Well, it’s been a 3 weeks now. We left Seattle May 15. I am finally finding time 
to write. I woke up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep!

I sent an e-mail from Nanimo. We left there the 22nd. We went west along the 
Vancouver Island coast while Alfons and Judy crossed to the mainland Canada 
side. We stopped in a little bay just a few hours away and put out the prawn trap. 
We got 75 over night. About half of them were little shrimp, but the other half 
were larger, tails about the size of my little finger. 

The next day we went on up the coast to Comox, the next large town on the 
island. The wind picked up in the afternoon to 20 knots. The waves from the 
wind built to about 3 feet high. Every 4th or 5th wave, the bow would go under 
and the water ran back along the deck. Tiring and slow, but the boat did fine. I 
think we have too much weight in the bow, it seems to “hobby horse” a little too 
much.

We finally made Comox and anchored in the bay next to an 1936, 36 foot 3 
masted wooden boat. The owner was quite a fisherman and full of bull, er, I 
mean stories. I had a nice visit.

Next day we started out to cross the Georgia Strait to Cortez Island. We stayed 2 
nights and worked on fitting the life raft in the locker in the cockpit seat. I didn’t 
quite finish, it’s still here on the settee. The 26th we went on to Refuge Cove to 
meet up with Alfons and Judy. The next day we headed for the rapids and the 
north end of the Island .

A fellow that we had dinner with last trip had moved his restaurant from 
Forward Habour to Fredric’s Arm. So we found him and had lunch with him and 
his family. Trinda enjoyed discussing crafts with his wife and the show and tell 
took 3 hours! Both had lots of things to show! 

We went on to Forward Harbour and waited 3 days for the winds in Johnstone 
Strait to slow down enough to pass. Al and I fished and caught nothing. Trinda 
and Judy blew up the inflatable kayaks and looked at the tide pools. We finally 
caught enough rock crabs for a dinner. 

May 31st, the wind died back and we set off north (mostly west at this point 
though). We made good time. I didn’t expect it, but we made Lagoon Cove. We 
stayed at their dock 2 nights.

Yesterday morning I woke up early, about 7, and noticed a bear on the beach. 
He was rolling rocks over and looking under them. I grabbed my binoculars to 
see if I could tell just what he was getting. It was small crabs. I woke Trinda up. 
She usually beats me up, but we had a late night for her. I watched him eat 4 or 
5 crabs then I rowed the dinghy over to Alfons and Judy’s boat to wake them up 
so they could watch him too.
They were just getting up too. I gave Alfons the extra pair of binoculars that we 
had so they both could watch the bear. The bear walked all the way around the 
little cove we were in, maybe 300 yards turning over every rock under 2 foot 
diameter and looking for something to eat. He finally turned around and started 
back to the top of the cove only checking the rocks he missed on the way! As we 
watched him enter the woods, a mink scurried across the soggy grass and kelp of 
the low tide flat. It found a small crab under the piles of seaweed. I turned 
around with the crab in its mouth and was headed for the rocks above tide level, 
when a blur flashed across my binoculars. An eagle swooped down and stole the 
crab! It soared into the trees behind the bear and out of sight. This was NOT a 
typical day. 

We had just left Lagoon Cove Marina and Resort the day before. That’s the 
place Trinda had her 50th birthday party last time we were up here. We really 
enjoyed the people there. It is early in the tourist season, so they only have a 
happy hour and not a marsh mellow roast every night. They put out crab and 
prawn (shrimp) traps every day and server what ever the catch to everyone 
staying there. The rest of the “happy hour” is a potluck. Trinda cut up some 
cheese and opened a package of homemade jerky and I baked an apricot cobbler. 
It was fun! The “tattooed man” was there. He is 67, got his first tattoo at 51 and 
now has 95% of his body covered. He also had a few extra wholes in his body, 
most noticeable was for a bone in the nose. He was Chinese, but tall and thin. 
Unusual fellow! He travels to tattoo conventions around the country and does 
local advertising, much to the disgust of his current boating partner. 

When we left Lagoon Cove, we were in the famous salmon fishing location 
known as Knight Inlet. So we just had to fish some. Trinda’s uncle Clifton had 
given her a down rigger just as we left Seattle. I haven’t gotten around to 
hooking up the power to it yet, but you can work it manually too. I hooked the 
10 pound ball to it and set up a fishing lure on my pole and put the line in the 
clothes pin next to the ball and dropped it 75 feet down. Then I realized we were 
going too fast. I slowed down the boat to about 3 knots (4 mph).
Nothing. Then I got a bright idea, I’d turn on the fish finder and see what depth 
most of the fish were at! 

There were no fish! A few days ago, in Comox Harbor, a guy had said that “any 
old rock pile under the water up there has a few cod around it.” So I headed for 
shallower water. Most of the area up here is 400 to 500 feet deep but there was 
an underwater hill close, according to the chart, which was only 90 feet deep. I 
headed over toward it thinking that a salmon might be near it. As we approached 
it, the fish finder found lots of bottom fish. Oh yeah, it was cod that were around 
the rocks, so I switched to the other pole and dropped it in. The line immediately 
got tangled in the rudder of the boat! I had to cut the line and start over! When I 
finally got the line to the bottom. It didn’t seem to bounce right. For cod 
“jigging”, you let the lure, a little lead fish, hit the bottom, then pull it up about a 
foot, and repeat… for hours! Only, this time it didn’t bounce right. I started 
reeling it in, all 125 feet of it. When it got about 30 feet from the top, I suddenly 
realized that there was a fish on it, He must have got on the way down! He was a 
Quill-back Rock fish.

He was really ugly. I thought he was big enough to feed 4, but Judy and AL, 
who were fishing near by, weren’t sure they liked rockfish, so I tried again. This 
time it was just like advertised, I could feel the lure hit the bottom and pull it up 
a foot and lit it sink and feel it hit the bottom again. But wait it only this the 
bottom 3 times. What’s this? Another fish! I reel it in and it turns out to be a 68 
cm (65 is just legal, about 2 foot) lingcod. These are supposed to be the best, 
only now we have 2 fish big enough to feed 4 each. I call Alfons on the radio 
and tell him not to catch any, I have more than we all can eat. He doesn’t take it 
well, but reluctantly stops. We headed for an anchorage ia a quiet cove to have a 
feast! Trinda boiled the prawns and I grilled both fish. Judy brought over 
potatoes, her prawns and margaritas. 

A beautiful day, unbelievable scenery, great food, friends and good lies! This IS 
really living Uncle Jim!

We are in Port McNeill this rainy Sunday morning. The GPS says a trip of 403 
nautical miles for the trip so far.

We haven’t taken any pictures yet. Just found out the phone sorta works here. It 
hasn’t worked the last week. We got a voice mail from Guy. He has a job in Los 
Angeles, CA. He even has a phone! So Donnie, I guess you won’t have a house 
guest after all!, Guy was headed for Huston, I don’t know yet why he stopped in 
LA on the way to Huston?

That’s the news,
Larry and Trinda