We had a very pleasant trip to Bay of Plenty. We had to travel through a couple of scenic passages - Meyer Passage between Swindle Island and Princess Royal Island and Thistle Passage and then up Larendo Inlet. Princess Royal Island is a huge Island. It's known as the Great Bear Rainforest.
It has not been very rainy here right now. We are happy to enjoy the sunshine and the warm - almost hot days. But it is very dry here. The central coast needs some rain.
We were able to talk to another boat coming down and they had just been in Bay of Plenty. They said there trip was flat calm and there were lots of crab in BOP. We were excited! Maybe there was hope for us to get some crab!
The Bay is quite the large anchorage with a very long mud flat at the top of the bay. We anchored in about 35 ft and very close to the mudflat. So when the tide was out there was a dry spot not far from the boat.
We were the only boat in there the first night. The next night a couple on a sailboat came and anchored for two nights. We were I visited for a drink and a visit on the sailboat. They were Bob and Lois that owned the Desolation Sound Charter when we chartered the boats from there. We had a nice visit. Learned a bit about going to Alaska. Seems like it would be a good trip.
The bay had a couple of spots that were low and grassy and easy access to take Jenny to shore. Jim rated this spot as a B.
The one spot that Jim used to take Jenny had a lot of grass and a small creek that flowed with fresh water as well as the sea water would come up into the creek on high tide.
It also had a Watchman standing guard on the shore
Jenny really enjoyed the time on shore, lying in the little creek and rolling in the grass.
Rolling in the grass! She really liked this beach! Every time she went to shore she would lie in the creek and roll in the grass.
Jim put the crab pots in the water and we got a total of 9 crabs - 8 of which we ate. Three meals of crab. The first night we had four crabs we ate all 4! We just ate them boiled with butter and garlic and had a few carrots on the side. Jim made a crab curry one night and I made crab and potato cakes another night.
Jenny and Lilly inspecting the crab pot.
Look - finally crab!! Yay.
We had hummingbirds coming to the boat in Bay of Plenty
The weather was beautiful while we were there although it was quite windy at times. Some evenings blowing close to 20 knots. The forecast for Gale warning in the Central Cast kept us at anchor for the 4 nights. Although we should have left after 3 nights. It was much less windy on the last night. But the extra day did get Jim a great big Red snapper! So that was worth another day I guess.
The morning we were ready to leave the wind was a bit down but it was pouring rain! Rain - heavy at times! We needed the full wet gear to put the skiff up and pull the anchor. The anchor was just heaped with mud, the most mud I've ever seen on it. Jim put the poles in the water. There is a little bit of open ocean area we will be going through as we go north so we decided to use the poles. There are no other boats around!
The coast guard is busy today trying to help a sailboat that has been stuck in Safety Cove on Calvert Island for the past 3-4 days with a broken fuel pump. They are looking for a tow to Port Hardy. The weather has been a bit windy up here and probably not many boaters going around the Cape at this time.
We are on our way to Chapple Inlet.
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