Codville Lagoon Aug 10 to Port McNeill at present

Codville Lagoon, August 10; another chance for prawns and crab with our 3-day Canadian fishing license. We still have a freezer full of Coho salmon.



Two legal-sized crabs... one very large crab and a slightly slimmer sibling.


Our prawn trap produced this mix of spotted prawns and a striped variety, which I call zebra... but don't really know what they are. Then there was this feathered eel in there with them. We will show these pics to our expert northwestern fishing authority Pete when we get home and see if he has an idea what we caught here.






That's a standard sized clothes basket we keep our trap line in. So that gives you an idea of how long he is.... about 3 feet plus,. I'd say.




We headed to Green Island for our next night out. We passed this "aircraft carrier" on our way.




















We set our crab trap near an abandoned lumber operation in McCluskey Bay....






and headed to the anchorage. Green Island is a pretty anchorage. This bush-laden rock looked as groomed as some of Victoria's Butchart Garden areas.









We shared this anchorage with 2 other boats.




S/V Windriver, and a motor-powered large yacht named Yatchette. We have been crossing tracks with her since we left Ketchikan. We were fueling up at the same dock August 2, and they shared that they are heading to Vancouver. They were in Foggy Bay when we arrived that first night out. (and they were in Port McNeill when arrived Aug 15).


We headed out in the rain and cold Aug 12 into Fitzhugh Sound, after collecting our booty.





One large sea star and two crabs.










The smaller crab turned out to be still in the "growing a new shell" stage. We had many crabs of this type while in Alaska. The shells are thin and they are light on meat... nearly none in some of the legs.



Shaking the trap to free the Sea Star. They have many, many legs to hold on with.... I guess that would technically be "tentacle".




The prawn trap we had been lucky enough to plant in a 405 ft hole, produced a bull head (fish) and 4 small prawns, which we threw back. The fish head bait had a sand flea attack during the night, so there was no meat left, which might explain the shortage of prawns in there. A large disappointment.


We saw a lot of whale blows, and George even saw a whale flipping and splashing off our starboard bow in Fitzhugh Sound. It was a cold gray passage to Frypan Bay.



S/V Escape was already anchored there when we arrived and a small power boat came in later and spent the night also.






August 13. In the early morning dawn this heron came gliding in to fish.


'More beautiful totems along the waterline.








We were getting low on eggs and decided to hit the little store at Dawsons Landing... light bulb!.. they have showers there also. So that's where we headed.



The sky started to clear as we pulled up to the dock at Dawsons Landing at 11am.

General store.

Underpinnings of the general store. The weather is so hard on the wood here. Looks like they will be doing some work on these docks this winter, ay? (that's Canadian for dah! - well in this case at least)





The captain returning from the shower.






We passed Duncnaby Marina/Resort on our way to Millbrook Sound. Looks like they've added some buildings. We have to look back at our old pics to verify that tho. It's been two years since we've been there. Didn't see this part of the country last year as we were on the outside of the Vancouver Island.


We went to Milbrook. We have anchored in this tranquil spot (also a former cannery) at least once a year. I remember it as a rainy spot. Yatzee there last year during a storm.

It was pretty calm and VERY warm and sunny when we arrived.


A bit windy, but a nice afternoon.







This was the next morning.









And things didn't get much better as we entered Queen Charlotte Strait. We had our little timer in the cockpit and we blew the horn - one long - every 2 minutes.


Soon we were hailed by a tug, telling us he could see us on the radar, and heard our horn, and he needed us to divert our course to yada yada, whatever the lat/long was.

George got on the radio and told him, he couldn't see how we could be anywhere near a tug pulling a tow, cause we were considerably out of the shipping lane and over near Miles Inlet. Another boat came on and said HE was the one the tug boat was calling. I can't believe people stick their boats out into the shipping channel in these "blind" condition.

(We actually heard a cruise ship Prince something or other, on the radio saying he was traveling near Pine Island in "zero visibility". Wonder how many passengers were aware of that.)






Eventually we pulled into the Southgate Group to wait out the fog. By 2pm, it was lifting and burning off at the same time. This causes the phenomenon of closing in again, even as the sun is shining hotly thru the fog, the surface of the water is still cold enough to hold it down.... well, that's how I think it works anyway.

We got thru Queen Charlotte Strait in clear skies, but when we entered Gordan Channel, the fog closed in again. We saw a cruise ship pass by the entrance, and encountered a tug, while the fog was still pretty thin. As the fog thickened, we resorted to that every-two-minute horn sounding again.

We arrived at Beaver Bay and our anchorage Patricia Cove under a clear sky. We had wind, and it took two attempts to stick the anchor. But we set hard in a muddy bottom.



The view of the shore when we arrived August 14.








Same view when we left August 15 at noon. The fog was considerably thinner than when we awoke in the morning.




Seagulls along the shore.


More birds hanging out at the buoy marker.









And before long....................... we were at Port McNeill.












Blogging our little hearts out. We are blogging while they are rubba, dub, dubbing.... doing laundry.


We will leave here Tuesday morning... after which time, we have OUR laundry done, and final provisioning for the rest of the trip to Bellingham, where we'll pick up our car and head for the Klamath River.

For the next week we will fish and re-visit some of our favorite haunts in the Broughtons. We definitely want to swing by Echo Bay and say hi to Pierre and cast a line near Joe Cove.

So until we're back on the River, happy journeys, happy life.

luv/jo
(& the captain is blogging...........) go check him out on
www.teallog.blogspot.com

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