Wednesday August 23, 2017

Overcast dull cool drizzly day. I tried to get on the internet in the AM, no joy. We picked up our cinnamon buns and said goodbye to Debbie and Chris. Saw there was no current at the dock, so we started them up and headed out around 9:45. Uneventful drizzling trip over to Pierre's arriving just after noon. Again, no Telus signal the whole way, but EG was able to download all their email just outside the bay. When we arrived, we asked to be put at the back so they put us on the "lodge" dock. When we arrived, there were constant swells coming in, not from boat wake (or maybe it was some boat wake) but from the tide. (This according to Sam the dock guy). In any case, the boats were slamming around. So we asked to just move around the corner to be in front of "Gambit" (cat from Ocean Falls) so we could take the swell bow on. Then EG asked to move around to behind the lodge dock, all bow out. We were the complainers. But it was much nicer. And, true to Sam's description, the swells subsided after about 1/2 an hour.

Up to the store to check in, get on the internet, have some coffee and some lunch. Around 3:30 we headed over to Billy's. They have a new "skookum" bridge over to the island and the trail has some brand new and numerous signs installed. We were able to sit, just the 4 of us, with Billy for about an hour just shooting the shit about everything Echo Bay. It was quite pleasant. He talked about shooting a bear this winter after it attacked and ate all his chickens, tore apart the hen house, tried to get in the smoke house, and then the final straw was attacking Buster. So now some guys across the island have skinned it and are cooking up the meat. I asked Billy if he ate any bear meat and he said "god no!". He also said that all the deer are gone (he never had trouble with deer!! Wha?) because there are a couple of cougars hanging around all the time. They're eating everything!



We left around 5:00 and headed back to the boats. Not too much time before we fed the dog and then headed up to dinner. Sue had saved places for us and for Jim and Judy from Sparky, and Rob and Sharon from Serena to sit together, and then we were also joined by another couple from Sidney who Rob&Sharon had hooked up with. It was fish n' chip night so we had Pierre's famous halibut and it was delicious. I pigged out on fish. Then there was also some kind of chiffon pie (lemon?) for dessert. Tove was her usual "kindergarten teacher" self and kept us all in line.

After dinner we met on EG and did some trip planning as we had no idea where to go. Rob and Sharon joined us as well, although they have been bouncing around here for quite some time. We had never been to Viner Sound before and it's on the way up to Kwatsi so that's what we decided. Weather coming from the south so according to Rob, not a good time to be in the "islands" part of the Broughton's.