July 20th
Fanshaw Bay
61 degrees a little
breeze sunny
First thing this morning we headed out in the dinghy to
collect our catch but only found large snails and sea urchins. I was amazed at
how much chicken bait these little critters consumed…much more than any crabs
we have trapped. Disappointed, we determined that our traps needed to be moved
and headed closer to shore.
We were both distracted when we suddenly heard a loud bump and
scrapes along our hull. We were in a sea of rocks! David quickly lifted the
motor, and I kept eyes on the rocks below trying to determine which way to
direct David out of this mess.
One of the first mechanical things to go wrong on this trip
was our depth sounder on the dinghy. We definitely could have used it this
morning. We wanted to replace it in Wrangle when we bought a new outboard motor
but there were none to be had.
Low tide revealed our problem
We managed to safely make our way from the rocks without
further collisions, but when we were tying up to the side of the boat, we
noticed the level of water in the boat was rising. We feared the worst. When we lifted the boat off the water, David noticed that the plug was
dangling. We are guessing that the plug had been yanked out when it’s string
caught on a rock. Once the plug was replaced, the water pump in the boat did
its job, and we were flood free. Hours later at low tide, we saw the long,
narrow string of rocks we tangled with and were lucky enough to escape with just a few hull
scratches. Time for a drink.
View from the dodger
Tried my hand at fishing but it is too shallow right now.
Will try again at high tide. A harbor seal popped his head out while I
attempted to rob him of some fish. Would really like to be able to tell Mike
that I caught a big one! I should have scooped up the huge dead halibut I saw
floating by our boat yesterday!
Our traps yielded 4 extra-large crabs in all. Two of our
traps were empty. It was no surprise to hear David claim, “Now this is why we
needed four traps, Pat.”
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