May 29th - Day 3 - Fishing for Halibut 

If you say it lazily and pronounce the "a" like an "e", fishing for the 'halibut' can quite easily sound like fishing for the...well, you get the picture.

We spent this morning drifting easily a rock outcropping on flat calm waters fishing for halibut. Our guests lined up strategically around the boat in six different positions and everyone threw a line in. We caught a wide variety of bottom fish, including black cod, red snapper, China rockfish and ling cod...but the BIG ONE got away! Really, it did!

Russ was set up at the back of the boat and was jigging (pulling his line up from the bottom in swift jerks, then letting it settle back down again slowly, then repeating it over and over again to simulate an injured fish) when he started felling something fairly big begin tugging at his line. Russ called me over and told me to feel his line, so I took hold of it and sure enough, there was something VERY big on the other end. Unfortunately, the halibut was just nibbling at the bait, and each time Russ tried to hook it, the fish would let go. After six of seven mini tug-of-wars, the halibut finally took off and we were all left wondering just HOW BIG it was!

In the meantime, we had our first sea lion sighting of the trip. While we were fishing, three Stellar's sea lion bulls popped out of the water a few times to take a gander at us.

It's now 1:15 in the afternoon and we're off the east coast of the Queen Charlottes heading south towards Cape St. James and the World Heritage Site of Nan Sdins. We're just east of Burnaby Island and while I love writing these updates, I'm now leaving you to head up on deck to watch for the same pod of humpback whales that we ran into back on Day 5. Talk to you soon!

The Show! 
I stepped outside at 1:15 and less than fifteen minutes later we spotted our first humpback of the day lobtailing (tossing water about with its tail) and blowing on the eastern horizon. Gordon swung the boat in that direction and within twenty minutes we had a cow and a calf surfacing and blowing less than 150 metres in front of us.

Like our experience last week, there were humpbacks all around us by 2:30! We didn't know what direction to look in as the whales lobtailed and surfaced in all directions...at one point, a giant tail rose up out of the water less than ten metres from the boat and our guests! It seemed so incredible that it was hard to believe that things could possibly get better, but the whales were just the start of our show!

Just after 2:40 a cry went out, "There's dolphins on the other side." We turned around to one of the most breathtaking sights I have ever seen along the coast -- more than 100 dolphins knifing through the air and the water in the distance, backlit against the sun and the Queen Charlotte mountains. It was so spectacular that for a few minutes of frenzied action, I actually forgot that there were humpback whales only a hundred meters to our other side!

Trudy called out to speed up and sure enough, as soon as we did, we were treated to another spectacular sight: as if on cue from the increased noised from our engine, the dolphins turned as one and sped straight towards us, leaping and rolling as they came. Within minutes, we had dolphins on our left, dolphins on our right, dolphins in the middle and dolphins in tight. I can't even tell you what everyone else was doing, though I assume they were doing what I was doing, which was literally bubbling over with excitement. Did I mention that it was sunny AGAIN, too?

The action lasted for ten or fifteen minutes and then slowly but surely, we could tell that the dolphins were tiring. I can't imagine the energy that it takes to leap about following a boat, but it was obvious that their playful enthusiasm couldn't last forever. No matter how much we tried to coax them, there was no final encore to our fabulous show.

Then again, maybe there was a final encore. A half-hour later, we arrived at a sea lion haul-out and watched as giant 2000 pound bulls and younger seal lions basked in the glow of the sun. About the same time, I spotted my first puffin (a tufted puffin)! For some strange reason, I have always though that puffins were 'cool' seabirds, so it was exciting to finally see one.

At this stage, it was still only 4:30 in the afternoon and the sun was washing the deck and our guests with a gentle breeze. We anchored for the night in another beautiful secluded cove up an inlet on the southwestern corner of Moresby Island.

Before dinner, Roberta cooked up some sawbill for us. This traditional Haida treat is saltwater, yeast and flour fried in oil. I thought it tasted remarkably similar to Yorkshire pudding, so I limited myself to about twenty of them.

After dinner, a group of us headed ashore in the canoe and one of the zodiacs, inadvertently scaring off a herd of deer when we landed. While most of the group when off exploring into the forest, I stayed close to the estuary and photographed the sun setting behind the Copper Sky. When I walked over toward the forest, I discovered a nice fresh black bear scat (those of you that know me know that I think of this as a GOOD thing, not a bad thing!), then ran into one of the deer gingerly edging back out into the open.

The forest we explored a beautiful copper coloured creek flowing lazily through it and a half kilometre up we discovered a pretty waterfall that cascaded down a series of black rock steps to a pool below. While the group took a look around, I returned to check on the boats and had one final wildlife encounter of the day - a harbour seal poked its head out of the water near the skiff and eyed me curiously for a minute, then softly sank down and was gone.

It was an incredible day for a photographer: spectacular scenery, sunny skies and more wildlife than I ever could have hoped for -- whales, sea lions, dolphins, seals, deer, eagles, puffins, sooty shear waters, black-legged kitti wakes, pigeon, guillemots, ancient murrelets, rhinoceros auklets and gulls. In short, it was close to perfect.

Only one thing now remains, I have to go to bed and try to fall asleep. Not an easy chore when I think of what lies ahead tomorrow--SGaang Gwaii, the home of the ancient Haida village of Nan Sdins and the only World Heritage Site on the Canadian West Coast.