The peaceful Pinkertons are a nice place to anchor. We end up staying six nights. On the 17th we see another sailboat carefully picking their way through one of the narrow entrances. It is B Mondo and her crew, our good friends Walt and Odile Dortch. Carl and Walt worked together for years at the Forest Service on relicensing of hydro electric dams. Odile came to the northwest on her 26 foot sailboat, by herself, all the way from France and settled down with Walt.
We last saw B Mondo in August of 2013 in Desolation Sound when we headed south and they continued north. Walt and Odile took the train to Portland and came with us on our first voyage with ExTerra. Our intrepid foursome battled NW winds and relatively high seas as we sailed for two days off the coast of Washington. We then turned on the motor and eventually made our way to Anacortes to drop Walt and Odile back at their boat, then north together to Desolation Sound. We were so thankful for their expert sailing knowledge and camaraderie.
Today they are delivering groceries to us from their run to Ucluelet. Then they are off to Pipestem to gather fresh oysters. Carl and I spend the rest of the day fishing and reading. Late the next day Walt and Odile return and raft up to our boat with limits of oysters. We then have what we call the crab rodeo in the cockpit, sorting out the best crab and cleaning then for dinner. We make quick work the crab in Pam's pressure cooker then enjoy a nice BBQ oysters, crab and quinoa salad dinner, talking late into the evening in the cockpit.
The next day Carl and Odile dinghy fish for hours! I think Pam and Walt are glad the two obsessive... I mean enthusiastic fishing folks have someone to fish with. Not that I don't enjoy our evenings in the dinghy rowing and reading while Carl fishes but it is nice for them to fish together and compare notes.
When they return with a bucket of nice rock fish they mention seeing a bear swimming between islands. Sure enough we then see the bear walking to the point and into the water, swimming on through to the next little island. What fun! We close this day with a full turf dinner, pressure cooker meatloaf from Pam and Carl's elk burger and homemade warm "boat bread" from Odile's bakery.
We decide after a few nights of oyster feeding frenzies that we all will take B Mondo back to Pipestem, restock the oyster bucket and move on to Effingham. Walt and Odile anchor in their favorite spot, we raft up to them and another wonderful dinner is shared; steamed little neck clams, fresh baked bread and rice. We are getting spoiled! We enjoy a nice sunset. The rest of our time at Effingham includes a hike to the far beach. We bring back driftwood boards to add to the trail. We are visited by two folks who are originally from France and have an aluminum boat similar to B Mondo. Pretty soon Odile is having a lovely discussion with them in French and they head on their way. They have been sailing for years.
Now it is off to Dodger Passage where Pam and Carl will depart from in a couple days. This usually quiet anchorage is a buzz of activity. From what we can piece together a good sized fin whale has been towed in from sea so that a necropsy can be done on it. This is the second largest mammal in the world. The unfortunate critter is surrounded by small boat loads of officials. We dinghy close enough for a few photos then we head over to Haines island.
Haines island is Huu-AHT First Nations territory and has a beautiful welcome sign. It also has lots of ripe salal berries and plums. We pick lots of each. Pam looks over Odile's shoulder and learns how to make salal jelly in B Mondo's galley. Walt and Odile keep us full of wonderful treats like the jelly, fresh baked breads and brownies! Pam and Carl bring their home made elk sausage, deer jerkey and burger to share. What feasts we have!
This evening we will celebrate our last dinner together for the season. What a wonderful time it has been and we look forward to 2017 when once again we may get to sail with them. But now we need to declare and store the dinghy and recheck everything for our 10:30 departure tomorrow morning for the Columbia river bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment