08:00 Off Point Grenville we passed the fishing fleet which had passed us earlier and was now stopped. Looking at the chart it's hard to tell why they ran clear up here to drop their hooks; the bottom all looks the same to me. But they must know where the fish are, they've sure been bringing back big hauls of Ling Cod, Yellow Eye, Sea Bass, and Halibut.
13:15 At the Quillayute whistle buoy. We've been doing pretty good even with one flopper-stopper in the water, almost 8 knots. CAVOK beat us in by about a half hour and have found a place for us rafted with a fishing boat called the PAULA SUE. We found our way through the entrance -- easy today, no breakers, no fish nets -- and, with both John and Karen helping, tied up there. John and I walked up to the Marina Office where an old Indian named Earl took $15.00 from each of us, then I went on over the hill to the post office to mail a letter. I'd forgotten how grungy these little Indian towns can be, trashier than anything we saw in Mexico or Central America. They were in the middle of Quillayute Days this weekend and, although the main street was roped off and concession and game stands lined the sides, the town's buildings all look to be falling down and there are junk cars and trash strewn everywhere. It reminds me of how surprized we were when we got to Alert Bay to find a clean Indian town.
I'd no sooner gotten back to the boat when the skipper of the PAULA SUE showed up wanting to move out to get ice for the first day of commercial salmon season, so we juggled lines around, moving old SEA RAVEN forward to another boat and then back again when he came back empty handed -- they were out of ice, heck of a thing to have happen in a fishing village on a season opening.
On their way in John and Karen had run into some old friends of theirs who had been fishing all day and had caught a mess of ling cod and sea bass. So Lois whomped up a big salad and we all got together on CAVOK for a super fish dinner. Nice bunch of people: Jim, a retired fisherman, his wife Jean and her sisters, Betty and Nancy.
08:30 Evesdropped on a long conversation between a guy in Vancouver and one on a boat called the EDWARD ABBEY about the efforts of it and another boat, the SEA SHEPARD, to frustrate the Japanese fishing fleet still using drift nets in the North Pacific. They had evidently just returned from a search and destroy mission and had managed to elicit a protest from the Japanese government by stealing or destroying several million dollars worth of nets. They had planned on clearing Canadian Customs at Uclulet, entered the harbor, but then decided that there wasn't any place there that they could safely dock. When they decided to turn around and leave the customs lady on the radio told them in no uncertain terms that that was a no-no. Ended up that both the RCMP and customs boarded them and spent several hours questioning them. I gathered that the Canadian government wasn't too happy about these aggressive do-gooders.
12:30 Into Barkley Sound's Trevor Channel. I'd originally planned on going to Effingham Island just inside Barkley Sound and anchoring there for the night before going on into Uclulet to customs; but, after hearing the conversation between the EDWARD ABBEY and the customs lady, decided that it might be better to check in today, so we changed course and headed for Uclulet. Then we heard another conversation with a boat that had cleared customs at Bamfield even though the harbormaster at La Push had said we had to go to Uclulet. Alright, change heading again and here we are, around Cape Beale and into the channel.
13:30 After threading our way past dozens of gill netters in the Trevor Channel we turned into Bamfield Inlet and found the government float in front of the Bamfield store filled with small boats; so, with the help of a kind gentleman on the wharf, parked there and I climbed the chain ladder to go check us in at customs. The signs led me to a prim little hous on the hill where I found another sign saying to go to the general store. Yep, there she was, the customs lady, the only clerk in the store, adding up the grocery tabs for half a dozen people. "Come back in about ten minutes with your registration", she said, "and I'll check you in here." Okay, that I did and, between grocery customers, we went though the customs entry litany, I emerging with Bamfield clearance number MO 237 to paste on our window.
I called Sis and Paul to tell them we'd be waiting for them, then urged Lois up the ladder for a shopping tour of Bamfield. The Bamfield store isn't exactly a supermarket. We poked around, found nothing we needed, bought an ice cream bar, and then decided to see if there was a mooring buoy we could park on for the night. Yep, right where I remembered them were the government buoys, free for public use. We picked up the next to last one, and settled down for the evening, happy that our Pacific Coast journey was over. From now on we'll dawdle our way from place to place rather than having to make the long runs between widely separated havens.
We were tied to a mooring buoy right in the middle of the inlet and had our own water taxi of course. I have to pump up the old Metz every morning but she's still carrying us around in good shape. After breakfast we ran over to Ostrom's and bought fishing licences, a crab trap, and some other gear. They have a pretty well stocked store but pretty high prices. Also the lady only gave us 10% on our U.S. dollars instead of 15% as the Bamfield Store gave us yesterday. After that we poked around another marine store, the general store, and talked to a nice lady in the motel about the bus to Victoria -- $45.00, leaves Bamfield at 1:15 and arrives Victoria at 6:00. On the west side we got the poop on the M.V. LADY ROSE. That costs $15.00 to Port Alberni, leaving Bamfield at about 1:30 and taking about four hours. It runs on alternate days; Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from Bamfield; Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from Uclulet.
