A Week at Anchor With Jiji

June 13-20, 2022 

In the middle of June we headed out in our sailboat.  It was so great to get out on the water and to float freely at anchor. 

We spent the first night at anchor near Bella Bella, and in the morning we took Kiki, our tender, into town to get some groceries.  Because we were going to be away from Ocean Falls for the week that the grocery barge was due to arrive we had chosen not to order any groceries.  In Bella Bella we bought only what we wanted for our week out at anchor with the plan of stopping in again on our way back home to get fresh produce.  

That same afternoon we pulled up anchor and headed out Seaforth Channel towards the outer coast.  The wind was blowing strongly in Seaforth Channel so it was a choppy ride heading out and things got a bit rocky as we rounded the corner and turned side to the swells.  Luckily most of the wave action was wind-formed chop and not ocean swells, so it was not a bad run to get in behind the reef at the entrance to St John's Harbour where we dropped anchor in the back corner in a lovely, little protected bay.  It was glassy calm and beautiful.  

This trip out on the boat was Jiji’s first introduction to boating.  She had been on the boat with us before, but only for the day to explore while we worked on projects while in dock in Ocean Falls, but being out on the water was a whole new experience for her. 

When we first left dock she was hesitant, but curious.  She found that the top step of our stairs going down into the front of the boat was her comfort spot. 

There she could still be “with” us in the cockpit, but also was still inside the safety of here cave.  She would venture out, look around, and say “hi” every now and then, but she would always retreat to her safety step.  On our first night out, the sound of the anchor windless and the chain going out was quite scary for her, but as soon as the noise was over and we turned off the engine she ventured out to explore. 

Since it was cool and drizzly outside that afternoon we had the doors to our enclosure closed, but she found her own doorway in the back of the cockpit where there is a small opening that goes around one of our lines.  Through this “cat door” she would come and go as she pleased and she gradually ventured further around out on deck. 

The next day when we pulled up anchor the noise of the chain coming up over the windless scared her into hiding under the stove, but once we were underway and I went downstairs she came out to me meowing and came up to sit on her safety step.  Unfortunately, the wave action going out Seaforth Channel made her feel unwell.  She threw up and then lay on the couch cushion with her head hanging over the edge looking like someone who was seasick.  Poor girl! 

However, once we were back at anchor she quickly started to feel better and came out once again to explore. 

The next day we spent a very relaxing morning on the boat, enjoying our tea and coffee and the beauty of our peaceful surroundings.  In the afternoon Ken and Shelly arrived, and since their boat is quite a bit smaller than ours, instead of staying out at anchor we moved into an area of St John’s Harbour where there is an anchored dock, and we tied up so that we could hang out on the dock and visit with Ken and Shelly.  

When we started our engine and tried to pull up our anchor we found that the anchor was stuck.  We always set our anchor, so at first we thought that it was just stuck in the mud, and so we motored forwards to free it, but it did not budge.  Jason throttled up and the angle of the chain got steeper and steeper, but still it did not move.  Finally we got some movement so we tried to raise it once again.  It was coming up, but we could tell that something wasn't right.  Our windless was having to work way harder than it should have with only 20 feet of chain still remaining.  Slowly our anchor came up and as it came into view in the clear water I could easily see what our problem was. 

Knowing that although our anchor was up we were still securely anchored I signalled Jason to come up on the bow and look.  We had hooked a large old mooring chain.  Apparently there used to be a fishing lodge in the bay and from the looks of the anchors in the rocks on shore they had simply left their anchor lines, one of which we had now snagged.  We were able to get our anchor to within about four feet of our deck, but with the chain pulling tightly down on either side, that was as far as we could raise it.  With a rope in hand I hung over the bow of our boat while Jason held onto my feet and lowered me down.  I was able to get an end of the line through a link in the chain and we made a loop and secured it to our bow cleat.  Now we were able to lower our anchor and finally it dropped down and swung free.  Releasing the rope from the cleat the chain dropped back to the bottom of the sea, it was too bad that we could not have cut it.  

At first, at dock, Jiji was very curious, hopping off of the boat and exploring, but then I think the noises of being tied up at dock scared her.  There are small noises that Jason and I get totally used to, like the noises of the fenders rubbing on the boat and the lines creaking as the boat gets pulled by the current, but of course Jiji was not used to any of them.  When we were inside with her, she was okay, but she did not come out anymore to hang out on the dock; it was a new, scary world. 

The next several days we did a bunch of fishing with Ken and Shelly out on their boat.  

We trolled for salmon quite a bit, although there was very little sign of any baitfish, and also very few salmon.  Jason caught our largest salmon of the trip and it was also the only one that was big enough to keep. 

It was a beautiful 18.5 pound Chinook salmon.  

One calm morning we headed out to the area of the McInnis Island lighthouse.  We fished around the outer islands and also went to look at the sea lion colony.  While Shelly and I took pictures, Jason jigged and ended up catching our largest Lingcod of the trip.  It was a large 20 pound fish with thick, beautiful fillets.  We had a lot of good Lingcod fishing out by the outer islands and had a great time.  During our time on another calm morning we tried some halibut fishing out over a 200-foot shelf. 

We caught one halibut and also a bunch of large rockfish, most of which we let go.  

For our final night in St John's Harbour Jason and I moved back out to anchor away from the dock, and Jiji was much happier.  Jason and I were also happier swinging freely at anchor as we enjoy the quiet and the feel of being at anchor. 

The next day we made our way back to Bella Bella and anchored in a peaceful bay that we had never anchored in before.  After another grocery run into town the next morning, we made our way back to Ocean Falls in the evening. 

Jiji must have been able to smell the difference in the air, because the closer we got to home, the more comfortable she became until she was fully contented hanging out in the cockpit with us as we motored into Cousins Inlet.  Once we were tied up at the government dock again she was off onto the dock exploring and then back onto the boat; she is such a good girl.