Up The Lake -1

Richard, Nora Lee, Helen and Harley took another familiarization trip up Powell Lake this afternoon and went as far as the south end of Goat Island. Everything ran like a top, but more practice needed to get her back in the slip on the first try! The GPS showed us travelling over almost 1200 feet of water in certain spots. Could also see lots of fish on the fish finder at 100 - 150 depth. It was plus 20 degrees and no wind so the water was very calm.  
 
 

Our Boat Gets Wet

Together with our friends, Richard and Nora Lee, we've take the plunge into boat ownership. And, here she is. The manufacturer is Arima from the Puget Sound area of Washington State. It's 19' with a hardtop, an 8' beam and very seaworthy hull. There's a cuddy cabin, ship to shore radio and GPS and it's powered with a Honda 130 hp outboard and a 7.5 hp kicker. It came with a tandem axle trailer and today we launched her in Powell Lake. We'll leave it berthed in the marina at the Shinglemill for this summer. With the trailer we can choose to take it to the ocean for day trips. The best of both worlds! Everybody that sees it is very complimentary. This evening a couple of local guys said, "It's the nicest boat in the Marina."

Another Whale Sighting

This past friday evening we attended the annual Art Walk visiting a number of art galleries along Marine Avenue. In the first gallery folks were talking of having seen at least 3 Orcas in the water off the Lookout earlier in the day. Then, while Helen, NoraLee and I were walking at the corner of Marine Avenue and Alberni Street I spotted a water spout out from the Willingdon Beach area. Sure enough, at least 2 more spouts were spotted and then we could see at least 3 of these majestic sea mammals breaking the surface. We watched them for at least 5 minutes, but unfortunately they weren't close enough for pictures. Another great experience!!

Prawn Season

Today is the first day of the annual 62 day commercial prawn fishing season in the ocean waters around Powell River. We paid a late afternoon visit to our "connection" and bought 10 lbs fresh off the boat. Barb from next door took 4 lbs and we kept 6. Then came the hard part! The peeling is not easy. Especially when they're so fresh. We could go into the explanation of how it's done but as it includes breaking the heads off, we'll leave the details for another time. We had a few for supper and the rest went into the deep freeze to have on hand in case we get visitors this summer.