Fog and Fish

Arriving at Shearwater after a long run we took on fuel, took showers, did the laundry, shopped for groceries and went to dinner in a real restaurant. Sorry, no time for blogging.

As I write this (7-19-07, 2112hrs.Pacific Time), we are at the dock at Greenway Sound Marine Resort (N 50 degrees 50.323' W126 degrees 46.290'). Business looks to be a little slow here but they weren’t even open when I came by here on the way up.

I will catch you up on the last three days.

We left Shearwater knowing we would find an anchorage north of Cape Caution and stage for the big crossing. Cape Caution, you will remember is the biggest crossing on this cruise and feared by many and I am at the top of the list. As we approached the SE end of Fitz Hugh Sound we were monitoring the weather, buoy and lighthouse reports and everything was looking good. Except, of course, the fog bank at Egg Island. We decided to push on to find the edge of the fog bank and then find the nearest anchorage. At some point you reach a point of no return in this area and we reached that point before we got to the fog bank. The sea state was looking good and we still had some daylight left. One thing I’ve learned on this trip is, if you see an open window, jump through it!

So we did. About a half of a mile past Egg Island we ran into the fog. At first it still allowed about a quarter of a mile of visibility but that soon went away. The rest of the crossing to Allison Harbour past Cape Caution was in less than fifty yards of visibility, we never saw Cape Caution. The approach to Allison is littered with rocks, small islets and Allison Reef. Sometimes the word "cruising" just doesn't seem to fit.

Right in the middle of trying to decipher all the little black and grey splotches chasing each other around on the RADAR screen, two targets abruptly appeared on a heading intersecting with our course making us ground zero. The targets were moving together leading me to believe a vessel was towing something and it was moving much faster than we were. The prudent thing to do would be to deviate from your course to starboard hoping to pass port to port. All the while hoping the skipper of the other vessel picked you up on his RADAR and was also prudent enough to deviate from his course to starboard. We passed within 1/8 of a mile and didn’t see each other so I guess one could say it was a successful maneuver.

We spent the night in Allison Harbour and awoke to heavy fog again. About mid afternoon we decided to spend another night due to the fog. After setting the crab trap we motored out to the mouth of the harbour to look for a good fishing spot in deeper water and could see that the visibility had improved somewhat. So we ran back, grabbed the trap and headed to Blunden Harbour 20nm away.

Blunden is a nice place and had about a dozen boats sitting in it waiting to head north or south, either way in the fog. We left in the morning at a time that would get us to Wells Passage on the flood tide and carry us out of Queen Charlotte Sound and into the protected cruising waters of the Broughton Archipelago.

We have been running pretty hard for two weeks now and haven’t done any fishing so I decided to tease some bottom fish on the way in to Wells Passage. I turned back a couple small rockfish and then found a nice wall to fish. One 36” lingcod, in the boat! In case you don't know, lingcod are really mean looking with big mouths and taste really good.

I filleted him (actually her) in the driving rain, drove to Greenway Marina in the driving rain and am writing this in the driving rain. At least it is not windy.

Tomorrow will be here soon.

We have put on 702nm in 14 days since leaving Juneau averaging 50nm per day. 1761nm total to date.