By 11:00 AM we'd pretty well covered the town so decided to move out and find a place to park in the Broken Group, the Provicial Park and the only place where we have a detailed chart -- the one Nan and John loaned us. Barkley Sound is filled with reefs and no place to go poking around without good charts. After about an hour of lazy running we dropped our hook in a tiny cove on the west side of Jaques Island, nothing but rocky, cedar covered islands on all sides of us. I spent the afternoon digging through our fishing gear, exchanging all the stuff we used for southern fish like Dorado for the Salmon gear we've had stowed away for the past five years. It'll take a while to get back in the swing of things. After dinner we did a little exploring with the Metz and found a nice oyster bed just behind us in the cove. We'll have to pick a few on low tide in the morning.
Quiet night, the darkest and quietest place we've parked in a long time; not a light anywhere, no moon, no sky glow from any big city, and not even the sound of the surf which we've heard in almost all of our stopping places coming up the coast. It's a pretty peaceful place.
Running around the north side of Jaques Island, we dropped three lines in the Peacock Channel, two on the downrigger and one rigged with a deep six. We fished for a couple of hours, all the way around Hankin Island. No one else was fishing there and I knew that we weren't near any hot fishing grounds, but thought we might luck out with a stray salmon. Nope, just one little rock fish who got carried away and grabbed onto myt hoochie. No matter, he made good eating for dinner and bait for the crab trap.
About one o'clock we gave up fishing and went looking for a parking spot. We went by the place where we stopped stopped with Bob and Kristy seven years ago but today the wind was from the west and was blowing right into the anchorage. Poked our nose into another good looking hole and found two power boats had already taken it. Then decided to take a shortcut around Nantes Island. Oops, next thing we knew we were run up on a pile of rocks. We were going pretty slow so were able to back off, but it sure got our attention for a while. I had misjudged the distance on Nan's detailed chart and hadn't come close enough to a visible rock to avoid the subsurface reef just opposite it. We also haven't gotten back in the habit of having a rock watch on deck, something which is mandatory in navigating these waters at close quarters. I 'spec old SEA RAVEN now has a scar or two on her nice newly painted keel.
Ended up parking in a southeast cove on Turret Island, not a bad place, although it has a straight shot down Coaster Channel to the sea and was a little rolly during the night when the wind quit. We cleaned up our fishing gear, filleted our fish and ate it, put out the crab trap, then went for a little tour of the nearby islands. Lots of kayakers and small boats over on Clark and Benson. There are campsites and water on both of those. They are also the closest to Uclulet. The power boats had left my first choice place but we decided not to move. We'll remember it as a nice spot to bring Sis and Paul. Called Kris and Bob through the Canadian Coast Guard Tofino radio station. That works a lot better than the confusing U.S. marine operator system nowdays. Bob said they'd be thinking hard about coming for a visit some time while we're on the island.
09:00 Into the Uclulet Inlet. Things looked pretty much as I remembered it until we turned into the Canadian Princess basin at the far end of town. Then the number of new floats and boats filling the basin spooked me so we turned around and went back to the Government dock in front of Phil and Mary Seaborn's old place which I remembered as the float of the hundred steps. We counted them this time though as we walked up to town and there are only 53. Had breakfast at the Pot Belly Family Restaurant, bought $234.10 worth of Canadian dollars for $200.00 U.S., and then walked on back to the Canadian Princess basin to talk to the Harbor Manager. The basin didn't look quite so full from the land side -- a bunch of commercial fishing boats had blocked my view when we poked our nose in the entrance. There was room on the north floats for us and this would be a much easier place for Sis and Paul to find us. There's also a big, paved parking lot where they can leave their car rather than leaving it on the street.
So, back to the boat, crank up and run the half mile back to the basin. When we got there I found that fishing boats had rafted across the way from the open spot on the dock so I didn't have room to turn around as I'd planned. That made Lois do a quick change from port to starboard, something she hates to do. We got in though, tied up and settled down to wait for Sis and Paul. I was sitting in my chair sipping a beer when a guy appeared at the door and asked, "Would you like a salmon?" I could hardly believe my ears, but he was serious. "Sure 'nough!", was my answer. He took me across the dock and gave me a beautiful 10-12 pound silver, saying that he had no way of keeping it and wanted only three nice steaks out of the middle. I took it back to the SEA RAVEN, cut the three steaks for him, and then four fine fillets for us. Larry Clemens is his name. I tried to give him a bottle of wine in exchange but he said he doesn't drink. Just he and his 12 year old grandson on his little 18 foot fishing boat.
