Annual Canadian Fishing Trip

For the third year in a row I spent 5 glorious days in Ucluelit, British Columbia, a small fishing community on the west coast of Vancouver Island fishing for king and coho salmon and halibut. And for the third year in a row I returned home with my limit on all three.

Rick Scribner, our guide and sage for all things having to do with the sea brought mutual friend Ken Marshall and I to this stunningly beautiful spot out on the edge of the world. Our goal was to enjoy the beauty of the place, the camaraderie and especially the fishing. We weren't disappointed.

It takes the better part of a day just to get there from Bellingham requiring a border crossing, a ferry ride and a drive across the wild interior of Vancouver Island.

We berthed at the government marina and left for the big bank 20 plus miles off the coast at dawn the second day. The weather was near perfect. The cloud cover burned off by mid morning and left us bathed in sunshine. The sea was near flat calm allowing me to stand to reel in the fish instead of my traditional sitting position on days when the sea is less than calm.

We caught lots of Halibut, fought with pesky Coho who frequently attacked our lures as they descended searching for the Kings. I felt especially accomplished catching my first Halibut and then proceeding to catch all the Halibut for our group. A few others were caught but wound up being too small.

Ken caught a 28 pound King which was thrilling for him. I have included a bit of video of his experience. Not until the final day and the final hour of fishing did I catch a 32 pound King which turned out to be the biggest fish caught during our expedition.

We caught our limits, released lots of native coho (you generally can't keep the natives) and spring salmon (often too small to keep). We also caught two 28 inch Ling Cod a Red Snapper (too small) and several Perch (too, whatever). We kept the Cods and threw all the others back.

We fished off the islands in Barkley Sound with little luck except that I lost my entire set up when a large King hit my line and I stupidly began frantically reeling him in before the fish was ready to quit. The King suddenly took off and I didn't get my hand out of the way quick enough. Sad!

With little happening in the sound we decided to move on and headed towards South Bank, an area only a few miles off the coast of Ucluelit. We stopped in an spot none of us had fished before. Several other boats were there as well and had their nets in the water which was a good sign. So we joined in the rumba line and began trolling. It was here that my 32 pound adventure occurred. After about an hour of fishing we had filled out our limit and headed for home.

We had great fun. Got a sunburn and chapped lips and returned home happy hunters with freezers full for the winter.

Yacht Repairs Nearing End

Our Bayliner 32 is sitting on jacks at the B & J Fiberglass yard with the finishing touches being placed on her hull, the transom, the flybridge, the starboard and port sides. We have visited her twice now and noticed the fine progress taking place. Where the work is completed it looks absolutely pristine.

No one except us will ever really know what the boat did look like. But it will appear to be so much more finished and polished and beautiful to us as we begin to restore our boat. There will be far more to do and it will take time and, yes, money. But we will get her there and there will be years of fun cruising the San Juans, the Canadian Gulf Islands and beyond.

So what's next? Well, tomorrow I will head to Costco to purchase four new batteries and turn in the old ones for the core refund. The seller has graciously agreed to install them as he puts the engine room back together following the transom repair.

We are also having the zincs replaced while the boat is drydocked.

Next Tuesday the hull portion of the survey will be completed and, baring any unforeseen issues the following Monday will be the sea trial. If that goes well the boat should be ours within the week. Then off to her new digs in a private berth at Sandy Point. Whatever is left of the summer will be spent as much as possible on the boat. The boating season for a boat this size and with its amenities could well last into November and even December.

Our long wait may finally nearing a happy end.

Summer Picnic Dinner

Such and so friends are coming for dinner is a frequent refrain at our house. My wife seldom lets a week go by when we aren't entertaining either a couple or a whole herd of friends.

This week we are having two small dinner parties, both informal, outdoors, not requiring anything other than good food and company. So for last night's dinner I wanted to do something a bit exotic and yet, well, informal.

