Sunday, June 22, 2014

Dawson's Landing


     We rarely stay in one place for more than a day. We haven't any phone service. This is a strange way of living. I feel so primitive sometimes.  Conserving water, making bread two or three times a week, using powdered milk, washing clothes in the cockpit by hand and hanging them out to dry.  Sometimes I get so frustrated with the whole thing and want the conveniences of being a "land lubber."  Then, on the other hand, fishing for our daily meat is kind of exciting.  I do have to tell you though, I filleted the cod the other day and had such a hard time.  I don't know how to fillet ANYTHING!  I made such a mess (a bloody, yucky mess) and the fish was looking at me while I was stripping him of his meat, which I mutilated and wasted so much of.   Scott has done the catching, and cleaning and I do the cooking.  Anyway, we were underway and fishing and I HAD to do the filleting.  It was terrible for me! I thought, "Oh, my....I think I might have to become a vegetarian." Well, we had cod and rockfish for dinner that night and all that passed.  The fresh food is unbeatable.

     We spend most of our days anchored and tucked away in little coves away from and out of the weather.  Our solar panels provide enough electricity to watch a movie and have lights at night. Our stove is propane and we have diesel heat. The heater, uses less than a gallon of fuel a day. We carry 57 gallons of diesel in our tanks and 150 gallons of fresh water lasts us about two weeks. We haven't hiked in a while because we have been in bear country and we don't have bear spray. When we go out I carry a beer can full of coins and spend the entire trip making noise.  We would really like to see the bear instead of scare it so we set out peanut butter bagels and sit on the boat waiting for a show. We haven't seen the show yet.

     We have seen many other forms of wild life which is totally cool though. And we DID see that Mama with her two cubs. What we really wanted to see is this bear called a Spirit Bear. It is a blonde brown bear.  You can look it up and read about it.It is not albino, just has an odd gene and there are about 400 of them on Princess Royal Island, BC.

      Right now we are held up in a place called Dawson's Landing. We have been here since Thursday the 19th. The weather has been calling for gale force winds (Southeast) between 20 and 40 knots and seas up to 8 feet. We have to go South around Cape Caution so we need the wind and sea in our favor. We think we will be here until Tuesday. We are feeling very cooped up. The rain is relentless and the only trail here is the dock which is about 400 feet long. I am ready to move on.

     On the bright side.  We crossed paths with this wonderful couple in Princess Louisa Inlet. They are traveling on a boat named 4th of July. We re-crossed paths on our way back down in Lewall Inlet on Stirling Island. They also ended up here at Dawson's Landing, waiting out the weather. We are very happy to spending the time on the dock with them. They have turned out to be top notch people, and we have decided to keep them. They are good friends. Their names are Ken and Mary and they live in Nevada. They cruise this area once a year for vacation and have done so for years.

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