We had figured that Sis and Paul would be here about three or three thirty and they showed up about a quarter to four. They had stopped and bought a mess of raspberries so we gave Larry and his grandson some of those for their dinner. Then we feasted on salmon ourselves. What a great start for the week.
08:45 Paul held the bow line while I kicked the stern around with the engine to get us pointed out of the marina and we were off. Following Larry's advice we ran straight out of the harbor and started fishing between reefs just off the harbor mouth. We had three poles working and it took a while to get sorted out with the downrigger and Deep Six. I'd bought a double line release for the downrigger in Bamfield the other day but that has some very definite disadvantages -- to check either line you have to haul up the ball and both lines. Also, we found out why they sell the streamlined balls which cost three times as much -- several times the line and leader got all tangled up when the ball didn't swivel properly. In spite of our problems we started hooking fish. Sis pulled in a good sized rock fish almost immediately, and a shaker Chinook a little while later. Paul got a nice Black Bass and a bunch of mackerel which we threw back. No real salmon though, so we decided to move over to where Paul's friend had said the salmon fishing was good. We ran across to the Broken Group and anchored between Wouwer and Howell islands for lunch and then started fishing the channel just to the west of Cree Island. We hadn't been there long when Sis hooked a really nice salmon. Bad news is that it managed to break the leader when she couldn't get my old pole with the single action reel out of the pole holder. It jumped once and was gone. That was the story of our fishing for the day. Lots more mackerel and a few small rock fish, but no more salmon hookups, only what Sis called "An ugly bunch of fish".
About 4:00 we decided to call it a day and hunt for a parking place. Poked our nose into Effingham but found it full of boats -- sure a lot more cruisers here than there were in '85. So we ran across to the northeastern islands and parked at Jaques where we'd been on Tuesday. On the way Sis and Lois put together a couple of huckleberry pies with the berries we'd picked last week. Had white fish and pie for dinner. Can't beat that.
After dinner we went exploring in the Metz, around Jaques to Gibralter then across to Nettle Island where the Park Ranger's float is. We dropped our crab pot baited with one of the mackerel in the east arm of Nettle's bay, then came back through the opening between Jarvis and Jaques Islands. It was high tide but we still had to get out and pull the Metz over a rock in the passage. Paul pointed out later that I's steered us over what is shown as dry land on the chart. Anyway, we made it. You've got to have a little adventure in your life.
That was a good start for the day but we were having a little trouble with our salmon fishing. Lois was driving the boat; Paul, Eleanor, and I were fishing; and we could hardly keep a line in the water for catching mackerel. We'd have two or three on at a time. Finally, we hauled up and moved in close to Swale Rock trying to get away from the school. That did it. Sis hooked up with something that really put up a fight. She'd learned her lesson of yesterday and played it perfectly, letting it run when it wanted and never giving it a second's rest. When she got up close enough for me to net she was all worn out but it it turned out to be a nice 7-8 lb Coho, the biggest fish she's ever caught.
The rest of us didn't do so well, just more mackerel. About one o'clock we decided to bag it and run across to the Deer Group to find a place for the night. I'd remembered a neat cove there where we'd gone when Mom, Dad, Maggie, Nan and Donna were with us, the spot where Nan lost our crab pot when she dropped it in a hundred feet of water. After studying the chart, I guessed it was on Tzartus Island, a place called Marble Cove. Yep, that was it, only now there are three float houses in the cove which was deserted when we were here before. We anchored in the middle of the cove and settled down to enjoy a beautiful, warm and sunny afternoon. While the ladies sunned on the deck Paul and I went exploring. At the first of the float houses we talked to a very nice lady who said they'd had their float here for three years. They live in Port Alberni and use it as a weekend and vacation retreat. One of the other float houses is a small oyster farm, and the last has just been moved in. In fact, soon after we anchored, the LADY ROSE, Port Alberni ferry, came into the cove. She stopped at the new float house, dropped off a refrigerator, and then amazed me by coming by SEA RAVEN and asking how much water we drew and if we'd come through the "slot". It was evidently the first time he'd been in the cove. I told him we hadn't, but he just shrugged, said something about it being and incoming tide, and went on through the tiny channel we wouldn't have dared try. He got through alright.
She also told us that there was a really nice beach just on the for side of the cove, so we went over to check that out. It really is nice, a true fine sand beach with some picnic tables, and even a toilet and litter barrel hidden back in the cedars. It must be a small provincial park. As we were coming back SEA RAVEN's horn blew and Lois was out on the deck waving frantically for us to hurry. Wondering if the boat was sinking, I ran for home at full throttle. Problem -- Paul had put out a baited hook and there was now a four foot Dogfish shark on the line. Not for long though, when Paul tried to pull it in it bit the leader in two and swam off.
After a fine dinner of rock crab and huckleberry pie we all went back to the beach and poked around for a while. Brought back a beautiful cedar plank about ten feet long, perfectly straight grained, clear cedar for Paul to make signs of.
