2013 Potentate Cruise: July 29, 2013 ~ Echo Bay

This morning there was fog. It wasn’t so thick that we couldn’t see the bow of the boat, or the next dock over, but beyond the breakwater and store there was nothing. And, when I walked out towards the breakwater, the back of the harbor disappeared. Despite the fog, the trawler and the huge yacht that were at the next dock over both left, with their radar arrays spinning. With them gone, the only other boat left here was the Vigorous II, a converted tugboat. We spoke for some time to the owners – their boat was a working tug up until 1973, when they bought it as a hull after a fire. They had built the house on it to their liking, repowered it and have spent the next 40 years working on it and using it. Some of their children weren’t even born when they started, and they had some grandchildren aboard today. They planned on leaving a little later in the morning, headed to Blunden Harbor to do some exploring there. Their departure left us as the sole client here, a fact that both Pierre and Tove, the Echo Bay proprietors, said was “just weird”.

We have wandered up to the store a few times, and each time we bring something back – whether it’s a card or a few groceries. The accounting system here is similar to that of Lagoon Cove – we have a tab with our boat name, and everything is recorded there. When it’s time to go, we’ll just have the one financial shock instead of bemoaning the individual prices here, like $5 for a dozen eggs or $7.50 for a bag of potato chips. The prices are actually understandable and reasonable considering the location and product delivery methods. Some stuff they can get by running over to Port McNeil in their boat – other products come from Campbell River or other points via seaplane. It’s a pretty tough business, especially considering the overhead and the fact that they probably only have three months to make their operating expenses for the year.

Later this morning we decided to hike the trail from here to Billy Proctor’s Museum. There are actually two ways to get there – hiking, or launching the dinghy and running around to the next harbor where he has a dock. We took the dinghy route when we were here 6 years ago. The trail starts right across the dock from our boat, with a ramp over to the land and up the hill. It leads around behind the marina, and I think there was a turn-off to go over to the old schoolhouse at the head of the bay here. After crossing a foot bridge over an opening where high tide waters can pass from the adjacent bay the trail climbed up some pretty steep hills. It was through forested land, and the ground was soft and spongy from many layers of fir needles as well as little critter tunnels we could see everywhere. Every so often there would be a ribbon tied to a tree that was apparently telling us where the trail was – sometimes it wasn’t all that obvious. We were both wearing sandals, which was definitely the wrong footwear for this terrain as our feet were sliding around inside them as we traversed the slopes. As we went further into the forest the mosquitoes seemed to get more and more hungry, as probably fresh meat hadn’t come their way all that often. We were less than halfway there and spending just as much time slapping mosquitoes as finding the trail when we decided it would be more fun to turn around and hike back to the boat. We had a good hike and some exercise, and we’ll remember our last visit to Billy Proctor’s for now.

Later today another boat arrived. It’s the Good Fortune, a beautiful trawler with a green hull. It’s huge – I paced it off as 72’ as I walked by. It had no brand identification visible, but I’m pretty sure it’s a Nordhavn. Maybe it’ll also bring good fortune to Pierre and Tove for more customers.

When we came through here in 2003 on the way to Alaska I read a story about how someone had caught a 35 lb. halibut at the fuel dock here in Echo Bay. At the time I tried some dock fishing, and came away with a couple of flounders. Well, today I decided to try it again and – I came away with a couple of flounders. I took them over to the fish cleaning station and filleted them and there’s almost enough for a meal for two. But more importantly, I now have some fresh crab bait as well. In fact, I’d say the ratio of crab bait to fillets is about 3 or 4 to 1. I definitely have a bigger bag of skin, bones and fish heads than meat. Taking today’s catch and our recent crabbing experiences into account, we have quite a ways to go to make my $100 non-resident fishing license worthwhile. But I foresee some good seafood eating in the near future.