Friends, Fish, and Foreign Dignitaries

 In the review mirror...

Another boating season has ended and we are feeling a bittersweet moment.  We know that as each season ends, it is one less opportunity for us to do what we love .

Good friends, Loretta and Pat joined us! from Dallas!

More fish than we can eat but we are generous in sharing with family, with friends and with neighbors!

New to salmon fishing our friend, Pat,  was an amazingly quick study!

Beautiful chinook salmon, Pat!

I believe that this was Loretta's first fish ever!

Nice work, you two!

In 1906 the Bella Coola Pulp and Paper Mill established a company town at Ocean Falls.  Mill operations began in 1912 and athe town thrived.  By 1950, the population was 3500.  At least three swimmers represented Canada in the Olympic games.  In 1973, Crown Zellerbach, closed the mill and by 1990, the population dropped to 70 people,  The infrastructure crumbles and the town is home to a bitcoin mining operation.

Jan's 21 lb King salmon.

Imagine our surprise when we learned that Pat and Loretta were not really from Dallas and that we had entertained Queen Camilla and King Charles for 5 days!  life never ceases to amaze me!

Looking forward to our 2026 season!

THE WHISPERERS

 

WHISPER THE FISH

It was an unexpectedly long journey for our friends, Pete and Linda.  Initially, they were to join us on Haida Gwaii but arrived via an arduous, multi-day ferry trip terminating in Hartley Bay.  Hartley Bay is home to the Gitaga'at people who, in the middle of the night, saved hundreds of people from a siking ferry.

Hartley Bay is near one of our favorite anchorages.

Anchorage with a view

Fishing can be spotty early in the season here and the view was not quite enough.  We journeyed through Higgins Passage which requires careful planning for a tide to carry us over the drying land bridge.

We chased fish to Thompson Bay with Doug and I being despondent since we have never sent guests home without fish.

 Beautiful Calm Morning Entering Thompson Bay

We had surprises at Blackie Hump where we typically catch black rockfish and lingcod.

A Vermillion Rockfish was released 

Our friend, Pete, is locally known as the Halibut Whisperer.  And whisper he did.  We limited up on our  quota of halibut and  tried to chase others away. 

Yummy but ugly fish

Iconic totem poles are reflective of Northwest Indian art

Linda, bride of the Halibut Whisperer, is one of the most creative people I know.  One still morning when the shore line was reflected in the water, she remarked, "I think reflections are the inspiration for totem art". 

What do you think?

Eating well is a very important part of our adventure.

Local herb garden.

Sunset Dinner

We needed a Salmon Whisperer and Linda volunteered.  The curse was broken with two very nice Chinook salmon.  Linda and Pete caught them at Farewell Point very near the end of their trip.

Only photos of the Whisperers

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Only of the Salmon Whisperers.

Wonderful time.  Thanks for joining us!

Haida Gwaii

Keenly aware of the perils of Hecate Strait,  deemed to be Canada's most dangerous water with shallow depths, shoaling, rapidly changing conditions and a nasty temper  we staged for our ten-hour crossing at and waited for a weather window.  

After days of gale force conditions, a window opened and we left at dawn.  

Eight hours into the crossing the weather got spiteful but we safely limped into Thurston Harbour where we were pinned down by gale force winds for five days with little company but a family of mergansers and 

How many babies are there?

 an army of racoons who came at each low tide to feast.   

We found no crab, no prawns and no fish but did find there  was an unusual dwelling.

The carefully constructed rock foundation apparently did not include tie downs.  Although unverified, we believe that the upset was caused by one of Haida Gwaii's many earthquakes.  On August 22, 1949, an 8.1 magnitude earthquake struck Haida Gwaii and is the worst quake in Canadian recorded history.  

After being pinned down for four days, we got a weather window for the seven hour trip to Sandspit which is in Skidegate Inlet where we planned to transit Skidegate Channel which links the Pacific Ocean to Hecate Strait.  

This is not a challenge to be taken lightly with the winding narrow fairways shallow depths and strong currents.   Our first venture in the fishing boat aborted at the East Narrows with depths less than two feet.

Crabbing seemed a better plan so we set four traps.

Four traps was a bit yielding about 100 crab. With a possession limit of 24 that is TOO much crab.  

We took the biggest and released the rest.

And then back to our task at hand - getting through Skidegate Channel.  It is very difficult to time slack water to transit two sets of rapids.  Being resourceful and depending on local knowledge, we tagged along with the guided fishing trips and made it through safely.

We explored possible anchorages for the big boat, set prawn traps and fished.  That day the seas were rough, the fish were nowhere and we got three prawns in eight traps.  Not a good day except for the Harlequin ducks sighting.

On our next trip through the channel, we did catch two reasonable salmon - 19lbs and 13 lbs.  