First we took a look at Useless Inlet, a big, pretty bay with some kind of Canadian government seafood experiment going on. We couldn't tell for sure what. After that we ran into Rainy Bay, then down Alberni Inlet past Tzartus Island, poking into all the little bays and inlets we saw. Most are pretty well developed on this side of the Sound. There was one place on the south shore of Sproat Bay that looked like it could be a pretty nice anchorage but we were looking for something closer to Cape Beale where we plan to fish in the morning. We ran though Robbers Passage where the three deck float house resort which was there in '87 has been spread all over the rocks by one of last winter's storms. They seem to be rebuilding it on dry land. Coming down the west side of Fleming Island we poked our nose in a bay that looked pretty good on the chart but not in real life, so decided to head for Bamfield which we know is a comfortable bay and only four miles from Cape Beale.
In Bamfield we found the government buoys and floats all occupied -- there's evidently a sailboat race tomorrow -- so we dropped our hook near the buoys and settled down to watch all the activity on the docks. Paul counted fish coming off the commercial boats unloading across the bay and saw at least two throw off more than two hundred fish. Lots of fish out there, we just have to find them. We ate today's almon for dinner, not enough to really stuff ourselves but enough. We're saving Sis' big one in the freezer for them to take home.
That did it. We'd hardly gotten to Swale Rock and the gear in the water when Paul and Eleanor both started hooking up. Sis was having trouble handling my single action reel with the 32 oz weight and lost a couple, but she wasn't about to give up. A gillnetter was also fishing around the rock which made life interesting, but we managed to avoid his nets while Paul pulled in two nice silvers. Then on the way up Sechart Channel he caught another. Paul's really getting into the swing of things now.
We dropped out hook for the night in the Pinkerton Islands beside what turned out to be a busy passage for small fishing boats. It is a pretty place and well protected from all but an east wind. The fog had burned off and we could sit in the sun and watch the racing sailboats as they made the turn point at Swale Rock and a couple of Bald Eagles in a tree over our heads. The water was clear and the sun so warm I decided it was a good time to check my zincs and see what damage our bump on the rock had done. Good news on both scores...the zincs are still in good shape, and only minor scrapes along the edges of the keel where we rocked back and forth on the rock before sliding off. The water wasn't bad at all in my shorty wetsuit. The only problem is the stream of cold water going down my back where the collar doen't fit tight.
We did a little exploring of the Pinkertons in the Metz and dropped our crab pot in a pond there. It's not in the Pacific Rim Park but hasn't had much development. There's one pretty nice float house set way back in the corner, and a small oyster lease in the center. What was once a neat place built on two small islands with a bridge between is now abandoned, a dream lost to some misfortune. There's a big wetland where several watersheds join. We saw a dozen big Blue Heron feeding there.
Salmon for dinner again tonight. We've got three in the freezer now even after stuffing ourselves for three nights. Watched a movie after dinner, Foxfire, one which Sis and Paul hadn't seen.
We started fishing right out of our anchorage this morning and fished our way east in the Sechart channel toward Swale Rock but caught nothing but mackerel and two little rockfish in the channel. The sky cleared early where we were and the sun was bright and warm, but the fog hung thick over the inlets at both ends of Sechart. As we approached Swale Rock I could see fishing boats on the radar where nothing but a big fog bank was visible. It turned out that about four gillnetters were working there. We tried fishing around their nets for a while and Paul picked up a small Coho, but finally gave it up after Paul lost his "magic flasher". It was too hard to fish when they were dropping nets in front of us on every turn so about noon we went back to the channel and our mackerel.
We'd decided to take a look at Effingham Inlet in the afternoon and were fishing our way in that direction when a couple of big ships came rolling down the channel, presumably from Mayne Bay where some kind of Navy installation is located. We couldn't say what their function was but one of them had a big ramp up the stern like a whaler or fish processor might have. Anyway, they went steaming by throwing a pretty good wake. About the same time fish, mackerel of course, hit all three poles we had out and two of the lines got entangled. What a mess. Deciding to knock off fishing and run to Effingham to get sorted out, we hauled it all aboard and I cranked up the speed just as the wake of the ships went by. I had forgotten that the Metz was still tagging along tied the side of the boat near the boarding step. As we crossed the wake there was a bang and Paul started hollaring to stop. His reason for hollaring was that the wave had come over the stern of the Metz a filled it with water. That really wasn't a problem but, when I looked out to see what all the fuss was about, I realized that the step was missing....the Metz had come up with the wave and knocked it off the stanchions. Well, that's the breaks. We'll be stretching to get on and off the boat for a while until we can replace it.
