07/07/2012, Squirrel Cove
Steaming south from the Broughtons, we needed to leave Maltipi at 6:00 a.m. in order to make Whirlpool Rapids by 11:30. We woke to a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed blue skies and glass water all day. Published time for the rapids was about an hour and a half earlier so we pushed through oncoming current pretty much all day, but nothing to worry Julia Max. She then pushed through Green Point Rapids nicely and we got to anchor in our favorite spot in Frederick Arm, a little cove at the base of snow-capped peaks, granite cliffs, and so much cedar and fir forest that it truly looked like a beautiful green lawn or fur on a fuzzy cat. The thermometer in the cockpit read 80 degrees in the afternoon. The tide ran all the way up to the boughs of the trees overhanging the water by dinnertime. George caught 8 rockfish and 3 flatfish. They all got to return to the sea as George only wanted a Greenling, but had fun anyway catching a fish with nearly every cast.
This morning turned out to be another summer day. The crab pot was empty and we didn't catch any salmon this time, but our fishfinder saw lots of them. Professional guides gave it their best too, but the fish just weren't biting today. So onward through Dent, Guillard, and Yucolta Rapids, ending up in Squirrel Cove in Desolation Sound for the night. Winds blew from the south: rare for a warm, clear day, especially since the weather forecast called for NW winds. We have dropped the hook here many times. Tonight we joined about 30 other boats. Their anchor lights twinkle tonight as I write, reflected on the glass water in this lovely protected cove surrounded by forests at high tide, thousands of big oysters at low tide.
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07/04/2012, Maltipi Islets, BC
Sue said you always get great weather after the 4th of July! And so when the 4th was great, that made us smile. We moved through channels we hadn't taken before. Saw lots rhinoceros aucklets in the tidal boundary changes where the food supply is located. Yes, loons, eagles, cormorants, glaucous gulls, guillamots, and more. At the end of the day as Sue returned from an after-dinner kayak paddle, we watched as an adult black bear patrolled the beach for an evening snack under every sized rock available. Tomorrow we head to the outer reaches of Desolation Sound, as we work our way south.
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07/04/2012, Echo Bay, BC
Booker Lagoon has a secret back door entrance you can't see unless another boat comes out! And that's what happened as we waited for slack water through a very tight entrance. The lagoon was huge! We put the shrimp pot down in the middle of a 300' deep hole, put the crab pot down near our anchorage spot and spent the rest of the very wet, rainy day reading. But this morning the rain had stopped and things looked brighter. The crab pot had 3 HUGE sunstars in and around it. But the shrimp pot came up with a pot of pink gold: 73 jumping, racing around Spotted Prawns that took most of the morning to cook up and clean. They went down stuffed into cheese quesadillas for lunch and shrimp over garlic noodles for dinner.
Echo Bay has been revamped since we were here 7 years ago with new owners and nice docks. Billy Proctor lives here, a man who grew up trapping, logging, fishing, and living off the land. We tramped over the hill and through the woods to his house to hear his stories of yesteryear, how the logging is done today, and how he makes pretty good money today picking up and delivering trees to the mills that have slid down the hillsides after a soft rain that weighs down the limbs, brings one tree down, and it brings down a whole swath of other trees with it all the way to the water. He's presently waiting for a $58,000 check for his most recent log delivery of about 1,000 trees.
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07/03/2012, Booker Lagoon, BC
Although we had steady rain, we moved from Shawl Bay to Booker Lagoon in the Broughton Islands. Having finished our crab from previous catches, we set the crab pot again. And the shrimp pot is also back in action. This area is beautiful rain or shine...but we would prefer the shine!
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07/01/2012, Shawl Bay, BC
Canada celebrated 'Canada Day', their independence day today. While moored in the Shawl Bay Marina, we shared in a potluck dinner with fellow boaters as well as marina management. The Canadians wore their flag, their red and white scarves, hats, pins, and so forth. After dinner, they danced to music, and celebrated. You always meet wonderful people, get great ideas where to go and what to do, and learn so much. So when we finally realized who we were talking to, we were elated to find our dinner friends had written the Waggoner's Cruising Guide that we had been using for our Canadian boating trip this year and years prior. So much experience and thought is taken to write a Cruising Guide, so it was especially interesting to get to know the editors!! Of course, we bought cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. There are always simple pleasures along the way!
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06/30/2012, Johnston's Bay, Rivers Inlet, BC
Most of the day we motored south. At Cape Caution we saw two Humpback Whales, the smaller of the two blessing us with his lovely tail several times, white on the under side. Later another Humpback whale (about a mile away) surfaced and jumped clear out of the water 5 times, exhaling mightily in between, then resting before launching once again. The NW wind finally came up around 1:30 in the afternoon. We sailed until we arrived at Blunden Harbor, a lovely anchorage with ample room for all 7 boats that eventually joined us, mostly sailboats. Only on 2 other occasions have we had any company at all while anchored. But today the weather turned warm with sunshine in the late afternoon. Lots of boats were out today.
Disappointed in yesterday's zero yield while salmon fishing, we immediately put down the dinghy as soon as we arrived to catch those Greenlings we enjoy, a small white fish with nice flavor. George set up his fishing gear including the barbless hook used yesterday for salmon fishing. It just happened to be on his favorite spoon. Upon his first cast, a little salmon hit the hook and George quickly brought it in, a lovely 20" Coho, just the right size for us since we have no way of freezing our catch. We cooked it up for dinner and have half of it left over for salmon bisque, salmon on crackers, salmon & eggs, etc. etc. George also caught a huge Rockfish, but it looked like it was all head and no meat, so we threw it back. No Greenlings this time. There are lots of kelp-beds left to fish for them.
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