August 10, 2004
Klaskino Anchorage (N 50° 18' W 127° 48')
Yesterday was a beautiful, hot, sunny day in Quatsino Sound. We spent the day running around in the dinghy going to "town" and exploring. Around 6 PM we saw Bad Company, a sport fisher, pull into the anchorage. We had noticed them earlier in the morning because they came in towing what looked like a ski boat. They dropped an anchor and then tied the ski boat off to the anchor and left it while they went elsewhere. This time they retrieved the ski boat and after a short while a couple of young men got into it and headed over to Nakia. I came up on deck to say hello and they asked if I'd like a fish. As always I'm not one to turn down a fish that I don't have to clean, so they passed over a 6 lb coho. Not only had we not yet eaten the 2 lbs worth of fillets that Gary gave us the day before, but I had to cut the head and tail off this fish just to fit it in the refrigerator!
Needless to say we had salmon for dinner last night. There were lots of leftovers, so we had salmon salad sandwiches for lunch today. I cut the coho into meal-sized portions. Seven meal-sized portions, including a couple of nice fillets, one of which we had for dinner tonight. I'm giving serious thought to slicing the other fillet thinly and having eggs and salmon with Hollandaise sauce tomorrow for breakfast. We have to make some room in the freezer or else I can't catch any more fish.
The difference between the west coast of Vancouver Island and the inside is incredible. Not only is the scenery different (there are more white sand beaches and rocky/reef shorelines), the wildlife is completely different. On the way from Cape Scott to Quatsino Sound we saw at least four small sharks swimming near the surface. They are so brave! Nakia can pass within a few feet and they don't so much as change course. Today we saw our first tufted puffins of the trip and there were no less then four sea otters in Quatsino Sound. I don't know why we spent so much time coming up the Inside, we should have just made a beeline for Cape Scott.
We'll be here in Klaskino anchorage until the 12th, when we make our run for the final big hurdle of the trip: rounding the Brooks Peninsula. Jutting more then 9 nm to the southwest of Vancouver Island, the Brooks Peninsula has a reputation for high winds and big seas. But the weather looks good for our rounding so we don't anticipate problems. Maybe we'll even see a black-footed albatross as we did in 1997.
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