15 Aug 18

We were up early to move over to Kilbella Bay for serious salmon fishing. “Massilia” cast off at 05:30 to head over to the fishing grounds, but the crew of “c’est le bon” sensibly went back to bed. We got underway about 10:00 and anchored off the mouth of Kilbella River at 10:50. 

51-41.905’N, 127-20.557’W;  

We anchored at low water, hoping to spot bears in the estuary, but we never saw a single one. “Massilia” fished until 11:30, when they finally gave up and tied alongside. The Admirals rowed up into the estuary, but spotted only eagles and seals. John took his motor dinghy up into the estuary after lunch; we spotted him in the distance about an hour later, rowing against the wind and flood current and making very little way. He finally pulled into the beach to work on his recalcitrant engine. I rowed over in “Swallow” to offer a beer/advice/a tow back to the boats, but he declined all but the beer and offered no thanks for that. Eventually, with me towing his stern out of shallow water, he got the engine going, until his anchor line fouled the prop. I again towed him against wind and current until he cleared the prop and re-started the engine. Then, he was unable to release the tow line (the engine has no neutral and he was reluctant to stop it once he finally got it going), so he was only able to proceed astern towing “Swallow” backwards all the way back to the boats. We played a bit more Obligato in the late afternoon. About 18:00, the wind got up and shifted to the SE, pushing us into shallow water and getting a bit lumpy. So, we fired up the engines, pulled up the anchor and moved back to McAllister Bay, finally settling in there about 19:00, with shore lines to port and starboard.  We played Obligato until 23:30.

51-39.959’N, 127-25.604’W; Log = 7.9, Sum (2018) = 603.6 N-m