Fred and Peggy are great friends of ours and we are all great foodies. Fred and I love to cook, so I guess you could say that whenever one or the other of us cooks a meal we try to do something that will impress the other--not competitive, but fun and just wanting to make sure we are doing something unusual and different.

After a recent trip to the Fremont district of Seattle to try the outrageously delicious Cuban Sandwich at Paseo on Fremont Street, ( I recently wrote a blog entry about this restaurant) I decided I wanted to try and come up with a Cuban sandwich of my own.

Another item on my menu was an Arugula Salad with Watermelon, Feta Cheese and Lime Vinaigrette. This I found in recent pages of Bon Appetit Magazine. So here are my recipes for this dinner.
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My Cubano Sandwich with Carmelized Onions and Garlic Aioli Sauce

1-5# pork shoulder

for marinade in a gallon zip lock bag place:

1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
juice from 1 lime
2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 T brown sugar
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
2-medium Walla Walla sweet onions

Seal zip lock and toss and turn bag mixing and spreading marinade evenly over the pork. Place bag in the fridge for at least 24 hours turning from time to time to keep all sides of the pork marinading.

Turn on your BBQ so the temperature is around 200 degrees. Place pork on BBQ and let cook slowly for about 5 hours turning occasionally and mopping with remaining marinade. After this length of time the pork should have a dark crusty outer finish and yet be juicy on the inside. Let the meat rest 15-20 minutes and then either pull the meat or chop into small chunks. Pulling requires that you use a fork to "pull" the meat apart. I use a knife to cut the meat up into various sized chunks. Place in a bowl and cover with any remaining marinade.

In a hot saute pan with olive oil, place chunks of 2 medium Walla Walla sweet onions and saute until browned and carmelized. Toss onions with the pulled meat.

For Garlic Aioli Sauce:
2-egg yolks
1 t-lemon juice
1 t-kosher salt
2-3-cloves of garlic
1 cup--Olive Oil
1 t-cold water

Mince garlic. Place in mortar, add salt. Crush with the pestle until creamed. Place in bowl. Add egg yolks. Slowly pour in half the oil whisking continuously as you go. Add lemon juice and cold water, then slowly pour in remaining oil continuing to whisk. You should have a light yellow mixture not quite as thick as commercial mayonnaise. Cover and chill until needed. Best if made 24 hours ahead. Serve pork by filling a crusty sandwich roll with as much pork as will fit and with aioli sauce either as a condiment or mixed into the pork. Add sliced jalapeno for more heat, lettuce, whatever else sounds good.
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Arugula Salad with Watermelon, Feta and Lime Vinaigrette

3 cups--Arugula or mixed micro greens
3 cups--Watermelon, cut into 1-inch square pieces
4-8 ounces--Feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing:
1-2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T Grey Poupon Mustard
1 t salt
1 t fresh ground white pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a blender except oil. Blend ingredients adding oil slowly until emulsified. Chill for 24 hours for best results. In the bottom of the salad bowl place half of the salad dressing. Place salad greens and watermelon together with Feta tossing until coated with dressing. Add any additional dressing as desired. ___________________

Remember, as always, you should consider these recipes as a starting place for your own creativity. Don't like watermelon, try some other fruit like strawberries. Don't like pork, try a piece of beef or do chicken. Do a little research at any of the food websites found along the right margin of my blog and come up with your own creation or variation. Make it fun and make it your own! Bon Appetit!

Netting Your Fruit Trees

I planted a dwarf Bing Cherry in my back garden shortly after moving into this house 15 years ago. In couple of years I noticed that the dwarf tree was no dwarf at all but a full size cherry and by the time it began baring fruit it became obvious I was going to get very little of it. Due to the position of the tree in the yard and the height of the branches the birds and my squirrel friends were getting most of the beautiful deep red fruit. Nothing to be done.

