From Ada Cove we motored the short distance to Shearwater which is next to Bella Bella. It being a Sunday in Canada, everything was closed including the fuel dock. We still managed to shower there and refill our tank and jugs with their yellowish water, to which we added some bleach.
We heard that the fuel dock in Bella Bella was open so we motored back that way.
About six crows and bald eagles were chasing and harassing another with a fish in his claws. Ultimately he dropped it and another bird caught it in flight. Obviously that just made it the next target and when the fish was dropped again it fell all the way into the water and was lost to all. I'm sure there is a powerful message here but don't ask me which.
After tying to the fuel dock and checking things out it turned out that on Sundays you can call the attendant over the phone and ask her to come to the dock but you have to pay a "call out" fee of $25 for the privilege.
She came over for another boat that did just that but then still wanted us to pay that fee too even though she was already there and in all logic we couldn't possibly "call her out" anymore and therefore also not pay a "call out" fee. The logic was lost on her. It was already 2 pm by then so we opted instead to anchor next to town and to go refuel at Shearwater the next day.
Ventilating our stuff at Bella Bella fuel dock during endless wait for attendant on this radiant day:
At anchor we even removed the tarp from the frame over the cockpit to enjoy the sun! It was a perfect time to caulk the depth sounder. It is drying more and more and is now working more or less reliably in shallow depths but we don't use it anymore. There is a fish finder that came with the boat and that I thought didn't work until the depth sounder quit on us and we started tinkering with it. The fish finder gives us our depth reliably.
During our endless wait at the fuel dock we had chatted with another boater there. He'd been throwing out fish at the bald eagles to photograph them and that's what we had seen them fight over. I used this opportunity to take a few shots of my own (with my good camera, not with this iPod so I can't send them along).
This friendly Canadian also explained to us how to fish for bottom feeders such as rock fish and halibut. Obviously we don't have the gear for halibut which can weigh hundreds of pounds but we tried for smaller fish.
Laszlo went at it for a while without result. I myself don't really care about eating fish and even less about catching the slimy things but seeing how low the morale of the troops had fallen on the fishing front I got up and grabbed the rod and loudly declared: "It's time for some beginner's luck!". I had never fished in my life before and just did what the Canadian at the dock had explained to us.
10 minutes later:
We had finally caught our first fish!
The deal was that fishing would be allowed on this trip but Laszlo and Jenny would have to do the killing and cleaning. Laszlo had fished on lakes and rivers before but never done either of the above himself.
His plan was to hit the fish with the back of the blade of our kitchen knife to knock it out and then to cut off the head.
The hit only produced a dull thud without any other effect and the fish gave us an indignated look:
The poor little rock fish was not much of a struggler so it was attempted to go straight to the cutting part but the blade broke from the handle!
After more fumbling with another knife the poor thing was finally out of its misery.
Before the grill:
After the grill:
After this victory, Laszlo had tried to catch more before dinner but we got only the one. Its flesh didn't feed the three of us of course but the morale was greatly boosted. Personally, I would have let the little guy go.
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