May 27 Punch Bowl to Walker Bay

 

 

May 27 – Punch Bowl to Walker Bay

 

First thing – check those pots.  Pete was excited as he got 9 prawn and 0 crab (he has been the loser in most pulls).  Diane got some Prawn and 2 crab (I think she is still overall in the lead).  Steve pulled his and Glen’s pots and between them we had another couple dozen Prawn and 6 crab.  Those coupled with the harvest of last night will be great.  Prawn something tonight.   The crab went into the crab hotel and hung over the side to keep them alive.

 

Some of the boys all hiked up to the waterfall and lake.   The trail was reported to be quite muddy and really more of a scramble in places.  This is the lake that in 2013 Glen and Nat hiked to and they found a small shelter/cabin of sorts and a small boat and canoe.  The guys said that the lake was much the same – Beautiful.  While there, Glen tried to carve a plug for the boat that he and Nat had tried to sink on the last trip.  Glen got the plug in and that leak was solved but there was now a bigger leak on one of the seams so …. No dinghy ride across the lake.   Brian tried his hand at fly fishing – no luck.   Willard and Steve explored.  They all reported that the waterfall was amazing as was the lake.   The trail was in their opinions not horrible, but quite wet and slippery.  Haven’t watched it yet but Glen apparently videoed while hiking down.  Oh bear scat on the trail so yep there are bear in the area.

 

Meanwhile back at the flotilla Pete, Gary, Robert, and Jim helped Jim practice his drone flying.  He has been doing fly overs in several locations on this trip learning more about drone flying each time. He is getting pretty good and the videos are quite amazing.  The ladies - Janie, Cheryl, Linda, Lenore, Diane, Michelle, and I all did boat based stuff:  Reading, cooking, cleaning, etc..   I gave Michelle her first lesson in bread making – French Bread today.  Four loafs of yummy bread were produced.  I tried to make Willard a loaf of Gluten Free French …. It didn’t work.  Looked more like a very large cracker.  Hardtack came to my mind.  Humm, it might make good breadcrumbs. Back to the drawing board for Gluten Free Bread making.  

 

The cruise between Punch Bowl and Walker is about 2 hrs.  Nice smooth water all the way.  There was water falling everywhere – the waterfalls that had been dry on our way in were spilling large amounts of water.   Oh it rained quite a bit yesterday and all night. 

 

On arriving in Walker Bay, there were two boats on the buoys on the grassy meadow side.  Prime Bear country.   Before even anchoring the first boat (Magic) I spotted Bear on the beach.   A momma and three cubs.   Down the beach further was another Mom and cub.    The plan ‘had been’ to get anchored up, and everyone report to Sea Jay for ‘Happy Hour’ before a big group dinner to be held on Nelsea.  So that we could have dinner somewhere close to the dinner hour like normal people.  This was preempted by getting dinghies down and a bear viewing adventure. 

 

 

 

The bear family at the end of the bay had moved on.   But on the closer shoreline there was momma and her 3 cubs, and down the beach a ways was another momma and her cub.  

The mom of 1, had a good sized cut on her tail, almost looked like part of the tail was missing.   Looks like she got in a fight with someone.   Gary and Jim said that when they were here last week that she kept going to the water and sitting in it ‘soaking’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the bears were eating grass.  Two of the sibling cubs were playing – wrestling, rolling around on the ground, then standing to stand wrestle and just plain having fun.  Their sibling watched for a bit and then moved over near mom and chomped on grass, but kept looking over as if to say either: “I want to play too!” or  “You two, are so silly – someone could get hurt”.     

 

 

 

 

I love you bro!

 

 

 

We had a great show.  Time to go back to the boats.  

 

Preparations for dinner was followed by a group dinner for 15 on Nelsea.   Grilled Prawn Kabobs (with mushrooms, tomatoes, onion etc), Salad, Beef Tri-Tip, Rice, Broccoli, and fresh bread, all followed by Lenore’s dessert.  She is the dessert queen as she can make anything into something.  This time it was some kind of bar cookie made with ‘crackers’, brown sugar, peanut butter, chocolate, and walnuts.  I don’t think anyone (other than Willard and I) ate less than 2-3 pieces each.  Once again our dinner was fashionably late, finishing about 9:15pm.      After dinner everyone went ‘home’ and did whatever they did.  I was looking over my bear photos and Glen started a movie.  He promptly fell asleep.