Posting 2 - June 3, 2009

 

Hello All,

 

I can’t believe the weather we are having.  It is HOT and sunny with just a hint of a breeze.  It sounds like we will have this weather for another few days and we are enjoying it.

 

Since I wrote last we have been to several places.  Leaving Potts Lagoon we went thru Beware Passage, three boats three different routes thru this rock-ridden passage. At Shawl Bay we tried our first prawn traps with the help of local knowledge trap placement. After Shawl Bay we went to Sullivan Bay Marina.  Our friends, Colleen and Dick left us and started heading home. An extra day allowed us to try our luck on halibut fishing but with no luck. Leaving Sullivan we travel the 40 miles to Miles Inlet, which is about 8 miles south of Cape Caution. Passing the Cape at 8:30 AM and then the Egg Islands at 9:30 AM with mild seas made the trip much easier than all the stories we have read about. Anchoring for the night in Green Anchorage was a very pleasant surprise, very beautiful place across the channel from Pruth. We would have liked to spend a day at Pruth which would allowed us to hike over to the ocean side but minor mechanical issues on both boats made the goal to get to Shearwater so we could get help. The 43-mile passage went smooth with some choppy waters near merging channels.

 

Today we pulled into Shearwater Marina and will stay here a couple of days.  On Monday right after we finished crossing Cape Caution our boat started making a klunking noise and kind of shaking.  We stopped right away but couldn’t find anything.  We then backed down and everything seemed fine but we pulled into this marina and have hired a diver to check things out.  Hopefully we just caught a rope or something and it fell off when we backed up. The diver checked things out and reported that our new prop zinc was missing. The thinking is that maybe a line was caught on the prop and caused the zinc bolt to be loosened. All is well so we will continue on and replace the zinc later, we still have a extra shaft zinc in place.  The weather here has been very warm so we will take the water taxi over to New Bella Bella and check out the city.

 

The boat traveling with us is also having some problems.  Their water maker has stopped working and he is also having some trouble getting one of his engines started.  He is on the phone with his “people” trying to figure it out. The salinity control needed to be reset requiring the front panel to be removed and pushing a button. So far it is now working. They were down to 40 gallons of water.

 

We have been doing some crabbing and shrimping but haven’t done too well.  We did have two dinners of crab and appetizers with the shrimp.  The boys have been fishing but haven’t caught much.  The salmon are not around right now and even though we have heard stories of good halibut fishing they have been eluding us.

 

I got some good shots of some eagles and we saw a bear on the beach.  Our buddy boat saw an Orca today but we were behind and didn’t see it.

 

Chloe (the cat) got sea sick one day in rough water and she tossed her cat cookies.  She was under the weather most of that day but she was fine the next day.

 

At one of our remote anchorages (Mile Inlet) we met a fellow who was traveling alone by kayak from Olympia, Washington to Skagway, Alaska.  He is from Iowa and has been planning this trip for eleven years.  Some people are kind of crazy. He travels about 15 miles/day getting up at 5:30 AM and off the water by 10:30 AM. Sleeping ashore and very concerned about bears in the area.

 

For now, we will not be able to update until we reach Prince Rupert, which is about 160 miles north.

Bob & Tracie