Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

November 22nd and 23rd (Friday and Saturday) The gale arrived overnight of the 22nd, accompanied by heavy rain. I found out that Pruth Bay, where we are anchored, the Calvert Island Lookout, Mt Buxton on Calvert Island, and Koeye across Fitz Hugh Sound, all have weather stations operated by the Hakai Institute. The live and historic data is presented online and available with recorded wind speed and direction, gust speed, precipitation rate, temperature, etcetera, all of which is refreshed every couple of minutes. It was neat being anchored in Pruth Bay, with wifi from the Hakai Institute, to be able to check the wind and gust speeds for those different locations during our gale. Although we were not as well protected in the anchorage from the southeast winds as we had hoped, and we did get gusts of over 30 knots in the anchorage, the lookout, which is close by on the exposed side of the island, was getting almost 50 knots. The anchorage here has good holding in mud and a nice depth ...

November 21st (Thursday) It was a beautiful, pink sunrise, although they say, "pink sky in the morning, sailors take warning." The VHF weather forecast agreed with this saying, and they were forecasting another gale with rain coming overnight. We pulled up anchor and headed out of Kisameet Bay. We rode the ebbing current, and intentionally hopped into the faster flowing "river" flow out of Burke Channel that we had noticed yesterday. We made good time down to Hakai Passage where we continued to ride the ebb out through the incoming 2-3 meter swells before turning into Meay Inlet. At this point our speed dropped as we fought the ebb current for the last bit of our trip into Pruth Bay on Calvert Island. The rain had just started as we finished anchoring. On our way to shore in Kiki we set our crab traps within the bay. We had a nice walk on West Beach in the rain and wind. After walking the whole beach we stood in the lee of some rocks, out of the wind, and...

November 20th (Wednesday) The forecast was for light winds in the morning and picking up from the southeast near noon. We headed out early to do some fishing, hoping to take advantage of the calm winds. The one fish that we had always wanted to catch, and never had, was the Halibut. We had never really targeted them, and so we decided that here would be a good area to give it a try. Halibut like sandy, gravel bottoms, and Burke Channel has a lot of both.  There are several ways to fish for Halibut, and the one that we chose to try was the one that seemed to have the best rate of success. You put a piece of bait, we used herring that we bought in Shearwater, on a hook, and about a foot back from that you put a weight. You drop the line down to the bottom and keep the weight either just off of the bottom or just resting on the bottom, with the idea that you can still feel what’s happening. Then you wait until you feel something -- that’s the hard part. We definitely lost a few ...

November 19th (Tuesday) In the morning we packed ourselves a hot lunch, and headed ashore in our kayaks. Yesterday, after going to the lake, we had decided to carry our kayaks up to the lake so that we could explore the area. We chose not to bother deflating our kayaks, and instead decided to carry them up. The trail wound this way and that between trees and over old fallen logs, so we were not able to simply carry the kayaks over our heads as we had done at Sager Lake. Instead, we carried them, one at a time together, one person at the front and one at the back, so that we could weave our way along the trail. We carried one kayak part way, put it down beside the trail, went back and got the other one, hiked on past the first one a ways, put it down, and went back. In this way we leap-frogged our way up the trail until we made it to the lake. It was a beautiful, cold, sunny morning. We paddled the sunny shoreline, Jason trolling for trout the whole time.  Although we ha...

November 18th (Monday) We pulled up anchor in the morning and said goodbye to Wigham Cove. I imagine we will be back at some point as it was a very nice anchorage which offered us great protection from strong southeast winds, plentiful prawns, and Dungeness crab. Can't beat that! We motored past Bella Bella and out Lama Passage into Fisher Channel. We had been hoping to sail down to Kisameet Bay, but the northerly winds were not strong enough.  We came into Kisameet Bay and anchored at about 13:00. It had been mainly clear overnight, and we could see the moon and stars out of our hatch. This morning it clouded over, but it was not a thick cloud cover, and by afternoon it began to break up.  We put our kayaks in the water and paddled over to the river that was flowing out from Kisameet Lake. Leaving our kayaks on the pebble beach we followed the trail that led us along the river to the lake. It was impressive how fast the river was flowing. It was a raging mass of ...

