kennedy cove

We got a tip from a boat in Tofino that there was tons of crab and prawn to be had in Kennedy Cove, so Andante and Hello World headed north in search of deliciousness while Palarran took off south for Barkley Sound hoping we'd catch lots and they'd skip out on all of the work.

Kennedy Cove was a hit from the start - first of all, it had a slide - woohoo!



But upon closer inspection, we realized it was missing a few key parts


We still took advantage of the 70F water though - I decided to see just how far I could lean on one side of the paddleboard before tipping it over.



Surprisingly far!

And we did, in fact, have a great catch of crab!! The prawns, however, were a different story: first we had to find our pot...in the fog...that Andante had nicely moved to a "better" spot, the location of which I wasn't sure of...



Can you see my prawn buoy? Yeah, me neither.

We finally located it, pulled it up the 300 feet of line, and then about 10 feet from the trap, it just stopped. Turns out it was hooked on another prawn buoy that someone probably abandoned because they couldn't pull it up. I managed to get the whole thing up and on deck and...ta da! 12 prawn!



When we got to Ucluelet, we gave away the prawn trap.

tofino

Here's what we learned about Tofino:

1) It's hell to get to in a boat - there are crab pots EVERYWHERE, the current is crazy, the sandbars shift and the harbor docks never have any space on them.

2) That said, it was a pretty cool town

3) Then low tide comes and you FREAK THE F OUT when you see the (unmarked) sandbar right in front of you (fortunately, we were docked at the time)



4) Oh, and if that wasn't enough? When we left, the fog was pea soup and whaling tours and sport fishers love to fly around at 20 knots - and sometimes they have radar.



Next time, maybe we'll drive.

hot springs cove - round 2!

Four years ago, this was one of our most favorite stops, so of course we had to come back.

We waited for the boats and planes full of tourists to leave before we headed to the hot springs (you know, because we're such locals)


Day 2 was spent carving


Our board was still looking good, so we just spruced her up and added a "2013"


We did some paddleboard exploring through a narrow cut and out to the Pacific (don't worry Mom, we didn't go into the ocean on the boards)


And saw a mama gray whale and her baby really close (fortunately we were in dinghies, not paddleboards when this happened.


She sort of looked like an underwater elephant (but the ranger insisted that it was a gray whale, so I guess that's what it was)


And Kevin "saved" a dog that was swimming around the anchorage looking really tired and whimpering. Turns out he's a local dog named Diogie (pronounced D-O-G, spelling may be incorrect) that swims across the bay to beg food off silly cruisers and campers that think he's adorable. He also occasions the hot springs and apparently swims with the gray whales (we didn't see this, but someone showed us pictures). According to the ranger (yeah, the one that thought they were gray whales instead of underwater elephants, that's the one) - Diogie bit one of the whales a few weeks back. I'm not sure how one knows that, but it apparently hasn't stopped the dog from swimming with his pals. Here's Diogie (cutest dog ever - I was seriously going to take him home when Kevin "rescued" him) approving our work on the boardwalk:


And finally (drumroll please), for those of you who remember the awful graffiti that occasioned our board 2 years ago, we finally were able to spread some graffiti love (and yes, Jason has been planning this for 2 years)

moving southward

After rounding Brooks Peninsula (with Cape Cook at the tip), we headed to Columbia Cove so we could go to our favorite beach on Vancouver Island


We found Japanese trash (that's been pretty common on this trip)


And some very useful trash that we will be keeping on the boats.


We even went for a swim in the VERY COLD water


From there we went to the Bunsby Islands, which we officially renamed to the Bugsby Islands (I'll let you take 3 guesses why), where we helped Palarran conquer a few more islands


We saw this on a beach


And thought "that couldn't be a refrigerator". We were wrong. Upon further inspection, we found the makings for a quick whiffleball game on Refrigerator Beach


So long Bugsby Islands - next time we're bringing more powerful electric tennis rackets.

sea otter cove

We'd been to Sea Otter Cove before (ironically, we saw no otters in 2009 or this year), but hadn't gotten off the boat. This year, we went exploring - a 20 min hike led to an awesome beach. I was apparently overly excited at said beach.


But really, it was pretty cool.


It even had a little cabin for people hiking the west coast trail.


So cute!


With hilarious graffiti


I love me some good graffiti.


And CB found some good cahones.


The hike back was more exciting than the hike there, since I nearly got swallowed by quicksand mud...


(and my husband told everyone not to help me until he got a good shot of it)

And the dinghy was a bit high and dry by the time we made it back...



...next time maybe we'll skip the stern anchor.