Crabs

Here is my crab bounty awaiting treatment (that means killing them).

Tucked away in Viner Sound

Here we are, cozily tied to one of the four buoys in the small cove at Viner Sound. This lovely little cove is at the end of a long, gradually narrowing Sound. We were one of three boats there for two nights. I put out two crab pots and got overwhelmed with crab. There were six male keepers in one trap and a total of 12 crabs in the second pot, all males, and all but two large enough to keep. Four is the daily limit, and I am also at the limit of my refrigerator capacity to hold crab, so tossed a lot of crabs back into the water. Let me tell you, a crab pot with 12 crabs in it is HEAVY!

Tonight we are in Shawl Bay, one of our favorite marinas. It is very homey, with a free pancake breakfast served each morning, and a potluck appetizer get together each evening. I will get laundry done here. We also have dropped our prawn trap in the bay outside the marina, and I hope I will be able to catch my annual bottom fish, which I often do here. Here's hoping it is big enough to provide us a meal.

We are at the point in our cruise where we have a fair amount of seafood, and begin to yearn for something else. so last night we had hamburgers. Tonight it was crab Louis salad. I have a couple of large bags of crab for us to eat up. Plus hopefully some prawns.

Phil enjoys being here because he can socialize with people from other boats. He has just headed off to have a drink with a nice couple aboard a powerboat tied opposite us on the dock. so I shall sign off and go join him.

Stopped by one of the two stores in the Broughtons today and found I was either a few days late or a half day early. She had no fresh vegetables or milk, but was expecting new supplies in the afternoon. Too long to wait. We will hope to find something at Sullivan Bay later this week. I seem to have a talent for arriving just a little too soon for the next every, and too late to find what I want.

Dolphins Playing with our Boat

Yesterday we had a special treat. As we traveled up Tribune Channel, moving at about 5 knots, a large school of dolphins (or porpoises, I'm not sure which) converged with us and spent about 15 minutes around our boat, traveling in the same direction. A number of them swan right along under the bow of our boat, just under the water, enjoying the bow wave of our boat. then they would periodically surface. It's very difficult to get a picture of them on the surface because their appearances are so random but I managed to catch this one shot of them just beneath the bowsprit.

I would love to share more pictures, but we are in an area where all the marinas have the same Internet service, with limited bandwidth and also a limited level of service each day. If they exceed their total level, their service is cut off for 24 hours. That happened to Kwatsi Bay yesterday, the marina where we are now staying. So they ask you to not send large files or more than one picture.

Today we plan to move to Viner Sound, one of our favorite anchorages. It is a small cove tucked in at the end of a long Sound and usually has some good crabbing. I caught two crab yesterday at Lagoon Cove so we will enjoy a crab dinner tonight. Last night at Kwatsi they had a potluck dinner. It is amazing what will appear off boats. We had shepherds pie, barbecued spare ribs, several green and potato salads, home made brownies and cookies.

living very well! weather is okay--overcast in the morning and generally clearing in the mid afternoon.

Back in the Broughtons, and it's overcast

No picture today. We are at Lagoon Cove in the Broughton Islands, being treated to a typical Broughton's day. It was foggy this morning, then a bit drizzly and now it is overcast. The sun is trying to find a way through the clouds and it may make it by 5 or 6 pm, but it may not.

At Lagoon Cove the internet connection is a direct plug in. I don't have a connector for my iPad to plug directly into the internet, so am having to use the little Mac Phil is carrying with us. I also didn't bring my tools to load pictures into the computer, so no pictures until I am again at a wireless internet marina.

We managed to make it up the Johnstone Straits this morning, despite dire warnings of 15-20 knots of wind in the morning and 30-35 in the afternoon. We had made it about halfway yesterday, further than we expected to get because wind predictions for yesterday were 20-25 in the afternoon. We found closer to 15 knots yesterday and made it most of the way without much bashing--just the last couple miles were a bit splashy. We overnighted in Port Neville, anchoring in a spot where we were treated to that 20-25 knot wind that was predicted as we sat at anchor. It calmed down a bit during the night. We got up early (about 6) and went out to the strait to find it quite pleasant. The wind was probably 10-12, very little wave action, and we had a smooth trip up the strait to the Havannah Channel, the first opportunity to get out of the strait and head into the Broughtons. We have learned that it always pays to actually get out into the strait and check the conditions, even if the predictions are terrible. The strait is often quite quiet early in the morning, and the wind tends to build through the day.

We are glad to have made it, because the wind predictions are pretty much the same for the next 4-5 days: gale warnings in effect, with winds in the morning 15-20 and in the afternoon 25-30.

We hope to be at Kwatsi Bay tomorrow if they have space for us.

Enjoying the spoils

Here we all are on the dock enjoying the fruits of our labors--mostly the labors of Helga, the woman with the long blondish hair. Her husband, Bud, is the fisherman who gathered most of what went unto the pot.

How is it that these serendipitous cooking ventures always turn out to taste so great? and you can never reproduce it at home!

A beautiful evening in Shoal Bay

The skies cleared this afternoon and we are enjoying a beautiful evening in Shoal Bay, looking up at the mountains in Phillips Arm. I have never seen snow on them at this time of year.

I will post a second picture about our evening meal.

A cozy time in the Octopus Islands

We spent the last two nights, and a glorious day between them, anchored in our favorite small cove in the Octopus Islands, which is a marine park. Our friends Earl and Kristin Lasher came alongside us in their 42 foot Grand Banks, to share a beautiful sunny, HOT day--the first really hot day of our cruise. You may be able to see how people anchor in the cove. Because it is small, you first set your anchor and then run a stern line to shore, so that more people can squeeze in. you can see the boats tied around the edge of the cove. Each night there was one impolite boat that anchored in the middle of the bay without a stern tie--which causes that boat to take up a lot of room. But we all managed to be there without bumping.

Tonight we are in another of our favorite spots, Shoal Bay, looking out over the water at mountains that still have snow on them. As we came in today, other boaters were loading crab and shrimp on their boats that they had gotten from the bay here. that's somewhat unusual, but I have my pots out and we shall see what the sea decides to share. Tonight the manager here will host a community pizza night. He has a big outdoor pizza oven and provides the dough, with all the boaters bringing ingredients to put on the pizzas. We've done these before and somehow the pizzas come out delicious with the potpourri of ingredients that appears.