November 16th and 17th (Saturday and Sunday) Well the 16th was the day of the forecasted storm of up to 50 knots. We had decided to remain in Wigham Cove as we felt that it would be well protected. We were not sure where the wind or gusts might come in, however, so we decided not to stern tie so that we could swing on the hook as needed. Throughout the day we were very surprised by how light the wind was in our bay, and also by where it was coming from. We had guessed that it would either come in through one of two lower areas in the land, or in through the entrance and wrap around into our bay. All of these areas point roughly south to southeast, and since the forecasted wind was southeast we thought these were good guesses as to where it would come in. We had anchored with this in mind, although we were in an area where we were prepared for any direction of wind. However, we were very surprised by the fact that the wind was coming in from the north. It was not much wind, but it w...

November 11th – 15th 9 (Monday – Friday) Over the past few days in Wigham Cove I did not write for the blog, as each day passed without presenting a story. However, I found myself still writing in my daily journal, and looking back over the days, I noted that some interesting things did happen. When we first got to Wigham Cove we set one prawn trap out in about 475 feet of water. We were hoping that since we were in the same channel that we caught so many prawns out from Mouat Cove, that we would also be able to catch prawns here. We also put out one crab trap within our cove in the deepest hole of about 90 feet. We are always curious to see what we will get in our traps, especially the first time in a new area, as we have come to know that what we get can change dramatically from area to area.  When we first pulled up our crab trap it had only been out for a couple of hours. We had set it, then gone out to set our prawn trap, and then done some exploring before coming back ...

November 9th and 10th (Saturday and Sunday) On Saturday the wind shifted to be more from the south instead of from the southeast. Our point of land gave us some protection, but it was not as good as when the wind was from the southeast. Luckily the wind was not too strong, so it was not an issue. It rained most of the day, and we stayed inside and focused on our indoor projects. We had a delicious lunch of crab and mayo on toast; it was so simple and so perfect. On Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful clear sky and calm winds.  After listening to the VHF weather report we decided to head out of Higgins Passage. The swells were small, 1-2 meters and the winds were to remain mainly light for the day. As of the night, however, the winds were to pick back up again to 30-40 knots, and strong southerly winds were forecasted for the next day. We decided that although our protection was good from the southeast, it was not great from the south, so it would be best to not be her...

November 7th and 8th (Thursday and Friday) Thursday was the beginning of our gale. The southeast winds came through Higgins Passage just as we had guessed, and we watched as waves rolled past our point. We seemed quite well protected; stern tied and tucked in close to shore around the point as we were. It rained for most of the day, sometimes very hard. We had a very nice rainy and relaxing, inside day, with pancakes for brunch, and lots of reading time. On Friday the rain came in showers, and the wind was less consistent. Still we seemed well protected. We went out in the morning to check our square crab trap, and we reset our round one. We checked them three times through the day, moving them each time. We kept five Dungeness and one Rock Crab. It was very interesting how localized the crab populations seemed to be. One place that we put the square trap we caught only Rock crabs, in one area we got nothing, and in another area the trap was full of Dungeness. All of these different a...

November 6th (Wednesday) After lunch we headed out to check our deep-water traps. With the forecasted gale we wanted to have our traps brought in, just in case the weather was such that we could not go out and check them for the next while. On our way out, we saw a sea otter, which is always a treat because they are so cute. When we pulled up our prawn trap we did have a few prawns, but there were also a few that had been chomped in half. When we went to pull them out and release the fish that was in the trap we saw that the fish had a part of a prawn in its mouth. We have had this type of fish in our trap before, and we think that it might be a Threaded Sculpin, but we aren't sure. It has barbed hooks that stick out from the sides of its head, and they always get caught in the net of the trap when we are trying to release it. It also creates an amazing amount of slime, which makes it very hard to handle. There were also some hermit crabs, a purple coloured prickly starfish, an...

November 5th (Tuesday) There was a gale forecasted for Thursday, and yesterday we had found an area within Higgins Passage that we would be able to stern tie and hopefully be out of the worst of the wind. So, in the morning we pulled up anchor and moved about one nautical mile, and re-anchored and stern tied ashore. We were hopeful that this would be a good area for us to be in for the forecasted winds. It was a beautiful morning. It was clear blue sky, and as the sun came up it made the fog retreat. After doing some little chores on board after moving our anchor spot, we headed out kayaking. It had been a while since we had been out kayaking, and it was nice to be paddling again.  The visibility in the water was perfect, and we could see the bottom even in quite deep water. We were seeing Kelp crabs, Rock crabs, Dungeness crabs, Sea Slugs, Starfish, and many other creatures. We saw a mink swim ashore ahead of us. Then as we watched the rocky shore we saw that the...