As I planted other fruit trees over the years, I more carefully made sure they were all dwarf stock and in some cases trees that had multiple varieties of the same fruit grafted onto them. As each tree began to bare fruit however, my bird and squirrel friends decided to help themselves to this fruit as well. Enough was enough.

I researched possible solutions and found netting to be the best answer. So a stop at the hardware store and I was on my way home with a big roll of black poly netting. You cut this stuff with scissors or a razor knife and with the help of a friend drape it over the top of the branches. I also use twist ties to connect the overlapping pieces of the netting. To dissuade the squirrels from simple climbing up the trunk of the trees I use garden yarn to loosely tie the netting to the trunk.

I have had no further issues with birds or squirrels getting to my apples, cherries, pears, plums, blueberries or hazelnuts. So, for now at least I seem to have solved my problem. The original cherry tree? I have given it over to my furry and feathered friends who annually enjoy its fruit.

I'd like to address the one issue I have heard marks the netting as a hazard for wild creatures. I have read about and even seen photos of critters that have become ensnared in the netting. I have yet to have any birds or any other critter become ensnared or if they have they were able to disentangle themselves in which case I imagine they learned their lesson.

Another Yacht Update

I got an e-mail this afternoon from my boat broker explaining that our 32 foot Bayliner was sitting in the B & J fiberglass repair shop and that the inner core wood of the transom and a couple of other specific places had been replaced and the fiberglassers were about ready to start their part of the job. He wondered if I would like to have them fill in some of the other holes and a couple of other places that needed fixing on the hull? I called the shop and arranged to come down immediately.

When I arrived I found our boat balanced on jacks and looming above the shop floor. Her lines below and above the waterline are so beautiful. I met the owner of the shop who took me around to the transom to show me the work underway. All of a sudden another face rose up from behind the transom. He introduced himself as the current owner of the boat, Jim. We hit it off well and had a wonderful conversation about the boat and boating in general that went on for some time.

Meanwhile, the shop owner climbed into the boat and started counting holes, mostly screw holes from previously removed parts of the boat. In all we counted 28 unnecessary holes needing patching as well as a couple of other spots needing attention. I agreed to have these spots fixed while the boat was still in the shop which would significantly reduce the cost of having it done. The timeline for the work is for it to be finished by August 12th so that our surveyor can finish checking out the boat and sign off on the completed work.

We may also need to do a couple of things below the waterline that the surveyor may find or suggest while it is still out. Then we'll put it back in the water and head off on a sea trial. If all goes well the boat should finally, officially be ours around the week of the 17th. We still need to change out the batteries which are barely functioning and there is a long laundry list of other items on the survey which will need to be done a little at a time. Nothing else that absolutely must be done before we even think of taking her out.

We have also signed up for the Coast Guard Auxiliary boating classes which run two nights a week for 6 weeks in September and October. Along with that I have requested that the boat be inspected by the Coast Guard so I can have a list of their recommendations for making her a safe boat. When those items are taken care of the boat receives a sticker for its window and we will have crossed another hurdle. Money? Yes, it is costing us that, but in the end we will have a boat that will not only function at its best but will look darn good sitting in the water.

Our plans for the not too distant future include adding a propane BBQ mountable on the aft rail, a couple of crab and shrimp pots, a winch for hauling in the pots, some basic fishing gear, a second anchor, more life jackets (PFD's), and to fix a couple of nav lights currently not working. Other than that my winter plans are to remove certain exterior corroded engine parts so they can be cleaned and repainted, replace a couple of engine hoses, really anything needing work on the twins. If those engines aren't maintained and kept looking bright and shiny, we can't depend on them living out a full and healthy life which should easily be another 19,000 hours.

So, lots of work, money, time, love and we should expect years of fun for the family exploring the San Juans, the Canadian Gulf Islands and ports further south and or north. Who knows, maybe Alaska?!

Wow, It's Hot!

