December 30th - Saanich Inlet (#54)

Monica, Jenny, Claire and I went for day of prawning and eating! We dropped our traps in the usual areas and then went over to Mill Bay to have lunch at Bridgeman's Bistro. While there we also met Cheryl who we had not seen for some time. After lunch we made our way back to pull all the traps and came home with just over 150 prawns. The weather was beautiful - sunny and not windy - and we all had a nice day out together.

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26 km.
Engine hours: TBD

December 28th - Saanich Inlet (#53)

Martin and I went for a day of prawning with a bit of crabbing and fishing for flounder while waiting for the prawn traps to "soak". The crabbing and flounder fishing was not very productive - undersized Dungeness or red rock crabs and no flounder. Most of our traps had no prawns but one trap made up for that a bit by having around 100! It was quite windy during the pulling.

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31 km.
Engine hours:317 P&S

October 9th - Sooke fishing (#52)

Kyle, Eric, Sarah and I went for a coho fishing trip off Sooke. It was Sarah and Eric's first time out saltwater salmon fishing and we managed to bring two nice fish in. We spent most of our time off Otter Point. Nice conditions and a good day out on the water!

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33 km

September 17th - Sooke (#51)

Kyle, Ian and I went for a morning fishing trip out to Sooke as we had heard good reports. Though the rain was at times hard, there was no wind, so Natural C-lection was pretty comfy. We wished for 3 hours and only had one bite which happened to be a hatchery coho. We saw a few others caught, but not that many.

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20 km.

July 14-17 - Puget Sound (#50)

I did a solo trip down to Puget sound to get a sense of how easy it was to cover a good distance and to check out a few places. I cleared US customs in Port Townsend by prior arrangement which was simple and straightforward. I then spent a few hours at the Pygmy boats kayak shop and chatting with John Lockwood.

The Port Townsend area - click to enlarge

I stayed at Shilshole Bay marina in Seattle which was huge (1400+ slips) but well equipped. I was able to take advantage of good pubs in Ballard and did some shopping. I went for a day trip to Blake Island State Park which is a a nicely set up marine state park in Seattle's back yard.

exploring the Seattle area -click to enlarge

The crossing of the strait was relatively easy both ways. On the way out I saw humpbacks twice as well as porpoises. Nothing on the way back. The only lumpy water i experienced was around point Wilson where the currents made for confused seas. The crossing to Port Townsend takes about 1.5 to 2 hours.

The overall trip - click to enlarge

Martin helped me to launch and retrieve Natural C-lection at the beginning and end of the trip in the most efficient manner. He drove the truck back home after launching while I went by water to the mooring. On the way back we did the reverse. It was very easy to launch and retrieve with someone in the boat while doing so. I also cleared Canada Customs by phone in Cadboro Bay which was nice and easy as i have now done it several times.

Launching and retrieving and clearing customs - click to enlarge

285 km and approx 210 l of gas.

May 20-23 - Pender and San Juan Islands (#49)

Monica and I took the boat up to Pender where we joined Jack and Mary at Ainslie Point Cottage for the weekend..We did ssome successful crabbing in Bedwell Harbour, a trip around South Pender and a day trip to Friday Harbor. A full tank took us 105 km...(loaded with either gear or people).

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179 km

May 8th - Saanich Inlet (#48)

Monica and I went for a day of prawning in Saanich inlet, combined with lunch at Bridgeman's Bistro. The prawning was better that the last two times with about 80 prawns total. 4 traps had no prawns...

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29 km