Southern Lagoon and on to Fury Cove

June 15 (Saturday)
Well, today was an excitement filled morning! We headed out in Kiki for some early morning fishing. The wind was light, there was no fog, just clouds, and the swells were smaller than the other day, and so we headed out to McEwan Rock. The rock had a lot of seagulls and eagles on it; probably about 15 eagles. We dropped our hooks and started fish, and soon we noticed a pod of orca whales out past the rock. They seemed to be heading in our general direction so instead of going out to them we continued fish and watched them surfacing. We caught a Kelp Greenling that got away right at the boat, and then we caught a Lingcod, which we let go because it was just under legal size. 

The orcas had gone on to the opposite side of the rock so we puttered our way to the lower end and sat and waited, watching them make their way along. It looked like there were four or six of them, and one had a massive dorsal fin, so straight and tall! It looked like there may have been one or two younger ones with them, and one of them nicely showed us its fluke. As they made their way by, surfacing as they went, one of them came over to check us out and surfaced within fifty feet of us. So cool!
When the whales were past us, and in the distance, we went back to fishing and must have come right over a school of Dusky Rock Fish because J and I both got one at almost the same time, and they were good sized ones, very close to their max size of 18". We kept them.  

After that, in that area, we couldn't put our hook down without catching one so we decided to move to the other side of the island, and hoped that they were not there too.  

As we were moving we saw the water off the end of the rocks start bubbling with fish. We were seeing fins and tails, and hoping it might be feeding salmon, we got closer and did some casts. It turned out it was more of the Dusky Rock Fish. I guess they surface feed as well, and they were everywhere.
In the distance we could see a frenzy of bird activity with seagulls and eagles, similar to what we saw from our sailboat on our way up the coast. We went to check it out, and found a boil of small fish right at the surface. There must have been something feeding on them from below to bring them to the surface like that, but there were no signs of whales or dolphins so we are assuming it must have been a type of fish. We did not risk casting into it for fear of catching a bird instead. The show was amazing however. We were sitting maybe 30' away watching seagulls scooping up mouthfuls, eagles swooping and catching talons full and then eating them in mid air, and a hundred or more Rhinoceros Auklets diving. So cool!
We headed back in toward Miles Inlet, and stopped to check out a reef at the entrance. I hooked a fish so big that it pulled my rod tip straight down and into the water, and then my line snapped. Darn it! It must have gotten the line with its teeth, poor guy. 

We decided to do another drift to see if we could catch it again, we did! Or at least it was a fish that pulled in exactly the same way. J worked it up to the surface, and we got it in the boat. It was a beautiful Lingcod! 31". Nice. This place sure has provided us with a lot of food. We put fish in the freezer, and enjoyed fresh seafood as well! 

Dusky Rock fish on Jason's right, and ling cod on his left.

This afternoon we went out in our kayaks to check out the southern lagoon areas. Both were much smaller than the one off of the northern arm, and very beautiful. The shoreline was beautiful rocks and stunted trees that often seemed to grow into unique shapes. It was frequent that one of us would point out a particularly cool looking tree. There were many large grassy sections and the bottom seemed to be all mud. There were two sections of rapids, but they were relatively easy for us to portage over or float our kayaks through. 

The second little lagoon we did not kayak through, instead we just walked along the shoreline until we could get a good view. The tide was dropping and the section of drying rocks was quite long so we did not think the portage was worth the short kayak. 

Entrance to one of the southern lagoons.

We have now done our chores for the day and are relaxing. We have deflated our kayaks and stowed them on deck underneath our turned over and partially deflated tender, everything is strapped down and stowed.  Tomorrow morning around 5am we plan to head out, and head further up the coast. We will be rounding Cape Caution, and passing Egg Island.  Both are areas that are notorious for bad wave conditions due to how exposed they are and also how shallow the area is in relation to that further out. We are timing the tides as best we can, and the forecast looks good. If all goes well we will go all the way to Fury Cove, which is at the south-western side of Penrose Island just inside of Fury Island.

June 16 (Sunday)
We were up to an alarm at 04:15 and were raising anchor at 04:45. It looked like a beautiful morning in the anchorage, and the forecast and current conditions at the lighthouses sounded good. As we motored out, however, we could see the fog bank that had not been forecasted or reported. It must have just rolled in. Soon we were engulfed and could see nothing but the milky water directly around us. 

We had a pair of oyster catchers fly by us, We wondered how they keep track of their direction in the fog, then another set flew by, then another set, or was it the same pair doing circles, we couldn't tell.  

We passed an amazing number of sea birds scattered along our route through the fog. Some were Pigeon Guillemots, others Rhinoceros Auklets, and a new type to identify that I think may have been a Common Murre. 

Unfortunately due to the fog we did not get to see any of the shoreline around Cape Caution or Egg Island, but we passed both in perfect water conditions. As we headed towards the protection from the swells provided by the south end of Calvert Island, Cape Calvert, the fog started to lift and clear, and by the time we turned towards our anchorage of Fury Cove on Penrose Island we had good visibility and mainly sunny skies. 

We made water and trolled for salmon on the way, but caught none. Between the time that we had good visibility and reaching our anchorage we saw a sea otter, whales in two different places, and two sets of porpoises, all within about an hour and a half. We also watched on our AIS as we approached, and a mass exodus of boats left the anchorage we were heading for. At least seven boats left within about an hour. That’s the most boats we have seen in any concentration in a long time.
We pulled into Fury Cove, a beautiful anchorage with two spectacular white sand and shell ancient midden pile beaches, and a third one that we saw while coming in. When we arrived there was just one other boat anchored, but over the next few hours another seven boats came in. 

Anchored at Fury Cove with white sandy beaches to enjoy.

This is the first area that we have been able to put out our prawn traps in awhile, so we set them both and have our fingers crossed. We spent the afternoon enjoying the nice weather, and exploring the beaches a bit. 

Lovely beaches of Fury Cove.

When the tide is high here it covers a lot of the white broken shells and turns the water a lovely emerald green colour. It is very picturesque! 

After dinner, despite being quite tired from our early morning move, we could not resist going ashore to watch the sunset from the rocks on the other side of one of the islands that protects the anchorage. We saw another sea otter on the far side of the kelp bed, and also a whale feeding off shore. It came up several times between feeding dives, and one time when it dove we got a beautiful display of its massive tail. 

Sunset over Calvert Island (our next destination)