The cranky Captain and the whiny First Mate made a command decision  to wait for a weather window and exit Haida Gwaii.  It is beautiful but overwhelming.  I have nothing but respect for the Haida people who are exemplary mariners.  At the first weather window we headed back to the Great Bear Rain Forest.

 

Kudos to our first guests, Pete and Linda who rerouted their trip to Prince Rupert and caught a small ferry to Hartley Bay where we picked them up and rebooted our trip.  

Fast Forward

A strange quirk of physics teaches us a life lesson as we age.  When I was eight, it was forever to my next birthday.  Now it is but a moment. 

I got caught in such a time warp  last year.  Hence,  the "Fast Forward" blog to catch up while in Gillen Harbour waiting for a weather window to our next  great adventure.

LAST SUMMER

Great Fishing

 

Beautiful pair of  sea wolves in Higgins Passage

ITALY

 Flight to Rome with a points upgrade to Business Class

ROME

Found Italy over run by tourists in October

 

Romulus and Remus, twins, mythologically raised by wolves are credited with naming Rome

Sculpture and  art in every nook.

SIENA

We loved Siena the rival of Florence during the Renassiance

Siena has 17 contrade (neighborhoods) each with their own distinct identity, flag, name and traditions.  The rivalry culminates in the Palacio di Siena which is a 90 second horse race which celebrates the best of the best.

Siena's magnificent cathedral

The stunning interior of Siena's cathedral

FLORENCE

A Tuscan Beauty 

Florence Duomo which is one of the 10 largest churches in the world

VENICE

No Italy trip would be complete without Venice

TRIESTE

Trieste on the border with Croatia is enchanting and reflective of Vienna

PADUA

The Scrovegni Chapel in Padua is considered the best of Giotti's works and was built to atone for usury by Enrico of Padova

GILLEN HARBOUR

Which brings us full circle to patiently waiting for a weather window to cross Hecate Strait to Hiada Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte Islands)

Baby Shower in Mexico

A Whale Whisper Onboard

 Family

First, we welcomed our family, Deb and Ralph, to the boat.  They are experienced visitors to the Great Bear Rainforest and we always enjoy the time together.  They came a little earlier than usual and found that the fish were smaller and more difficult to find.  

But all went well until....

After absconding with Ralph's very big salmon, he and five of his friends surround the boat hopefully waiting! Not a chance!!!

As is traditional, we enjoyed our crab and salad dinner!

Friends

Our next guests were our friends from Chicago Stacy and George.  It was a whirlwind, first trip to the Great Bear Rainforest and a unique experience for Chicagoans.

The first day at Purple Bluff was wonderful  They were hearty souls, enjoying salmon fishing and the scenery.

Eagle nests are always impressive but this one particularly so.  Like all eagle nests, it is builtwith an eye toward predators.  Nests are about 5 feet wide, several feet deep and can weigh up to 3 tons.  Eagles sit in their nest and watch carefully for discarded scrap fish to feed their young.  It is spectacular to have them sweep down a few feet behind the boat and snatch up lunch for the kids.

Although new to downrigger fishing, they proved to be adept learners catching 3 Chinook salmon and a coho.  The coho are very late this year.

The Whale Whisperer

When the whales heard their Puerto Vallarta friend, Stacy, was coming to their Northern grounds, they greeted her (and us) with a spectacular show.  She knows them well and they have a unique bond.  But such a show we did not expect.

The announcement of their presence was a humpback-shaped double blow letting us know that we were watching at least two whales and one was a calf.  We came to a stop at a respectful and safe distance.

Whale calves, at birth, are about 18 feet long and weigh nearly 100 lbs.  They drink blubber milk twice a dayeach.  Each feeding is about 50 gallons and they gain up to 100 lbs a day.  At a few months they start eating "adult food" such as bait fish and krill.  This cow and calf appear to be lunge feeding where they stun their prey to strain through the baleen (toothlike structures) in the mouth.

The cow appears to have a mouthful of bait fish that she has scooped and is straining.  Note her pink tongue which is the size of a small car and fits in a mouth that is 10 feet wide.

Here she goes again stunning the bait fish by lunging backward.  Note the barnacles on her rostrum (knobby head bumps).

Adult whales weigh up to 40 tons and have flukes as much as 18 feet across.  This calf had flukes of about 7 feet.  The calf will gain up to 100 lbs per day and will, as an adult, be 55 feet long.  The calf will stay with its mother for about a year and will quit growing after 10 years.  Life expectacy is up to 90 years.

What a treat for all of us!

Thank you, Stacy, for your whale whispering talents.  Sorry, George, we didn't even get a photo of your two halibut...

But we did have a nice crab dinner...

Traditional crab dinner!

Once again we are reminded of our blessings, one of which is sharing those blessings to include our time in the Great Bear Rainforest.