Aug 31 – Day 121 Sullivan Bay to Claydon Bay

Aug 31 – Day 121   Sullivan Bay to Claydon Bay

It was a sunny and warm day.

Glen and Diane ordered Cinnamon rolls from the Sullivan Bay store and they were piping hot from the oven and ready at promptly 9am this morning.  They are yummy.  

Sullivan Bay – float plane dock at far left, a beautiful float house, and fuel dock on right

 

One of my favorite houses in Sullivan Bay.  It always has beautiful flowers and art pieces on display.

Spoke to the owners (mid 80’s). They live in Nanaimo in the winter and up here in the summer.

 

Beautiful morning in the ghost town

 

The pots were checked and we harvested about 100 Coon Stripe Shrimp and Spot Prawn.  We are not traveling far today and to near where the pots were put down so they were let out to soak. This area is generally good for Prawning.

First bowl of harvest

 

This morning Willard helped Glen work on Magic’s generator and replaced the heat exchanger.  It was working but there was a small leak so Glen decided to swap out the part before it broke at an inconvenient time.  

I took a walk around the docks to get some exercise.  When the harbor is full there generally is a group of people walking all of the docks from one end of the community to the other.   We also chatted for a bit with Mike and Beth from Voyager who were on their way south from their first trip to Alaska and their first stop in the Broughtons.  They were looking for ideas of places to visit.

 

We headed out on flat water and under bright warm sunshine.  I guess the weather controller decided to give us some sun in August after all.  

We ended up in Claydon Bay and Sea Life was the anchor boat today.  This is the first night at anchor this summer that it was not Magic’s anchor holding the group.  This must be a popular spot as when we got arrived there was a sailboat there.  We anchored on the other side to give them space.   After our exploration tour another raft of two boats about our size had come in and anchored near us, which was fine with us.   The bay is very protected and only about 20-25 feet deep, with small tidal changes at this point.

 

We went for an exploration tour of the area and found several interesting areas.  The logs that go under a float house were washed up on a rocky shore.  Down the way from that was an area with piling with cross beams on top.  They were close together and based on the configuration of the top logs, this was very likely a pier that had rail cars that took loads of wood from the back country out to dump in the bay.  We went ashore and followed these piling up into the woods for some distance.  They were in a very straight line and many of the top cross pieces had rotted and fallen to the ground.  When the vegetation got too thick to continue we turned and went back to the beach.  There were critter footprints  on the beach, likely racoon or other small sharp toed animal.   

 

There was also bear scat on the beach so we know that there are bear in the area.   Back to the boat and on to the next beach down the way and around the corner.  There was an old set of floating docks that were in bad shape with old rusty drums, crab pots, and an old small boat pulled up onto it.   Not far off this dock under water we saw what appears to be the remains of an old boat; well, the front portion at least.   On shore there was another set of the same type of ‘rail car’ piling that we found earlier.  This time there were lots of old rusty spikes, and other pieces of old rusty gears etc on the ground.   There were also lots of large tree stumps which had floated up on the beach.  Someone clearly was planning on doing something in the area as there was long lines of surveyor type tape of different colors heading off into the woods.  Glen followed the lines for a bit but did not find anything.   The tape seemed to mark and follow a stream bed.   So the exploration was successful.  

 

Large old cedar stump with spring board cut.  This was about 4 feet across.

Pilings from old railway

 

Rotting dock, with junk just waiting to fall into the sea

 

What’s left of a piling log – count those rings

 

Old rusty stuff on beach

 

 

On the way back to the boats we stopped and checked the crab pots.  One large keeper and several smaller non keepers, so there are crab in the area.   We moved the pots a bit and left them to soak over night.  

After dinner, which was coconut prawns and salad, the harvesters then went out to check the prawn pots.   Success again.  Another nice harvest of Coon Stripe Shrimp and Spot Prawns.  The pots were also left out for an overnight soak.