We set all sorts of records for heat this week in Bellingham--the highest high and the highest low temps ever. That is a tough thing to experience in a region that isn't known for its high temperatures and where few homes have air conditioners. But this week has been a definite exception to the general rule that it seldom gets really hot. Oh, it can get warm here, but generally B'hamsters usually start whining when the temp gets up to about 80 for any length of time (and that isn't usually longer than a few days a summer). So things got pretty outrageous around here when the temperature soared to 100 degrees yesterday afternoon. It'd been in the 90's for several days before that and will be for another couple more. Despite these torturous temps B'hamsters are taking it mostly in stride. The parks near our rivers and lakes were packed. The pool at our swim and racket club was as well. The stores were devoid of fans and wall air conditioners.

It has become a bit of a game to share ideas for how to stay cool on Facebook and other social sites. I shared my favorite which I discovered worked very well when we were touring China a few summers ago. It was soooo hot and I simply don't do well at all in the heat. There were few opportunities to escape it besides our tour bus and the hotel room. So I took to wetting a hand towel with the coldest water I could find, then rolling it up and draping it across my neck. I was absolutely amazed at the difference it made. I became much easier to live with and genuinely felt several degrees cooler. I re-soaked the towel every chance I could. I would drink most of a bottle of ice cold water and carefully pour the rest over my towel to re-energize its cooling ability.

For Leslie and I, the past several days have found us in our swim and racket club's pool along with a few other neighbors and kids. Early mornings the pool is pretty empty and good for swimming laps. Afternoons are more like a block party which isn't bad either since most everyone is respectful of others space and gets along fine. The kids frolick in the shallow end and the older folks sort of wallow in the deep end moving a little to and fro but mostly just static, trying to cool down. The temp is supposed to be on its way down though it will still be 92 today. The most important thing is that the night time temperature will get back down into the 60's again which at least allows for a more comfortable nights sleep.

The upside of the higher temps has been that my tomatoes have really been loving the heat. I have never had ripe tomatoes in my garden in July. I have already picked a half dozen delicious tomatoes over the past few days. Oh, man are they delicious. It isn't hard to figure out what to do with them. We bought the fixins for caprese salads at the farmer's market on Saturday and have been enjoying those for lunch the last few days. Is there a person alive who still doesn't know how to prepare these delicious summertime treats? Well, here is the recipe for anyone who might have missed it.
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Caprese Salad

1 vine ripened tomato
1 or 2 Bocachelli mozzarella cheese balls
a sprig of fresh basil
Kalamata olives
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt and pepper

Cut thick slices of tomato and place on a plate. Place slices of the mozzarella on top of the tomato slice followed by a large leaf of basil. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Place a few Kalamata olives on the plate if you have them. Of course the creative chef will see opportunities for adding and changing the ingredients with the availability of the ingredients but there you have it. The classic Caprese. Enjoy!
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Everything else in the garden is producing more and quicker. So what with the pool available and the garden exploding with produce I guess I really can't complain much about Mr. Sun. Still, I won't complain when the marine layer forces its way back ashore and drives our temps back down to into the more moderate 60's and 70's.

Thanks Fred & Peggy

Our friends Fred and Peggy decided to take us out for happy hour at Scotty Brown's here in B'ham to celebrate Leslie having recently been awarded the Washington State American Choral Director's Association's (ACDA) Leadership Award. We ordered mojitos and several appetizers including yam fries, calamari and a hot artichoke dip served with pita bread.

Next we stopped off at Haggen's for a couple of items Fred needed to make the dessert he had in mind.

He had been given a bottle of Muscat Canelli dessert wine and had the idea of serving it with a fresh baked baguette, a wedge of pungent Oregonzola from Oregon's Rogue Creamery and a jar of Bonne Maman peach preserves.

It was a simple combination but was paired perfectly with the delicious sweetness of the wine. A thick slice of baguette, a nice slice of bleu cheese and peach preserves slathered liberally over the bread. Delicious! Thanks Fred and Peggy!