August 16th
Alma Russell to Dodger Passage
Our next anchorage is a
very short trip around the corner and up into the Alma Russell Island
anchorage. A peaceful stop, with the
main excitement being a small Brown Creeper
who ventures inside the boat then sets down for a rest on the deck
before venturing back out. Last year we
untied the lines from B Mondo and departed at 0430 in the pitch black waters to
start our trip home. This year we
leisurely take off headed for Bamfield to top off the diesel.
We of course fish along
the way. We tried for halibut again,
fishing the deep flat sandy areas. No
halibut were found but Carl pulled up a very large Yellow Eye rockfish. Since you are not allowed to keep these he
put it on the “descender.” The descender
is a large hook with a big weight on it.
You hook the fish and have the weight descend the fish back to depth so
that it can adjust back to the pressure.
Fish pulled from deeper water suffer a kind of “bends” much like a diver
would if the diver came up too fast. The
fish fell off the first time and stayed on the surface. An Eagle promptly swooped in and tried to
haul it off but the fish was too heavy.
We practiced our man overboard drill, circled the boat and netted the
fish. Having added more weight to the descender
we believe we successfully sent the big fish back to its comfortable depth.
Then it was a quick motor
through all the salmon fishermen and into Bamfield. We filled up with diesel and then tied up at
the temporary dock to get a few groceries.
While there I asked the shop keeper about the obvious ongoing work on
the wonderful old Bamfield Hotel building.
He said that it had been purchased out of forfeited holdings during a
court case. The new owner was one man
who launched into very actively restoring the structure. He hopes to first re-open the restaurant and
then the hotel. The shop keeper
described him as efficient and laser focused on churning out good work. Sounds like a man who knows and enjoys what
he is doing.
The Bamfield Hotel was one
of many purchases made by a man who was going to restore them all. Strung along for years the residents are
happy that at last, the man was brought up on money laundering charges and
ended up forfeiting most of his ill-gotten properties. A local First Nations group has purchased a
few of the properties and are also in the process of restoring and opening
them. This is all good news for the
community of Bamfield. We look forward
to a nice meal at the restaurant sometime in the future.
We then motor directly to
our Dodger Passage anchorage and start looking for the best weather window to
start our overnight ocean passage to Astoria.
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