The rest of the day went pretty well. We ran up Effingham for a ways but there are very few places to stop in there. It's one of those steep, deep fjords where the walls just keep going down to the depths. We thought we'd found one pretty bay shallow enough for anchoring but someone in a sailboat had beaten us to it. So we went back to a very pretty bay just inside the entrance where we anchored in forty feet of water, out of the breeze and in the bright sunshine. We shucked our oysters and scrubbed our clams and the ladies made ceviche from the two little rock fish. Our dinner was in courses....first the ceviche, then barbecued oysters, then steamed clams with clam nectar. We also had oyster stew and salmon on the menu but were stuffed full and gave up after the first three items.
Foggy again this morning as we hauled up and headed for our favorite spot near Swale Rock. We'd heard on the radio that gillnetting had closed as of eight o'clock this morning so we thought we'd have a little easier time fishing, but we weren't prepared for what we found. There were no boats at all around the rock, not even the sportfishers. And no fish either. We trolled for an hour and a half and caught nothing but weeds, not even a mackerel. I still can't figure out how the fishermen knew that the fish wouldn't be there.
About 11:00 we gave up and decided to make today a sightseeing day. Running northwest in Sechart to Lyall Point then turning right into Mayne Bay we found that the "Navy" installation there consists of a few big mooring buoys. Mayne is a large bay, about a mile deep and a mile and a half wide, open to the west, with an almost perfectly flat mud bottom 100 feet down, a good place to park large ships. In the northeast corner of the bay is a narrow inlet leading off to the northeast. We'd heard that it was a pretty place so we ran in there. Sure enough, tucked way back at the end of this passage...which was too narrow for us to have turned around in...was a pretty little floathouse fishing resort. A half dozen floathouse rooms with flowers growing in window boxes were lined up behind a row of small, fast sportfishing boats. No sign identified the name of the place, no one came out to greet us, and we didn't try to moor on the small docks so we don't know any name except that shown on the chart, "Cigarette Cove".
From there we ran off to the northwest again, into Touquart Bay where there is a boat launch ramp and dozens of RVs line the west shore. It must be from there that all the sportsfishers came that passed us when we were anchored in the Pinkertons. To the east, up Pipestem Inlet we passed a group of about eight sail and power boats parked around the outlet of Cataract Creek where there are supposed to be some falls. We decided to skip that crowd and instead anchored for lunch in a steep little nook a mile farther east. Lots of buoys in here, in pretty deep water. We were tempted to pull one up to see what was in it but didn't.
On the way back we ran through the Stopper Islands...pretty place and looked like it could be an interesting anchorage but we had planned on going back to the Pinkertons for more clams in the morning so we kept going. Off Lyall Point we saw a bunch of gulls feeding and stopped to fish again for a while. No luck here either until, just as we were about to pull in the lines, Paul brought aboard a small Coho, making the day a success. We parked behind the most westerly of the Pinkertons in a nice wide pond about twenty feet deep. Dinner was clams again, and oyster stew. After dinner Paul and Eleanor went ashore and picked blackberries. Neat day.
Paul and Eleanor fished for a while on the way back to Uclulet bu had no luck, just a couple of mackerel. By 12:30 we were tieing up at the dock in Uclulet. Paul washed down the boat and Lois and Eleanor washed clothes while I made peace with the Harbor Manager. Old Arnold felt so bad about what he had to charge us for three days that he put down SEA RAVEN as a 40 foot boat. That doesn't happen very often.
Friday, 31 July 1992
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06:10 We're on our way, almost at the 6:00 o'clock target time after getting up at 5:00. We'd have made it except for forgetting the blackberry syrup and the deviled eggs and having to go back to get them. I'd never been on the drive across the island before so it was all new to me, and we had a great morning for it, bright and sunny with no fog. The road to Port Alberni is narrow, winding, and sort of bumpy although it's all paved, but it took us through some very pretty places. Just after leaving the coast it lead us along the shore of a huge lake, Lake Kennedy, the largest on the island, then climbed through the Mackenzie Mountain Range and finally down along the shore of Sproat Lake, another of Vancouver Island's best.
07:45 Port Alberni seems like a pretty nice little sea level city tucked up here in the mountains. It's obviously a lumbering and fishing town. A pulp mill surrounded by booms of logs belches steam over a hundred sportfishing boats in the Alberni inlet.
09:00 Nanaimo looks much the same as the last time we were here. I guess that was in 1986. Maybe a few more shopping malls. The highway still leads right through the center of town and Sis and Paul got all hung up here when they camne through, but there's no problem this Friday morning. The road down the east coast to Victoria is also a pretty drive, although the highway is four lanes a good part of the way.
10:00 Looking good to make the 12:05 ferry to Friday Harbor as we bypass downtown Victoria and head up the Saanich Penninsula for Sydney. There's some construction work but light traffic and no delays.
10:35 We roll up to a surprizingly small line at the ferry terminal in what we figured was great shape only to be met by a young man who said the morning run had been cancelled due to "mechanical problems". The next run leaves at 6:00 PM. "But if you hurry, you could probably catch the 11:00 o'clock ferry to Vancouver at Swartz Bay." Okay, that's probably our best bet. We'd had it in our minds as Plan B anyway, in case the drive took longer than we'd planned.
10:50 At the Swartz Bay terminal, but it doesn't look good...long lines of cars in six or eight lanes. Oh well, there's another ferry at 12:00. We wander around the terminal, buy a pop from the machine, and eat our deviled eggs.
12:15 On the ferry and heading out. The Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen run is a nice one, through the islands and Active Pass. I was sorry Sis and Paul had missed the San Juan Islands run but this is almost as pretty.
14:00 Off the ferry and on the freeway south. It'll be a little tight to make the 3:00 PM from Anacortes to Friday Harbor but there's a 5:00 o'clock. Through the boarder station at Blaine with little delay, we made a quick stop in Bellingham to check on the foot ferry from there but no luck, it only makes one run in the morning.
15:00 We're almost to the Anacortes turnoff when I-5 traffic comes to a halt. And there we sat, moving a few cars length at a time, unable to get off the freeway, until it looked like we might miss the 5:00 o'clock. Well, we finally did make it to an off ramp and followed the back roads to Anacortes and the ferry terminal where we bid Sis and Paul goodby with 15 minutes to spare. It was then that I remembered that I didn't have a key to the hangar. I called Wanda, she called Elton, and he came whizzing down to the dock on his Cushman to bring us the key. Guess what....he'd left all his keys in the shop. No problem, we got on the ferry and he went back to the shop at the Anacortes airport where he works and put the key on an airplane to Friday Harbor. It was there waiting when we got there.
The rest of the day went pretty well. Had a salad on the ferry, a pizza at the Electric Company on the way from the ferry dock to the airport, picked up our key at the airport terminal, opened the hangar, laid out our sleeping bags in the back of the truck, and climbed in. Long day.
Saturday, 1 August 1992
We'd planned on trying to catch the morning ferry to Sydney but found that it doesn't stop in Friday Harbor. In order to got on it we'd have to be on the 6:25 to Orcas Island. So we decided to spend the day here. Got a lot done. Cleaned up the hangar, packed up all our Canadian charts and cruising books, got the truck running...it lost all it's transmission oil. We drove it for six months and it never lost a drop but for some strange reason I don't understand it leaks when we don't drive it. Elton came by and picked up the last of his stuff from the hangar. Looks like we'll have to find somebody else to fly the airplane now and then. Now that he doesn't work over here it's too much for him to do. He suggested a guy named Dennis Willows, head of the UW Friday Harbor Labs, to trade airplanes with. Dennis has a 172 on floats.
Anyway, we got things all squared away and caught the 14:00 ferry to Sydney. That got us there about 5:00, we took the double-decker tour bus to Victoria, and lucked out on this BC holiday weekend, by finding a nice room at the Helm's Hotel just a long block from the bus station. We checked in, had a martini to celebrate our good luck, and went out to look around and find some dinner. Following the sound of a band playing to the parade grounds in front of the Government buildings we were treated to a full-fledged Canadian military review leading up to the sunset lowering of the flag. A hundred piece band, two hundred or more riflemen (and rifleladies), four cannon on caissons, and a reviewing stand filled with brass in white uniforms. The drill was excellent, the music great, the two hundred rifles cracked as one, the cannons boomed over our heads. What fun. The sun went down, the flag was lowered, the cannons boomed again, and the whole procession marched one more time past the review stand then out of the park and down the street. A great show.
We ate our dinner at Sam's Deli, a neat place on the corner just across from the Empress Hotel. Great sandwiches and very reasonable prices.
Sunday, 2 August 1992
Checking the bus schedule we found that one left for Port Alberni at 2:00 PM so we spent the morning in Victoria. Spent several hours in the British Columbia Royal Museum which is only a block from the Helm's. They have the best collection of Northcoast Indian art I've ever seen, plus some very nice displays of early BC history. We killed a little more time walking around the harbor and listening to bagpipe music on the quay. The bus left right on the dot of 2:00 and we were on it. It's a 4 1/2 hour run to Port Alberni, including almost an hour stop in Nanaimo where the bus depot isn't in a very handy location. By the time we got to the Port Alberni terminal we were ready to stop. The lady I talked to at the Lady Rose had recommended the Hospitality Inn, so we caught a cab and went there. Very nice hotel at not too bad a price...$72.00 Canadian. Had a good dinner at their restaurant and hit the sack.
Monday, 3 August 1992
05:00 Up and at 'em. Got to get to the boat on time. The hotel's grill wasn't working this morning so we had a bran muffin and fruit for breakfast...probably better for us than hotcakes and eggs. Cab to the LADY ROSE dock and we're there over an hour early. Bought our tickets...$18.00 for one-way...and then wandered around the Quay and docks where we bought freshly made donuts and climbed the clock tower which overlooks the bay. I'm really favorably impressed with Port Alberni. It's very clean for a busy working harbor, and has some nice facilities. The monthly rate on the sturdy concrete docks with power and water is $1.55 per foot, Canadian. For us that works out to $63.62 U.S. That's not much more than we were paying for one day in Southern California.
