August 30 2009

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wed, Thursday, August 16 – 20

Sunday at noon we left Sullivan Bay and headed for Echo Bay where we attended the Echo Bay Yacht Club annual rendezvous cruise. We have been sponsored by Gary and Lenore Timm to join this club. Sunday evening was a pot luck dinner Monday night a barbeque Tuesday night chilly cook off and Wed night a prime rib dinner with baked potato, wine and all the fixings to die for. This is an amazing club made up of dedicated boaters that have been coming to Echo Bay for many years. It was a pleasure to meet this very diverse group of boaters.

We went fishing and caught nice Salmon every day but struck out on Halibut.

Echo Bay was sold two years ago and is now called Pierre’s at Echo Bay. The new owners have made great improvements with new docks, power and of course the famous Pierre’s pig roast and now added a wed night Prime rib dinner. It is truly a wonderful place to visit

Friday Aug 21

We left Echo Bay and headed to Port McNeal to get our oil changed on the main engines, fill up the fuel tanks (2300 liters), check the alignment on the starboard engine, fix a small oil leak on the port engine, drill tap threads in the base of the new steering cylinder and attach a bonding wire onto the base of the new steering cylinder and get a new radiator cap for the 20 KW generator set as it is leaking.

All was accomplished with the fine help of Dan Clair owner of Black Cat the local Cat Marine service center from Port Hardy.

Sat August 22, 2009

Sat morning August 22nd we left Port McNeal to rejoin our boating buddies Gary and Lenore and soon we were anchored at a small inlet called east of Eden.

This is a very small anchorage with room for two boats at the most but very cozy and beautiful water totems as you can see from the photos.


East of Eden is a very cozy anchorage indeed.

A nice dinner with Lenore’s smoked ham scalloped potatoes dripping with mozzarella cheese, and Cheryl’s famous cottage cheese pear and grated cheddar cheese on top and to bed early for the long 8 mile trip the next day to Laura Bay.

Sunday August 23rd 2009

We made the 8 mile trip at 8 knots to Laura Bay and set the prawn pots soon after we arrived then went out salmon fishing and caught only a medium sized Sea Bass which is really good eating.

Monday & Tuesday August 24th & 25th 2009

Got up at the crack of ten and went out to haul up the prawn pots and got a nice catch.

We will stay another night for more prawns.

Had a wonderful “Tequila prawn” dinner prepared by Lenore on Noon Balloon with lots of prawns for appetizers and wild rice for our starch.

It seems we have been reduced to sea food eating slugs devouring every ounce of crab, salmon, cod, sea bass and prawns in sight. What a way to end the summer.

Today we will pull the pots again and then move to Cypress Bay for crab hunting and we will probably leave the prawn pot out one more night since Cypress Bay is only 4 miles away. This is the site of a large fish farm raising salmon and is said to be excellent Crab country...

Cypress Harbour

Wed August 26th

We decided to leave the prawn pots in place and move to Cypress Harbour which is only 6 miles away and run back with the F 16 to pull the prawn pots.

It was an easy trip and upon entering the harbour you are greeted by an enormous Salmon farm.

We worked our way through a narrow passage into the head of the harbour which is a stunning scene of still water, rocks small bays and islands. The water is shallow in this area so we had to find a spot for Sea Jay to be clear of the bottom at low tide and after setting the anchor twice we settled in for two days. The crabbing was good except the over night set was pulled and emptied by some one who needed the crab more than we did. We suspect the construction crew at the fish farm that was working on a large floating house.


This was a good anchorage for taking photos of water totems and relaxing so we decided to stay another night.

Wed August 26th

Cheryl and I took the F 16 to Laura Bay and pulled the prawn pots. The catch was small but still would make two nice meals.

Gary and Lenore took Noon Balloon out of Cypress Harbour and pulled the already emptied crab pots while we ran back to Sea Jay and headed for Simoon Sound and McIntosh Bay. We found the exact spot that we anchored 12 years ago when Manny or Standard poodle and my Brother Doug and his wife were with us.

12 years ago we stern tied here with two Canadian boats and Urologist from Vancouver Island and the head Chef of the BC Ferry system. 12 years ago the prawn fishing was incredible pulling 5 gallons of prawns at a time. Now we are very pleased of the get 30 to 60 prawns in a single pull. Any way this brought back many pleasant memories of that anchorage 12 years ago. As you can see from the photos this area has its own individual beauty.

The first afternoon we went for a cruise of the area and got to see a very large barge landing at a logging site. The Tug driver was a pleasant woman who guided the huge mass of steel to a very small landing site where they dropped a draw bridge and unloaded all of the equipment. She said they were preparing to log at this site for many years and that it had been logged 20 prior.

Thursday August 27th

The black bears were out for their morning meal turning rocks over on the rocky shore line and we did get some photos of this action.

Friday August 28th

Today we head for Watson Cove on Tribune Channel where we have been told there is a nice anchorage with a waterfall.

Watson Cove was a disappointment so we forged on to Cutter Cove near Minstrel Island. Spent a windy night at anchor.

Saturday August 29th.

Pulled anchor at 6:30 and headed for Cordero Lodge down Johnstone Straight.

Arrived at 9:45 and tied up for a long nap.

Cordero Lodge is a wonderful German restaurant and we have been coming here since 1990. They have wonderful German dinners and it is a very pleasant and relaxing place to hang out.

We had a great dinner with Dick & Donna, Happy Wanderer, Gary & Lenore on Noon Balloon and it reminded us of the time 12 years ago when my big Brother Doug and his wife were here with us on Sea Jay II and we had a great evening with a couple from Courtney, their two daughters, and a wonderful guy named Blackie and his wife Carol that sang, played the piano and told jokes until the wee hours of the night. Sadly Blackie passed away in 2007 but Carol was here this time and I visited with here about our fun time with them years ago.


Sunday August 30, 2009

Today we will head for double Island which is some where south of Big Bay.