Once again, I am a little tardy in recording all of our amazing adventures and have to look at my pictures to remember all that we have done.
We finally succeeded in getting some crabs at our anchorage in Captains Cove!
We wanted to wait to pull the trap for the kids to see the crabs when they crawled out of bed (usually not until 11a.m.; east coat time will be a harsh awakening!) and the trap door stayed open and a couple of crabs escaped. When we pulled it with the kids, we had three crabs left; one crab was too small to keep (we have to measure), one was a female (can’t keep the ladies!), so we only had one to feast on. Still a pain to pick (thanks for helping, Kathryn), but it was delicious.
Good thing that we caught crabs; we threw the trap back in the water at Hevenor Inlet (the salmon head bait in it seemed to be the turning point in our catching success), but forgot to pull the pot when we took off early the next morning. We have now lost two traps and it was probably a sad funeral for the crabs in the trap; at least they had a good last feast of salmon!
We then went to Bishop Bay Hot Springs, which was more developed than Baranof Warm Springs (not knocking Baranof; I loved the completely natural state of Baranof) – no slimy algae or smelly sulphur.
The only thing was, it was a beautiful day, probably in the 70s, and we were too hot to jump in right away. We decided to take a cold plunge into the ocean before the hot springs.
It felt wonderful, and Hannah and I decided that we would swim back to the boat when we were done at the hot springs (we went by kayak; Andrew and Kathryn paddled back). The hot springs were a wonderful treat, and it was a super fun day overall. I just wish we would have brought a memento to leave of the SeaXII visit.
From Bishop Bay, we had two more anchorages at Promise Island and Shearwater before our next stop was Hakai Institute. Hakai was a recommended stop on our journey north, but we decided to stop on our way south, when we had less time constraints. Hakai is a developed research institute in British Columbia that studies the coastal habitat. We kayaked in from the SeaXII, took a short hike to a beautiful sand beach. We all loved taking off our shoes in the soft sand. We had a picnic lunch, and Paul and I walked along the shore, while the kids built forts (houses – watch their tours on https://www.youtube.com/@fournado4) from the driftwood on the beach.
After a night of anchoring in Fury Cove, we arrived in Port Hardy – a small town, but they had a store and a pub! We celebrated Claire’s and Andrew’s half birthday with molten lava cakes and team games all planned by Andrew!
The next morning, I went on a slow trail run on the Fairy Trail – so cute and fun little loop!
We pulled anchor and headed to spend a couple of days in Braughton Islands. The thick fog in Braughton was relentless and forecasted to dominate the area for the next couple days, so we decided to pull anchor and continue south.