Canada Day!

Thursday, July 1


Happy Canada Day! We’re at Pierre’s at Echo Bay…..this is probably the “fanciest” marina in the Broughtons….at least the fanciest we’ve ever seen. (It’s the Broughtons’ answer to Roche Harbor only not quite that snooty.) These boats are from the Saanich Yacht Club. Saanich is ‘way down near Victoria, so this is almost as far from home for them as it is for us. Evidently they come up to Pierre’s every year for the holiday. They appear to be having a great time!

We like coming to Pierre’s. They now have a partner, Jerome, who is just great. He’s just about the most helpful fisherman we’ve ever met. He helped Bob fix the downrigger, then gave him all kinds of helpful hints about where the fish seem to be biting around here. He even donated a bunch of prawn heads for us - great crab bait! We’re dropping the prawn pot this afternoon and will leave it out until the 3rd when we toddle off to the next anchorage.

While I enjoy it here, what with power and water and all the amenities, I really do like to be sitting at anchor in a nice little quiet bay. When we leave here we’re going to head over to the southwestern portion of the islands, near Blackfish Sound, where the Tyee and halibut appear to be biting. Then we’ll probably head back to Port McNeill to do some laundry. (Laundry up here costs about $10 a load to wash and dry….it’s easier to go back to Port McNeill, where I can get more fresh veggies and fruits while my clothes are drying.) We’ll come back to the Broughtons after one night, providing the weather cooperates. You can see by the low dark clouds in the pictures just what kind of weather we’ve been having. I’m hopeful that July will bring summer up here! Bob brought a bunch of shorts (silly man) and he’s eager to start wearing them.

Today we got the autopilot working! This just reinforces our decision to stay south of Cape Caution this year…..

And one for the guys who sit around and talk boats with Bob…..here is a picture of Bob’s dream boat, just sitting across from us. Looks like it’s a fairly new (maybe 2000 or newer) Nordhavn. Mmmmm, wish we had that extra $1M just sitting around. Yesterday, at Shawl Bay, we were next to a 1984 Krogen, which is MY dream boat….we could get one of those for only twice what Nellie’s worth!