August 1, 2008 Echo Bay

July 31, only one more month left

Buck and Lisa drove up from Seattle to Port McNeil and joined us yesterday. They were a bit later than we thought, not that it really mattered, but I was headed up to the Laundromat to check emails to see if they had left a message for us since there is no way to call us on a phone up here. Glen has the only working phone and he and Liz had already headed out and we were going to meet them after picking up Buck and Lisa. As I got to the head of the dock, they pulled in and parked and I think it took them both a few moments to recognize the bearded one, I look a bit too much like a local right now.

They had a few things they needed to shop for and had to arrange for someplace to leave their car for a week and then we were off. We only had a short run down across Blackfish Sound to meet up with Glen behind Mound island. It was uneventful on calm water under gray skies. It is quite cool right now with rain forecast for the next couple of days but no wind of significance is expected. That will be good.

I had to replace my windshield wiper motor on the fly bridge for the Seaview window insert. Lucky it was a standard part and the marine store had several in stock. I turned the wiper on during the heavy rainstorm we passed through yesterday but forgot to turn it off as we were navigating between rocks and things. As I docked I began to smell something hot, not quite like overheated wires but close. I started checking wires on the bridge, under the command console, under seats, and I finally touched the wiper motor I nearly burned my hand it was so hot. The wiper had stopped in mid stroke on the dry window and the motor burned up trying to move it. Lesson, don’t run the wiper on a dry window. Gil Fetzner had warned me about that problem before I left, as he did the same thing with his new Seaview window just showing people how his new window insert worked.

We docked next to Dave and Janet Robinson on Ashanti, other club members who were just hanging out at Port McNeil. Shortly after we arrived, Jim and Marcia Krell on Chinoo, another club member arrived and docked just across from us. We had first run across Chinoo at Ketchikan on the way up back in May. They too are headed home.

Buck brought up more fishing gear and says we are going to catch fish this week. Were going to give it our best and see what happens. The fish seem to finally running so just maybe there is a salmon out there with my name on it. We even pulled out the fishing for salmon made easy book and read it to find out how it is supposed to work. Stay tuned for more fish stories.

We joined Liz and Glen as planned at the Mound Island Anchorage. It rained all day and then it rained harder. We moved up to Joes Cove on Eden Island after a slow run through the many islands that make up the Broughtons. We tried fishing for a while off Mamalilaculla, the old Indian village on Village Island; again the fish won another round.

Joes Cove is a nice secure anchorage but there were several other boats that we shared the anchorage with. We went out in the Dinghy’s for another try at catching a fish and once again, the fish won. We tried numerous different lures and bait none of which seemed to entice the fish to nibble. It kept raining and after a couple hours in the rain in the dinghy and as the rain got even harder Buck and I decided to retreat and let the fish win this round.

Next morning the rain let up, there were patches of blue sky and as it turned out we were finally going to see blue sky and sun in the afternoon. Glen got reservations for us at Pierres at Echo Bay for Friday and Saturday for the pig roast so we pulled the empty crab pots and near empty shrimp pots and trolled our way towards the next stop. The fish won another round today and Buck is now convinced that there is really something to the Miner Curse which prevents us from catching anything significant.

Pierres at Echo Bay is a great place and our first real social event since leaving home. There are dozens of boats and there are a number of old acquaintances here. I spotted a boat headed in to the bay just ahead of us and the captain looked amazingly like Larry Claiborne and the first mate much like Kathy. At lo and behold it was. So we spent a pleasant afternoon at happy hour talking to them and recounting our various experiences and voyages. We found a couple other boats from the yacht club, Ray and Sue Biggs and Richard and Merlyn Symms were here as well.