Art and I went out in the boat today. I hoped it would be a relatively low-wind, no rain day.
It’s true there was no rain. But it was mostly cloudy, and the wind from the west was quite strong relative to the forecast, at between 10 and 15 knots.
We left at 7:30. We went out to the east side of San Ignacio Island.
Here is a view looking back east toward Craig and Sunnahae Mountain, shrouded in clouds. The foregrounded island on the right is the north end of San Juan.
This is a view southward as we approached San Ignacio. Foreground on the left is the flank of San Juan Island. I like the smooth curve of the dipping ridge between the two distant mountains on the south end of Baker Island, on the far horizon near the center. The slightly closer island on the right is San Ignacio.
We trolled down San Ignacio’s shore and saw some eagles eyeing us. We caught nothing. From the south end of San Ignacio, we crossed eastward to Tranquil Point. Arthur has strong associations with fishing success there, but I’ve never experienced it since I’ve been up here. We trolled along the north shore of the Prince of Wales mainland there all the way to Caldera Bay. There were quite a few commercial fishing boats trolling around, all of them looking as fishless as we were.
In Caldera, we put down hooks for halibut. I do vaguely recall we might have caught some halibut here the fall when I first got here. But maybe not. Anyway, we caught absolutely nothing, the ocean was sloshy and choppy, the wind was chilly, the sun never showed up. Arthur seemed quietly bitter on the way home. I was proud of my boat-docking job, though – completely smooth, not even a gentle bump, I grabbed the dock as we approached and stopped the boat simply and began tying up.
So. Salmonless and only one halibut so far for the 2020 season.
I washed the salt spray (from all the wind-kicked waves splashing) from the boat. Clean boat.
