July 12th

Woke up to a perfect calm sunny morning. We could hear the fish jumping in the water and there wasn’t a boat or another person to be seen. We had bacon an eggs for breakfast out on the sunny deck. Then Jim put a ” jogging” rod into he water and immediately got a bite. A little fish which he put back into the water. Then he popped his line in again and ten minutes and pulled up another fish. This time it was an ugly brown finny fish, a rock fish. He wanted to keep it and I didn’t want to get fishy again so soon! He put it back. After that, he got no more bites!! We lazed around the deck enjoying the sun until the wind picked up.

Rockfish!

We up anchored and headed down David Channel and into the Sechart Channel behind the Broken Group Islands. Jim cast out his trolling lines and I went below to make lunch with leftovers. As I was below, I heard him stop the engine and put it into reverse and turn. I ran up to see what was happening. In front of the boat was a long line of small little floats holding a gill net. Jim was in the process of turning the boat to avoid it. If we ran over it chances are it would have caught in the propeller and fouled it so we wouldn’t be able to steer. The fishing boats had chased Jim down to warn him, but he had the stereo blasting loudly and was daydreaming about his fish! Jim managed to turn the boat around with 2 feet to spare!!! Close call!!

We turned down another channel and kept fishing. I guess the gill netters got all the fish as we didn’t get very many bites. Just caught one little salmon later in the afternoon. Large enough to eat! We then headed for Bamfield where we moored the boat, and plugged in to shore power.

Bamfield is a small fishing town in eastern Barkley Sound. It has an inlet and the town consists of an island on one side and the mainland on the other. The only way to get from West Bamfield to East Banfield is by boat. We moored on the island. There is a boardwalk along the water which we took a walk on. I forgot my camera so didn’t take any photos but it was a very quaint town. A few of the waterfront homes were for sale. There was a “cat house” where they’d built little houses for the feral cats and put food and water out. The houses were cutely decorated and had names like “catnap” etc. We walked along the length of the board walk. At the far end of the town on the and back again. Then it started to rain.

A lot of the fishermen’s boats were moored on our dock by the time we got back. They of course had all turned in for the night.