Got an early start the next morning with NW winds 10-15 kts, very little swell, and no fog. We made use of the sails for the first few hours, then the winds died and we had a very calm crossing into Canada. As soon as we crossed the border, we saw some small boats fishing the Gnarly Islands (there has to be a great story behind that name), a group of tiny islands and islets off Dundas Island. We decided to stop and check the bite with a little trolling. had a couple of bites on our first few passes but no hook-ups. Then we caught a little shaker (about 12"- too small to keep). Within a couple of minutes of releasing the little guy, the other rod got hit hard and line started zinging off the reel. I had a 10 minute battle to get this guy up to the boat and she jumped clear out of the water twice. Turned out to be a nice size Coho (Silver) salmon. Welcome back to Canada!
Fish for dinner and some more fillets for the freezer:
We arrived at Prince Rupert in the afternoon and pulled into Cow Bay Marina. This area has been upgraded with new docks and facilities, and a spruced up waterfront with shops and restaurants. We made arrangements to stay here for three nights to relax a bit, do some mid-trip cleaning, maintenance, and provisioning, and to pick up Sue's Dad who will be joining us for 12 days of South-bound cruising. We were the only boat on the breakwater when we arrived, but were joined by a variety of different boats over the next few days.
This was our first neighbor - a charter boat called Swell. She is a tugboat built in 1912 and converted for charter work more recently. She is an amazing boat. We traded boat tours with the Captain and got some great advice on places to check out as we head south.
We also ran into some recent cruising buddies from Alaska, Stan and Irene. We first met them in Thorne Bay and have been talking boats and cruising whenever we end up in the same spot for the night. They also built their steel hulled boat themselves and have had a lifetime of cruising adventures, so we always seem to have something to chat about with them.
Besides some basic boat maintenance and inspections, I decided to take a crack at preserving some salmon roe for caviar. The last fish we caught was female, and we had good internet in PR, so I was able to look up how to preserve the eggs. It's basically a process of cleaning and salting them in brine, but its a little tricky because they are very fragile. I think they came out OK - I left the finished product chilling in the fridge so we'll see how they came out at our next cocktail hour.
Anything to do with fish gets Kona's immediate and undivided attention:
Went for a walk up to the commercial marina at the North end of town. This is where we docked when we came through Prince Rupert in 2008 on the Seabird. Still packed with fishing boats...
Sue's Dad arrived as scheduled and we had a great sushi dinner (all fresh local ingredients) to celebrate both his arrival and Sue's B-Day (which is tomorrow):
This little guy docked next to us on our last night here:
We are heading back out into the North BC Coast wilderness in the morning so will likely fall grievously behind on our blog posts again until we can find internet further south. Will catch up when we can...
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