Gary
07/31/2010, Nettle Island, Broken Group, Barkley Sound

We are going to break out of the Broken Group of islands today, and the Pacific Rim National Park. Our plan is to anchor at Marble Cove on Tzartus Island, or maybe close by. This is closer to Alberni Inlet, where the sockeye are having a strong run. We keep hearing things like " we got our four" or "we got our eight" on the VHF radio. The daily limit of sockeye is 4 fish.

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Gary
07/31/2010, Nettle Island, Broken Group, Barkley Sound

I'm really spoiled. Our first attempt at fishing produced a nice halibut, so now it's easy to expect an quick catch every time I wet a line. A salmon will be nice when it happens. Crabbing has been good.

We are anchored at Nettle Island tonight...another island in the Pacific Rim National Park. No sun today, but also no fog and the seas were fairly tame.

Relaxation is beginning to set in....I slept in until 7:30 this morning. Life is good.

Birthday dinner - halibut tonight.

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Gary
07/30/2010, Jaques Island, Broken Group, Barkley Sound

We spent the night in a small cove on southeast shore of Jaques Island. There is just enough room for one boat to swing at anchor. We trapped our limit of red rock crab (6) by evening, and cleaned and steamed them to eat later. This is an attractive place, so we may stay another night or two. Wish I could post a photo.

We used the watermaker yesterday for the first time this trip. In three hours it produced about 50 gallons of water, while we trolled for salmon. Surprisingly, the prefilters collected a lot of algae in that time. I thought the water would be more clear here. We have more spare filters, so we should be able to make water without too much difficulty.

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Gary
07/27/2010, Ucluelet, B.C.

........the marina is very crowded this time of year, but we got a good spot at the dock with easy in and out. This morning we head for the fishing grounds in Barkley Sound.

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Gary
07/26/2010, Effingham Bay, Broken Group, Barkley Sound

We left Ucluelet yesterday morning with fairly good visibility. We had a plan to head for Effingham Bay, and along the way, fish for halibut just outside Ucluelet Inlet, then try for rockfish at Page Island, then troll for salmon in Loudoun Channel. We missed on the halibut outside Ucluelet, then stopped on the way to Page Island at another likely looking 180 foot deep spot for rockfish. In about 5 minutes, I had hooked something pretty big. I would get it up about half way to the surface, then it would dive for the bottom, dragging all the line back out of my reel. I was pretty sure it was a big lingcod or rockfish, because we were over a rough rocky bottom. When it finally broke the surface, it was a nice sized halibut. We gaffed it, brought it aboard, weighed it, measured it and took photos. It was 43 inches long and about 35 lbs (my scale goes up to 28 lbs and so the weight is an estimate). We got some photos, but can't post them on Sailblogs until we have an Internet connection.

It looks like we will not have the Verizon broadband access in this area. I have been updating the blog with photos using email and the Blackberry data plan. The broadband access does not work where we are (text messaging still works), so future updates will be with the single sideband radio and Sailmail, which is small text files only. The reliability of a connection is sometimes iffy, depending on atmospheric conditions. I wish I could post a photo of the halibut. Oh, well.

The position map on the blog shows us out in the Pacific Ocean of the coast of Neah Bay. The coordinates are correct, but for some reason, map shows it wrong. Barkley Sound is northwest of Neah Bay. It shows as a "notch" in the coast of Vancouver Island.

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Gary
07/25/2010, Neah Bay

........at the Wood Fired Oven Pizza place. I'm pretty sure this is the best pizza I have ever eaten.

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