bay, set down the anchor and got ourselves shore tied to keep from swinging as
this is a tight harbor, with shallows everywhere. We have a beautiful spot. Of
course I had to go crabbing right away – it’s been a year since my last
crabbing adventure! Last year I did really well in here so I anticipated the
same. I went to my usual spot to drop the pot (decided to just do one pot
today) and found someone already had two pots down in my preferred area – the
nerve! Oh well, I set mine about half way between the two floats and a little
off to the side. Thank goodness, as I later discovered. After dinner I jumped
in the whaler to go check the pot when I noticed a commercial crabber motoring
to the back of the bay where my pot was. I zipped over there wanting to make
sure they didn’t pilfer my pot, and when I arrived I witnessed that they were
actually long lining their pots meaning those two floats I saw were actually
the beginning and the end of a string of pots! I watched as they used their pot
puller and methodically pulled about 15 pots out of the water and with three
guys attending, they dumped out the crab, sorted and stacked the pot on the
boat. If my pot would have been a little further over, it would been all
tangled up in their gear and made us both mad! Now I know why I only got one
keeper, they cleaned out the bay. The good news is that they didn’t put their
gear back down so maybe I have a chance for the next wave of crab, as I
rebaited my pot and left it overnight. Our usual evening of dinner (leftovers)
and cribbage (1 win each) followed by books and bed.
Our Shore Tie in Laura Cove
For our boater friends, this is all that is left of Cordero Lodge, sad.
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