July 11th

Before we left the marina, Fisherman-Jim went to the fishing supply store and got a new diver and flasher. Then we were all set. We headed for “sail rock” a well known fishing area and put out the line. We trolled around for a while drifting from Loudoun Channel out into the pacific ocean. We caught 2 salmon that day, one Coho was a hatchery fish, they have their back dorsal fin shaved off to identify them and they have a marker placed in them by Canadian Fisheries. You turn in the head with information about where you caught it for them to study and they let you know where it came from. Jim also almost caught a lingcod. He was reeling in this ugly looking fish with a big old mouth gaping dragging across the surface of the water, with brown spines and all. I was just about to net it when it flipped and fell off the hook, back into the water. Jim was a little upset at losing such a different fish, as anyone can catch salmon!

After a successful fishing day, we headed in to the mouth of Pipestem Inlet which is at the North Eastern corner of Barkley Sound close to Vancouver Island. We anchored behind Refuge Island near some square floating things that looked like oyster farms. Besides the oysters, it seemed we were the only ones there. We’d gotten there around 4:30pm and were waiting for the ebb tide (low) to start to turn around and flood again. In the meantime, I made French onion soup and more baked salmon for dinner. I’d gotten these beautiful sweet onions in Seattle and it was time to eat them.

French Onion Soup

Yummy!

At 6pm we took our dinghy to the mouth of Lucky Creek. This place is only accessible by dinghy at high tide. Otherwise there are areas that are too shallow for a dinghy to cross. The tide was starting to come in, so we slowly made our way up the creek surrounded by lush green forest. We had to pay careful attention to the depth of the water as some of the rocks were just barely deep enough for the dinghy to go over and we didn’t want the propeller to get damaged. In a couple of areas, I had to shout “rock” to Jim, who would then raise the prop up as we glided over a particularly shallow rock.

Around a corner and we got a glimpse of our goal at a distance, a small waterfall cascading down. We landed the dinghy in the middle of the rocks and I climbed up the rocks to scout things out. There were these lovely rock pools behind the top of the falls and someone had even made a swing rope. If it weren’t such a cloudy and cool day, I would have jumped into the water. We pulled the dinghy up the rocks a fair way, as the tide was rising. There was nowhere for us to tie the dinghy up and we didn’t really want it to float away.

The Falls from a distance

Lucky Creek Falls

We slowly climbed up the rocks, assisting Jacintha. Now is the time to mention that I love my Keen sandals! They protect my toes, have fantastic grip for climbing onto rocks be it here or when landing at a rocky island, and I can wade into the hot springs with them on and they dry out well. Plus they’re great on the boat and cool for summer! Jim and even Jacintha have Keens as well. They and my pair of purple rain boots are my two most favorite boat footwear!

The lovely pools

Over Lucky Creek

Jim and Jacintha

We made it to a nice shady pool that wasn’t too deep. Jacintha was so excited that we changed her into her swimsuit and let her splash around in the shallows. I even got in to my knees. It felt nice after all that scrambling around. Jim saw a path that led down to the side of the creek that would have been an easier climb. He only put his foot in then he went waking around the rocks and found some bear poop! Time to get outa here!

This is fun!

Brr! It’s cold!

Bear Poop!

After Jacintha had her fill of swimming we changed her back into her clothes and we slowly and carefully climbed back down the rocks to the dinghy. The water level had risen two feet but the dinghy was still secure on the rocks!

Our dinghy still on the rocks!

Motoring back to the boat was easy as it wasn’t too shallow now. Back on the boat we had warm showers and went to bed.