Good Bye San Juans and Canada

Aleck Bay on the south side of Lopez Island was lovely – one of my favorites.

We pulled into this quiet, serene anchorage. Birds were chirping, leaves were rustling and there was a gentle lapping of waves on the shore. Not a sole was around; however there was a lone sailboat swinging gently at anchor. It is hard to imagine a more quiet and picturesque scene.

Apparently the tranquility was not to last long. We began our usual anchoring routine with the exception that Lara was going to moderate the speed of the anchor by hand (instead of by the stick). This is where the trouble began. The plan was to put out 150’ of rode. The anchor began to run out rapidly (as usual) and Lara gave Jim the finger (count); 1 finger for 50’; 2 fingers for 100’ etc... When we hit the 150’ mark Jim watched with horror as Lara began to loosen the chain brake (instead of tighten it). With obvious confusion as to the chain speeding up creating a cacophony of noise such that Lara could not hear the bellows from the fly bridge, “RIGHTY TIGHTY, LEFTY LOOSY” and “THE OTHER WAY”. Birds took flight, whales dove, seals scurried out of the cove, crabs retreated and any human within a mile was aware that Jim thought that Lara should be turning the chain brake the other way. Except Lara who was in her own world deafened by the sounds of metal grinding. Lara would like to note that only 50’ escaped her grasp (there are 400’) and she will be returning to her less finessed, stick method of chain management.

We added another Dungeness crab to our collection. We have perfected our crabbing without the use of our dinghy – we are too lazy to get it out and put it back to retrieve a crab pot. Here’s how we do it: pitch the pot off the back, the next day we use the thrusters and back into the crab pot. We then use the anchor bridle stick to capture the rope.

There were two crabs today. Jim “lifted their skirts” to make sure they were both male then got out the measuring tape to make sure they were within the regulation limit. One got thrown back and one got thrown in the pot. Our crabbing days are over for now. It was fun and productive enough to be useful. BONUS: I think we broke even (cost of the pot divided by the four crabs).

Which reminds me; yesterday a volunteer whale conservation group hailed us and brought their large rigid hull inflatable “Strait Watch” up to our boat. They asked us if we were aware of the whale watching regulations. Jim quoted all of the various set backs correctly. She smiled at us and then told us where to find the whales! That was really cool. I am used to Jim being completely versant in all animal regulations but it was nice that they offered up additional whale finding tips as they felt he was a responsible whale watcher.