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Leaving Sooke we were surrounded by the local sport fishermen as we steamed out at 4:45 AM.  The forecast was for light to variable winds, and there was talk of going all the way home in one final day.  I was skeptical and declared we would decide when we got to Port Townsend, with the option of taking a night there to break things up if anyone was feeling queasy or conditions turned against us.  I wouldn’t have said it could be done with any degree of comfort, but we made it all the way from Sooke to Shilshole in one loooooong day, motoring from 4:45 AM to 9:00 PM.  It helped that things were calm enough for us to all take 2-hour naps in shifts.

The return journey is on as we return to Bamfield and our same old spot at the end of John’s barge at the Harbourside Lodge.  John’s docks were chock full (that being a total of about 6 boats) with fishermen cleaning, vacuum sealing, and cooking their catches.  We saw several halibut, a nice big ling cod, and dozens of chinook salmon being rendered down to meal-sized fillets.

Day 7 of the Barkley Sound trip took us from Ucluelet to Effingham Bay.

On route to Ucluelet, what did we do?  You got it, MORE FISHING.  The chartplotter’s fishing charts revealed a few promising rock piles where sure enough, many rockfish were lurking waiting to strike on our MacDeep jigging lures purchased in Bamfield.  We fished off one island featuring a resident eagle who closely monitored our catch.  We got the clue and gave up a smaller rockfish to him, which he snagged for an early dinner.

Barkley Sound trip day 5, the Pinkerton Islands