8:00 We're off, but not on the LADY ROSE. The "ship" that runs to Uclulet now is the FRANCIS BARKLEY, another boat of about the same vintage but a little bigger and faster than the LADY. She was pretty well loaded this morning, her forward covered deck filled with kayaks and pallets of camping gear and close to a hundred people crowding her upper decks and saloons. She backed off of her wharf and chugged down the inlet at a steady ten knots. It was a beautiful sunny morning and Lois and I had commandeered two plastic chairs and a spot next to the pilot house where we could sit out of the wind but still see all the eagles in the trees along the inlet. The scenery is a little more varied than I had expected, not just the high, steep walls of many of these fjords. First we had the spectacle of hundreds of sportfishing boats spread across the inlet from just below the port to the second narrows ten miles down stream. Our skipper did a pretty good job of avoiding them but had to give a blast with his whistle a couple of times when a fisherman threatened to cross in front of the ship. Interestingly enough, in almost an hour of watching, until they finally thinned out, I never saw a net out, just hundreds of boats trolling along. Fishing must not be too red hot. Lined up along the sides of the inlet and cruising back and forth among the sport fishermen were also several dozen big purse seiners, just waiting. One of our crew members said it was for a Sockeye opening at 9:00 AM. There are more Sockeye than needed to spawn in the river and creeks above the inlet so they are having a two day opening for the big commercial guys.
The second thing that kept the trip interesting were the several breaks in the walls of Alberni Inlet; Macktush Bay, Uchuklesit Inlet, San Mateo Bay, and tiny Haggart Cove. We stopped at Haggart Cove to let off a family on a float moored in deep water just outside the marina...no place inside for a boat of our size. There are several nice homes built on the hillside there, a place where you could really "get away from it all". The real unloading came at the Gibralter Island floats, two sturdy wooden floats moored about fifty yards offshore. There the crew, kayakers, and canoers set up a "bucket-line" from the forward hold to the float, passing everything from campstoves to water jugs until the floats were buried. Then came the kayaks and canoes, about thirty of them. I lost track when some the the quicker souls got their gear together and paddled off before others even got onto the float. The unloading here took nearly half an hour then we were on our way again, leaving the people and floats piled high with gear.
The rest of the trip was uneventful although I learned a little about passages through the islands that may be helpful. We were at the government wharf in Uclulet a little after one o'clock and back at the SEA RAVEN a half hour later. All in good shape here. Spent the afternoon shaping things up and getting ready for our next set of visitors, Chuck and Bernie who will be here in a few days. I think we'll go to Port Alberni to meet them.
Tuesday, 4 August 1992
09:00 On our way to Port Alberni again, this time on the old SEA RAVEN herself. Cloudy and cooler this morning...a front moving though. We made a fast run through the islands and up the inlet, almost as fast as the FRANCIS BARKLEY, although we didn't make the stops she did. Chuck and Bernie are going to be here tomorrow and we wanted to get in and settled before they arrive. Had a bit of a challenge getting through the last ten miles...the seiners were in hot pursuit of the Sockeye with their nets strung out all across the inlet. We'd have to watch to see which way each boat was leaning, the sign of in which direction the net was spread, and then try to find a channel through. At one point we ran between two boats not fifty feet apart with their nets strung clear to shore in opposite directions. It was fun watching them pull the nets aboard, a big ball of squirming fish the payoff for a good set.
13:15 Chris, the wharfmaster himself, helps us tie up at the Port Alberni dock. The wind is blowing a good fifteen knots up the inlet so I'd chosen a side tie on the protected north side. At the office I opted to pay for a full month's moorage, $74.47 as opposed to the $17.50 per day transient rate. That way we can come and go as we please.
On the maintenance side, I spent some time fiddling with Gimmy's idle adjustment. We've been getting an annoying vibration at idle which we've never had before and I'm not sure what might be causing it. Hope it's not an indicator of something more serious.
While we were waiting for Chuck and Bernie to arrive I walked up to the center of town...it's only about four blocks away. Pretty nice little city. Post office, four banks, big IGA grocery store, department stores, etc. etc, all within a few blocks. Later Lois did the same. While she was there Chuck and Bernie showed up in their little pickup, so we unloaded part of their stuff and drove up to bring Lois and the groceries back. Got it all in and stowed so we're ready to move out and do some more fishing tomorrow. The weatherman says a storm's coming. Hope it doesn't get too sloppy.
