For this year's Memorial Day trip my crew was my wife Lisa and our little puppy Bambina ('Bina).
Our goals for this trip were very simple, just to relax and enjoy ourselves.
I had just gotten the boat back in the water on Thursday so she was looking fine, if I do say so myself.
After loading gear and groceries I fired up the engines at 10 AM, and we pulled out at 10:15 AM.
The weather was overcast with light SE winds.
The intended route for this trip was North up into Western Behm Canal. It is a long route and so to properly show it I have broken it up into two portions. Total distance without diversions is about 45 nm (nautical miles).
This is the northern portion of the route, from Naha Bay up through Shrimp Bay and into Klu Bay -
And this is the southern portion, from Ketchikan to Naha Bay.
We headed North up into Western Behm Canal, and made a brief stop in Clover Pass and shut down the engines and drifted while we had lunch.
I apologize for the lack of pictures on this trip, but sometimes I get so caught up in the moment that I forget to take them.
The cruise ships are here in full force now and one of the tour activities they participate in is kayaking. Here are a few of them in Clover Pass:
Quite colorful, aren't they? As for myself, I've never been in a kayak. I've done a lot of canoeing, but no kayaking.
Lisa and Bina spent a lot of time sleeping on this trip:
We stopped and did some bottom fishing near Gedney Pass.
The weather was nice so we just drifted while fishing.
I got a few "Brown Bombers" aka Rock Cod.
The only keeper I got was a big Red Snapper.
This one had a squid (or cuttle fish?) hanging out of his mouth.
Did not have time to get a picture before it drifted away.
I forgot to take a picture, but here is one from my files just so you can see what a Red Snapper looks like.
We moved around a bit and tried some bottom fishing in a few different places. The weather was so nice and the water so calm that we eventually just drifted out in the open and prepared dinner. Dinner consisted of fresh Red Snapper grilled on the Foreman Grill, salad, and veggies. Terrific!
By now it was getting to be around 7:15 PM and I anticipated sunset about 8:30 PM, so it was time to get packing towards our night spot.
I baited and prepped the shrimp pots and got them ready to set, and we headed towards Shrimp Bay, that's right, Shrimp Bay.
As we entered the bay I noticed what I initially thought was a log about mid channel. The water was very calm, but it looked like there was a ripple behind the log, almost like it was being towed by something, but there were no other boats around.
As we got closer I realized that it was a Black Bear swimming. Now there's something you don't see every day. I did not have time to put my telephoto lens on. We only had a minute or two before he made it to shore, so these are the best pictures that we could manage.
He knew we were there and didn't like it much. Once he made it to shore he scooted up the rocks without even shaking off the water.
I've seen a lot of deer swimming, and even a moose swimming, but not a bear. You never know what you'll see out here. You just have to be ready.
Right after that we dropped the shrimp pots right in the middle of Shrimp Bay. As we set them we noticed another bear on the beach. I got as close as I could and Lisa shot a few pics.
This is the time of year when the bears are out but there are no salmon in the streams yet, so they spend a lot of time on the beaches eating grass, turning over rocks looking for whatever they can find.
Shrimp Bay connects to Klu Bay, and when we went through the passage into Klu Bay I could see two boats in there. One was a large cruising sail boat, anchored, and the other was small runabout, also at anchor. I figured if they were anchored, the mooring buoy would surely be taken, but it wasn't.
We had a very quiet night on the mooring buoy.
On Sunday morning we were up early. It was calm with light rain falling. By the time breakfast had ended, so had the rain.
As we made our way into Shrimp Bay we stopped in front of the double waterfalls and got a couple of good shots.
We pulled the shrimp pots but only got a couple of dozen.
We moved on up to Bailey Bay and dropped the shrimp pots again, maybe better luck this time around.
We did a little more bottom fishing, but the breeze was starting to pick up and it was harder to find places that were protected from the wind.
So I decided to set the trolling gear and try trolling for salmon for awhile.
We trolled for about 3 hours in Behm Narrows, which a little later in the summer will be one of the hottest fishing areas around - but we're just a little too early. No fish.
By now the afternoon winds had really picked up and it was getting really choppy. Lisa was getting uncomfortable and it was up to me to fix that.
We pulled into Bailey Bay, nodded to our shrimp pots as we passed them by, and tied up to the mooring buoy at about 6 PM. It was still very breezy in there and the mooring buoy seemed awfully close to shore, but I put two lines on it and we were home for the night. 73.3 nm to this point.
I fired up the Coleman gas stove and boiled the shrimp on the back deck.
Dinner this evening consisted of shrimp, chicken grilled on the Foreman Grill, salad and veggies.
After dinner we made a short shore excursion in the raft.
Here is Faraway tied to the mooring buoy. In the background on the shore you can see a diamond shaped trail head marker. This trail goes up to Lake Shelokum. There is an amazing water fall at the near end, and at the far end is a natural hot springs. No time to go up the trail on this trip.
Here's Bina taking Lisa for a walk ... wait, did I say that right?
That breeze that was so strong when we pulled in just died completely, and it was a beautiful evening.
We had another very quiet night on the mooring buoy.
On Monday morning, Memorial Day, we pulled away from the mooring buoy in sunny, calm, cool weather.
First stop was to pull the shrimp pots. Got about the same amount as last time, but this time we had an octopus in the pot. The first time I got an octopus in the pot I dumped him out on the deck and then had a devil of a time getting him back in the water without harming him. Now I have it down pat. I just dump him in the orange tub with the shrimp, and then put the tub on the corner of the swim step, and he gets out by himself.
Somehow they sense the direction of the water because they always climb out on the correct side of the tub.
While they are in the shrimp pot they fill up on shrimp. I find empty shrimp shells that look like they've had the meat sucked out with a strong suction pump. Not a shred of meat left inside.
And he's just about home free.
We were a long way from home, many miles to cruise, so we just stowed the pots and headed south.
The run home was flat calm for awhile, just about up to the time I commented on how calm it was. After that it got rough. Figures.
We made it into the stall at about 2:30 PM.
Total trip mileage was 116 nm.
Another successful adventure aboard Faraway.
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