June 6, 2017 - Our 30th wedding anniversary

Greg thought enough in advance to get me an anniversary card and gave it to me in the morning - what a guy! I was not so prepared and so he got nothing We left shortly after 8:00am in order to catch slack in Chatham Channel. We ordered some of Port Harvey's famous cinnamon buns "for the road" and ate those a long the way - a good hearty breakfast! Seas were flat calm and even though we were slightly late, Chatham Channel was no problem. I remembered that other people had seen bears in the channel in the past, and so I mentioned this to Greg. No too long later, Greg said he saw a rock bear. (Rocks look a lot like bears when you're looking for them). Turns out in this case, it wasn't a rock bear but a real bear! That never happens



So I maneuvered the boat closer to the shore so that Greg could get some nice photos.

Then it was through the Blow Hole (no, not a real one) and into Lagoon Cove. Stella Maris was ahead of us and already tied up, and Port McNeill Explorer arrived about the same time as us. Bruce wanted to meet the new owners and manager and so there were introductions all round. The new owner is Jim, and he is there along with his daughter Kelly and son-in-law Dan who are also living there and helping to run it. Turns out they also have some managers there too, but it was their day off today.

We wanted to do some crabbing and pawning while at Lagoon Cove. It's a "famous" pawning place and they serve spot prawns to all their guests during their daily Happy Hour at 5:00pm. And we've been successful there in the past. So we all hop in the dingy with all the gear and go to a "special spot" that a friend of ours told us about. Unfortunately the current is really running and so after we put the pot down, we decide that it's running to much and so decide to pull it up again and place it somewhere else. But "no can do" pulling it up. It must be hung up on something under water because no matter what Greg tries with the pot puller and hauling by hand, it just won't budge with about 200' of line still in the water. And because of the current, we can't pull it the other way. So we throw it all back in the water and head back to the marina for lunch! Not much else you can do.

We took Bella for a walk around the property, and then headed back out at around slack at 3:30. This time, we pulled it along the bottom for a long way in the other direction. And then we pulled it up without issue. Of course they were completely empty. Not only no prawns, but no squat lobsters or anything else either. I guess there was so much current, that none of the critters ventured out. But now of course it's too late to put the pots somewhere else But as Greg says, a good McLaughlin fishing day is one in which you get your gear back.

Happy Hour was at 5:00 and we got a chance to meet some more people and got some more good advice on cruising in Alaska. There were so many prawns provided by Lagoon Cove that there were prawns *leftover*! So we took even more back to the boat and had prawn dinner after all!