November 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) I didn't write much for a couple of these days because there wasn't that much to tell.  On Saturday it was raining and we decided to stay home. We had a lovely day of reading, writing, guitar, Spanish, and baking. On Sunday the weather was nicer, and we pulled up anchor and headed out of Mouat Cove. We motored out Seaforth Channel, past Ivory Island and out towards Susan Rock. We went out and around Susan Rock before turning north so as to keep the swells on a good angle to our boat. We headed up into Higgins Passage at the north end of Price Island, and anchored in one of the bays on the eastern end of the passage. We went out in Kiki before sunset to set our traps. We put out one prawn trap and one crab trap in deep water, and our other round crab trap in shallower water within our bay area. We were hopeful that maybe here we would get lucky and get some crabs. Monday was a more eventful day. It remained cl...

November 1st (Friday) This was the day with the lightest winds in the forecast, so we bundled up and headed to Shearwater in our tender.  The trip to Shearwater and back was easy and uneventful. The winds and water remained calm, and although it was misty on our way home, it did not rain. We saw a super cute sea otter on our trip. He was lying on his back with his feet up, rocking gently in the chop. As we passed by he rolled onto his tummy to look at us, and then rolled back onto his back as we passed by. After we got home we headed out to pull up our traps. Both of our prawn traps were the fullest we have ever had. In total we kept 94 prawns!! Yay!! We let 28 large, egg-bearing females, and 8 small prawns go. That is by far the best prawn catch we have had.  We had a real prawn feast for dinner. To begin with we only cooked up 60 of them, but then we cooked up the rest and finished them off. They were delicious, and although very satisfying they were not particularly filli...

October 30th and 31st (Wednesday and Thursday) For the last month or so we have been keeping our eyes out for a good location to do a service on our outboard. Although it would be possible to do it from the swim grid while the outboard is hanging on our back railing, which is where it rides when we are underway, the risk of dropping something into the water made us want to find a spot where we could do it on shore. When had gone ashore the other day we found the perfect tree. It had fallen out onto the shore and was propped up by its larger branches. It was thick and sturdy enough to hold our outboard. Our only problem was going to be the tide. Because we were still having large tides around the new moon, the high tide during the day put the tree under water, so we would have to be ready to get the motor done before the tide came in. We headed ashore on Wednesday to get ready. We took our chain saw, and Jason used it to create an outboard stand in the tree so that it would be at...

October 29th (Tuesday) It was a beautiful clear morning. As the sun rose, it lit up the few clouds in colour and made the morning mist hanging over the water glisten.  When we were out in the tender we could see the line of approaching cloud, and as the morning progressed the clouds moved in. By the afternoon it was cloudy. In the morning we had headed out in Kiki to check on our traps. We pulled up our crab trap, and found some small crabs. We had five male Dungeness and four female Rock crabs, all very small. So if there are crabs here, although seemingly in a very select area, why were they all so small?  We moved the trap once again and put it out in yet another area; now almost more out of curiosity to see if we would get anything rather than out of the hope that we would catch something. We also set out our second prawn trap, hopeful that we would catch more prawns with two traps out. While we used the generator to make water, Jason went around in the tender and ...

October 28th (Monday) We had another full day of exploring and saw many beautiful places. First thing in the morning though we pulled up our crab trap and were disappointed once again to find it empty, and the carcasses were untouched. It was so weird! Where were all the crab? Why did we catch two small ones the first day and then nothing? We were, however, persistent and took the trap to yet another area; this time out deeper and closer to open water, and reset it once again. In the evening we pulled it up again out of curiosity, and found it still empty. There was one large red Sea Urchin clinging to one of the carcasses through the net of the trap, but otherwise it was empty. We once again moved it to another area and reset it. It didn't hurt to try. We pulled up our prawn trap to see if we had anything, and we were stoked to have some prawns. We threw back the largest three because they were carrying eggs, we also threw back three little ones, and we were left with 29. Yay!...

October 27th (Sunday) Pink wisps of clouds greeted me in the morning when I went up into the cockpit. It was a crisp and beautiful morning, and an autumn mist lay over the still water. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out for a day of exploring. We decided to explore to the east of our anchorage, and would go to the west the following day. We planed along over glassy, calm water and went a short distance up Spiller Channel to Tankeeah River. There was a long stretch of tidal water that dried at low tide that went up to the river. Because it was around high tide we were able to motor all the way up. The closer we got to the river the more foam there was floating on the water.  Lines of bubbles drifted into squiggly shapes and patterns with the water’s current. There was evidence of the last high tide that had left foam stuck in tree branches, and piled high and dry against fallen logs. At the end, where the river ran in, there was a buoy tied to a stump, and we pulled ashore to ...