Sincerely, Denise

THOM’S PLACE ON ANCHOR

Saturday, June 6^th - CONTINUED (Afternoon Report)

Upon arrival we found a nice spot in Thom’s Place way back in the bay where Bill/Lorraine put their anchor down and we rafted off of them on one side and Abells on the other. With how protected this bay is, we should be fine with all three boats on one anchor. It was a massive deployment upon arrival, John wanted me to expedite dropping of prawn and crab traps so he could take the whaler and go fishing, and the other two boats launched their dinghys as well, anxious to get the crab traps down. The rain squalls come and go giving us periods of clearing here and there, but we have to remember that….we are in the Rain Forest. You just deal with it, suit up in your rain gear with lots of layers to ensure you stay warm and go enjoy the outdoors! During squalls, I spent the afternoon watching videos about the Kasaan totems, and the Haida reclamation of Queen Charlotte Islands, known as Haida Gwaii. The last Ice Age did not cover Haida Gwaii so it allowed unique species of plants and animals to evolve. And there is evidence that the Haidas have occupied those islands for perhaps 13,000 years, being one of the earliest humans on the Northwest Coast. The logging industry on Haida Gwaii was a ruthless business, clear cutting and destruction of artifacts found in the process. One logging industry guy interviewed said they would find ancient Haida dug out canoes in the process of being carved, (because they carve them in the woods where the tree is felled) and the loggers were ordered to haul them out to the burn pile. He said they did that with 100s of canoes. The Haida built massive canoes capable of holding up to 60 people. Anyway, what a tragedy to lose all that history. The Haidas took a stand in the 80’s and demanded they have a say in what happens to the land to protect the forest and salmon which resulted in part of the islands being protected by formation of a conservation. However logging continued elsewhere on the islands and the Haida kept up the protesting, finally receiving recognition by the BC Government that Haida had title to all of Haida Gwaii in 2024. Anyway, that’s how I spent the afternoon! When John returned without so much as a nibble, we set out to go check our pots. The first prawn pot pulled resulted in 2 Prawns so we threw that one back down and decided to not even check the second pot, just leave it overnight and see if we did better. The crab traps yielded two nice big males so that was a win! Tonight was dinner on our own, so everyone pretty much kept to themselves, hunkered down inside our respective vessels for the night. OH, almost forgot! Today Connie and Greg had the first bear sighting of our trip! Two black bears on the beach. None of the rest of us were so lucky.