Sincerely, Denise

PRINCE RUPERT TO BRUNDIGE INLET

Sunday, May 31^st

Let’s just say this day should be erased from memory, as it was not our finest day of boating. It all started out lovely enough, with a beautiful cruise through Venn Passage, a tight and shallow channel out of Prince Rupert into Chatham Sound. ALL of the weather apps and resources available to us said the wind was coming out of the south, and we’d have following seas and wind. The exact opposite happened. It started out slowly and manageable, but over a couple of hours and about halfway into our voyage, it turned into a snarly mess of opposing wind/current, stacked waves that seemed to be arriving from all directions, and it turned the water into a washing machine. We could hear our galley cupboards shifting the contents and condiments rattling in the fridge, cringing, and hoping no real damage happened. We were far enough into it that turning around wasn’t really an option, and it wasn’t the wind so much that was a factor it was a convergence of current and wave action. The wind got up to maybe at most 20mph. Anyway, we ended up having to tack a few times to get to our destination so we didn’t have to take it on the beam, which means sideways, which means things flying around the boat more than they already were! FINALLY......as it seemed to take forever, we ducked into Brundige Inlet on Dundas Island which is a protected anchorage at the southern edge of Dixon Entrance, found a quiet anchorage in the very back of the east arm, and all rafted up together. Once settled, John set out for some salmon fishing and the rest of us just cooled our heels and reveled in the peacefulness. John came back withing a couple hours and reportedly hooked up two fish right off the bat! Apparently the kings are already running strong up here and have been for a couple of weeks. Anyway, he had a fish tale for us again. He was running two poles and hooked up both almost immediately! Since he was alone he could only reel in one at a time so while he got the first fish to the boat, which turned out to be a small king that he let go, the other line peeled out about 200 feet. He ended up losing the second fish unfortunately, and didn’t get a bite again after that. Dinner Plan B was a Steelhead fillet out of our freezer which I thawed out and we had a nice group dinner of fish, Beechers Mac n Cheese with piles of fresh crab added, and grilled veggies. Bill made ice cream from scratch which was delicious too! Played Whiskey Poker after dinner, John eventually winning the whole pot, Connie getting second place (Shannon would like that).