About three o'clock we gave it up and ran into Uchucklesit for a bit of sightseeing and found another SEA RAVEN in there. It's about a twenty foot aluminum boat at Kildonan Lodge, a very pretty small lodge built by a waterfall cascading into the bay. We swung by and said hello to the owner and then anchored for the night in Snug Basin, a little cove with a very narrow entrance at the upper end of Uchuclesit. It has a small stream flowing into it and looked like a good place for crab but our luck in using the mackerel for crab bait wasn't any better than our fishing. All we had in the pot when I pulled it up was a few starfish. The rest of us gave up but Chuck still kept fishing. He pulled in about four ratfish and several small bottom creatures, none of which looked edible. We had flank steak for dinner, not bad, but nothing to campare with salmon. Maybe tomorrow.
I did have one bit of success today...I solved Gimmy's vibration problem. Getting very frustrated with trying to troll with a shaking boat, I tried adjusting the idle speed downward. That did it. At 150 rpm he idles smoothly without missing a beat. That also is a better trolling speed, at least in theory. It gives us just about two knots.
Fishing wasn't much better today than yesterday, not for lack of trying. We ran out of Uchucklesit about nine and fished for salmon from Haggart Cove around Chub Point, across Rainy Bay to Pill Point, then back up Junction Passage and behind the Chain Group past Diplock. All we got was one Rockfish and about four Mackerel. About two o'clock we gave it up and hauled in the gear. I had reeled in the downrigger, not noticing anything peculiar about the way it operated, and had turned to put away a flasher and hoochie when there was a plop and the downrigger disappeared below the waves...it had come off the baseplate and the whole thing was gone. Well, no great loss. I never did like the way it worked and don't think I'll replace it. I'm surprized that there was no indication of a problem when I was cranking the ball in.
We anchored in Marble Cove about 2:30 and Chuck and I tried bottom fishing from the Metz. Not much luck there either. Chuck picked up one small rockfish and a flounder; I got nothing but a dogfish shark on my Buzz Bomb jig. And only one small Red Rock crab the crab trap...we had chicken for dinner.
The best thing I can say about today is that the weather was beautiful. It started out with a rain shower but soon cleared, and Marble Cove is such a pretty place. After dinner we sat and watched the sunset over the pinnacle rocks that guard the cove. It's one of my favorite pictures.
From Bamfield we ran across Trevor, through Satelite Passage and across the Imperial Eagle to Swale Rock, our favorite fishing spot. Not today. The swells coming down Imperial Eagle were even bigger than those in Trevor, and they were crashing against the rock from a direction that would have been right on our beam. So, we fished Sechart Channel instead...and started catching Mackerel, Mackerel after Mackerel after Mackerel, in the rain. But never a hit from a salmon. We fished all the way through Sechart and past Lyall Point with nothing but Mackerel before we finally gave up and anchored behind the most westerly of the Pinkertons. Chuck and Bernie spent the rest of the afternoon fishing off the aft deck, catching dogfish sharks and a few small greenling. Ate Mackerel for dinner....not bad the way Lois fixes it, marinated in lemon juice and sauted with soy sauce. At least here we should be able to find a few oysters and clams.
About 14:00 we hauled in the lines and went on a sightseeing trip through the islands. I was sort of planning on stopping at Effingham but when we got there it was so crowded with boats that it looked like a marina. So we ran around to the south side and parked between Effingham and Austin Island in a spot where we could see the waves breaking on the reefs outside. Chuck went fishing in the Metz while I shucked oysters. We had barbecued oysters, steamed clams, and salmon for dinner. Things are looking up.
Our bad luck fishing continued today. We fished at Swale Rock for a couple of hours with nothing but mackerel, then gave up there and ran out to the center of the Imperial Eagle Channel and dropped our hook behind Baeria Rocks. I was hoping to find some good sized rockfish there. All we got were dogfish sharks. Same story when we fished for another hour or so around the north end of the Chain Group. It doesn't seem to discourage Chuck though. As soon as we dropped our hook behind the Boyson Islands in Rainy Bay he was out on the deck fishing and stayed there until dark.
While we were looking for a place to park we ran up into a tiny inlet at the far north end of Rainy Bay where we found a little fishing resort very similar to that in Cigarette Cove. A dozen little numbered float houses are tucked back in that protected pocket. Looks like it would be a great place to come for a fishing vacation. Our anchorage at the Boysons wouldn't be safe in any bad weather but tonight it was perfect. We could see out in most directions and there were fish and seals swimming all around. Maybe what we need is a trained seal to catch our fish.
Steamed clams and fried oysters for dinner, with Lois' clam nectar to sip. We aren't exactly hurting for seafood.
We got back to Port Alberni about four o'clock, found a spot on the dock close to where we'd parked before, showered, and changed clothes. By then it was cooling off a little. Chuck and Bernie took us to dinner at a place they had stayed when they were here last year, the Timberlodge. A very nice place, we ate seafood fetticcini on a shaded, flower strewn patio. Great end to another cruising season.