July 8th Swanson Bay
Departed 7:15 cloudy
calm
The cruise ship, Zaandam, was docked at the point as we
cruised on by this morning. The Zaandam was the ship that appeared as my “storm
in a cloud” that I had to avoid on the way to Sitka.
We are still having problems with oil being spit out of the
exhaust and making an oily mess on the deck above which David washes down every
day. Today, Mike suggested that we rev up the engine to 1500 rpms (we cruise at
900 rpms) for at least a half hour to clean ‘er out. We created quite the smoke
screen as we powered on and the boat deck was covered in gunk. But after the
last washing, there has been no more mess!!
Mike is our hero! We have been
cruising at a constant speed in order to conserve fuel for so long that there
was an ugly build up. We just need to push her once a day and clean her out.
Poor David was visibly nervous with a “deer in headlights”
expression when Mike cranked up our
speed. After it all calmed down, David was
spotted popping in a few Tums.
For two hours, we fished outside Swansen Bay. Diane caught
the first fish right off the bat, and it was a nice halibut. Mike grabbed the
regulations booklet to see if we could keep it. He measured it and determined
that it was 5 inches too short so it was released. Later on Mike was rechecking
the information, and he read that individuals can keep up to two halibut ANY
SIZE! Diane will never let him live that
down.
Diane and the halibut in question
Diane and Mike caught a black rockfish each, and I bagged a
quillback rockfish that was thrown back.
Diane got David a proper fillet knife after watching this!
We docked at a Refuge Dock in Swansen Bay with at least
seven other boats. Dropped our crab pots and checked them before turning in.
Took the four keepers back to the boat before dropping the trap back down. Not
taking any chances this time.
One neighbor was filleting a beautiful halibut on the dock.
He told David that they were at Auke Bay Marina yesterday and it was so crowded
that there were some boats rafted five boats deep! We are a bit concerned about
finding a spot when we reach Juneau.
Not quite a rock fish....definitely a rock!
Saw my first sunset as we stayed up to prepare the crab.
Headed to bed around midnight to find an army of mosquitoes in our bedroom. We
grabbed rags and started slapping the walls trying to squish them. We had been
fighting black flies when we first arrived. One of the boaters who came out to
help us tie up had a fly swatter in her hand and for good reason. We can do
without both these annoying biters.
David cooked up some of his ling cod...wonderful!
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