Update on no updates

Sad to say, my laptop is broken. I used my new aircard for a day and a half then the plugin on the back of my computer was somehow damaged… the battery won’t charge. Hopefully, I’ll get it repaired under warranty… so the only way I can write a post right now is when I’m at the museum - paying for computer time

Oh, woe is me… poor, poor me… Okay, if you feel sorry for me now, that’s good! Ha, I’ll be back soon, so don’t go too far away

Meantime - I’ll try to post a few pictures.

Myth or Truth

Truth or Myth?

My cousin Bill, who prawn fishes out in front of his home in Agamemnon Bay (Dean’s Bay) told us of a plan he’s been hatching for about 6 years. Kent and I are always game for fun, so today we met up with Bill to bust a myth or prove a truth.

When Bill was running a water taxi business, a customer who had explored the deep water with a submersible around the Egmont area told him he’d seen a 6 foot wall of prawns at a 1500 foot depth. Apparently the mass of prawns extended further than the camera’s reach and was amazing to discover. Bill has wanted to set prawn traps at that depth to see for himself if it was truth or fiction.

Today, was the day! Bill had traps, baited and ready to go with 900 feet of line. Kent had 1200 feet of line. The water was calm, the sun was shining and we didn’t have anything else to do, so off we went to find a depth of 1500 feet off Captain Island. Setting traps in that depth requires a bit more anchor than we usually use at 350 feet. Bill started to let the anchor down, attached a trap then another anchor, then another trap, then another anchor and another and soon the line was peeling out with the very heavy weight. When the traps reached bottom we attached a buoy, threw it over and watched it as our boat floated away.

We enjoyed a beer and lunch in the lukewarm rays of the sun and drifted for 3 hours, laughing and chatting while we imagined thousands of prawns filling the traps.

Pulling such a weight from such a depth was not an easy job but Bill was prepared with a block on his aluminum boat. The end of the line was tied to a cleat on our boat and Bill hooked the line over his block then started to back his boat away, planning to slowly raise the traps. He ended up going in circles around our boat - the traps were stuck on bottom. Finally, while he pulled toward deep water, with us motoring ahead slowly (in and out of gear) so as to not break the line, the traps came free of the bottom and Bill and his boat moving slowly away, raising the traps, we could see progress. He and Kent were in constant communication via VHF radio and he’d ask Kent to stop while he removed an anchor.

This process took about half an hour and Bill was relaying the number of feet of line to go, finally saying to hold up - the first trap was surfacing.

I know I was holding my breath, imagining the feast of big fat prawn, the freezer overflowing and the excitement as we told of our great adventure… only to hear Bill say the first trap was empty…, then…. the second trap was empty… OH, the disappointment… we’d gone to a lot of work and put in nearly 5 hours, only to bust the myth.

If there are 6 foot deep walls of prawns at 1500 feet, they weren’t in the area we fished.

The good news is - we had a wonderful day on the water. Even a poor day of prawn fishing is better than working!

Lucky Day

April 23 was my lucky day!

After prawning, trying to connect to the internet via bluetooth (very aggravating, time consuming and not successful) and more driveway cleanup, Pop, Kent and I went to the Backeddy Pub for dinner.

The new owners have given the place a much needed facelift with new paint, decor and to my surprised pleasure they installed two new TV’s and have Keno and Pacific Hold Em lottery games available. I bought $18.00 of Pacific Hold Em and $10.00 of Pull Tab tickets and won $297.00 total! When I was buying the tickets, one of the other patrons and his wife mentioned there used to be a bell to ring if you won and then you bought the house a round of drinks. Too bad - no bell to ring now, we laughed - but when I won, I bought the house a round. Lucky for me everyone but the couple I’d talked to had left - so I bought them a round and paid for our dinner and drinks… AND, came home with enough to keep me playing each week for quite some time!

Tomorrow we will prawn fish again, do more driveway cleanup and perhaps get some of the net shed debris taken to the fire pile.

Clean Up

April 22

Picked up prawn traps this morning then moved them to near Miller Islet as ‘Dean’s Bay wasn’t producing much for us. Kent thinks it’s possibly the bait we’re using. One of Pop’s campers who has been doing quite well gave us a bucket of the bait he uses, so we’re trying it. Perhaps it’s time to buy a new brand - or maybe ours is just old and doesn’t smell right anymore!

Back at the dock at 11:30 am and after a quick lunch, Kent, Pop and I went to work on the driveway cleanup project. There were trees downed in the wind last December and lots of branches and debris to rake and put in the box trailer to take to the fire pile. Kent used the backhoe to pull some of the trees out of the bush. We loaded the backhoe bucket with bigger branches and logs.

One cedar tree had branches hanging low so I raised Kent in the backhoe bucket to trim the branches with a chain saw. I think we did about half the cleanup then at 2 pm had to go to the beach to renew a float anchor, line and chain. By 3 pm we were done and I went to have a rest. Pop did too but Kent kept working until 5. Dinner at 6 then a bit more crocheting and I’m done for the day. Time to type the day’s events, relax, play solitaire and have an early night.

Prawn Trap Mystery

Boating, prawn fishing and gardening aren’t enough to occupy 24 hours a day, so I joined a quilt group today!

A group of local Egmont, Earls Cove and Pender Harbour ladies get together every Tuesday for a few hours of quilting, sewing, crafting, knitting and crocheting and asked me to join last summer but I never managed to work it in. This year all the stars and planets aligned and so did my time schedule. I already knew some of the ladies and met a a few more today. They’ve been meeting for years and have completed lots of projects and have lots more on the go. The current group quilt is an assortment of red scraps in small squares with corner triangles which each form a square where 4 corners meet. It’s vivid but beautiful - and a perfect choice as they plan to donate it to the Egmont Volunteer Fire Department to raffle to raise much needed funds.

The previous project was a split rail fence design lap quilt and I saw quilts in all stages, some completed, some still attaching borders - but all lovely to touch and so inspiring. I’m looking forward to joining these motivated ladies each week and hope to complete a project or two of my own as well as ‘group quilt’.

Part of my initiation was helping to sew knitted squares together to form a pretty pastel baby afghan. The squares are a take-off of the knitted dishcloths but done with Mary Maxim yarn to be soft and cozy. Each square has a design in the center of an animal or shape. We nearly finished sewing the squares together and my ‘homework’ for the week is to crochet a picot edging. I like crocheting and worked at it this evening,completing the first round of single crochet and half finished the second round of double crochet. Next is the picot which will take a few hours but it’s a small project and perfect for working at on the boat.

Back to reality now - the weeding is still waiting and if I don’t get at it all the flowers will go to seed and create 8 million more weeds for next Spring.

We’re not doing very well prawning and have to find a better area to set the traps. We also lost two traps today - we found the buoy, with 4 feet of line left attached, floating a few miles from where we set and the line looked as though it was caught in a boats propeller perhaps. So, that’s two less traps we’ll be fishing for a while - and an expensive amount of gear to replace.

Kent has been doing a lot of trimming and clean up as well as repairs and maintenance to equipment. We have a ton of clean up before the big (95th) birthday party/family re-union and lots of preparation required.

Yesterday, I cleaned much of the command bridge and washed the navy canvas covers. The floor still needs scrubbing and the fridge needs the mildew removed - yuck - who forgot to leave the door open last winter???