Day 5 ~ Goose Bay, B.C to Fougner Bay, B.C

I was the first one to wake up, so I tiptoed off the boat with my camera in hand to capture the moment. Everything was so peaceful and gorgeous!  The birds were softly chirping and I could hear water trickling down behind the cannery which was reflecting perfectly in the mirror created by the calm water. Dad was up when I got back on board. Apparently, my phone alarm was still set from the day before and it kept going off. At first, Dad thought that it was a rooster on the shore (my alarm makes a rooster sound) but then it kept getting louder and louder. Dad, concerned that rooster from the cannery had somehow gotten on board, got up to investigate. He followed the sound to my phone, his touch sent it into snooze and the rooster stopped. Dad went back to bed, nine minutes later the rooster was crowing again! Not wanting to wake me he buried the phone between a stack of pillows.

During breakfast we brought out the charts and plotted our course to Fougner Bay which is just beyond Namu and was Eileen’s departure point. We girls, armed with the super detailed map of the great fishing spots in the area (compliments of Eileen’s business partner) were anxious to fish. Dad didn't want to dampen our spirits but he knew that the fish wouldn't be in the area for weeks which is why everything was closed up.

Under clear skies and sunshine, we departed Goose Bay and headed towards Fitz Hugh Channel. As we turned to head north up the channel, we took a small detour suggested by Judy to Fury Cove. Dad was in heaven as we poked our nose into the cove where we found beautiful white sandy beaches. We decided that on the way back home this would be our last anchorage before going back around the cape. North bound in Fitz Hugh channel we spotted a small pod of killer whales.

With a fresh northwesterly blowing on our nose and spray flying we preceded past Hakai Pass.  After we cleared the pass the seas calmed and we came across a hump back whale feeding outside of Namu. Our last sighting was his broad tail descending into the blue water. We came up Burke Channel and anchored in Fougner Bay, which is a nifty spot tucked in the islets against the snow capped mountains.

We secured the boat and talked Dad into going exploring with the fishing poles. Cocktails in hand, we fished the deep walls, accompanied by many seals. We caught one rock fish, one log, the bottom twice and Eileen even caught me!  When we got back to the boat, I dropped them off and hung around in our little cove because I still wanted to fish some more. I tried to get Dad to bait my hook but he decided to give me a lesson instead – yuck, I figured I would have a bait boy at least for a while longer. I caught a rock fish and gently lead it back to the big boat so Dad could take it off the hook, he freed the fish and advised me that releasing them was also something that was being added to my to do list. We had crab and salad for dinner with strawberry shortcake and whipped cream for dessert. By bedtime, it was still daylight and the water was very calm. The storm that had been predicted for the past few days never came and we were all in search of the aloe to cool our sunburned skin.