Thursday August 17th – Time to head back to the greatest country on God’s green earth, the USA! We left Otter Bay, crossed the border and cleared customs at Roche Harbor.

Skylar’s friend Johnny is flying into Roche so we got a slip for the night and set the crab pots. After 2 pulls on 2 pots we had 11 crab, a great day! We waited for Johnny’s 5:50pm arrival via Kenmore Air, welcomed him off the plane then used the kids labor to clean all the crab with of course the Killer Crab Knife (www.crabknife.com).

We all went to dinner at the Madrona Grill that evening. Julie, Ava and I hung out on the boat while Skylar and Johnny explored the marina and quarries.

Tuesday August 15th – After a beautiful night at Russell Island we pulled anchor and headed to Otter Bay Marina for a couple nights.

It was nice out and Julie wanted to go to the pool but we convinced her to go on a hike instead. She reluctantly said ok, after I told her the weather forecast for tomorrow was hotter and we should go to the pool then. I wanted to check out this hike around a lake I read about so we dinghied across the bay to where I thought the trailhead was.

Not knowing anything about it we asked a park caretaker where to go but he couldn’t tell us how far the hike was. Regardless, I was determined to loop the lake so we kept moving, first down the road then onto the trail. It just kept going and going, up really steep hills then down. We made it 5 miles in all but it wasn’t the leisurely walk Julie had in mind, she was about ready to kill me as we were not prepared for that kind of adventure. Ava did particularly awesome! That night Julie and I had fun working on floor plans for a rental we are going to remodel.

The next day turned out to be not quite as hot but after a long lazy morning on the boat we went to the pool anyway. I guess I should listen to my wife more often!

That evening we set the dinghy up for downrigger fishing and went out in the main channel to try our luck. A beautiful night out on the water but not even a bite!

Monday August 14^th – Today we are making our way further south leaving Thetis Island for an anchorage at Russell Island.  Russell is one of our favorites.  The whole island is a Provincial park and the small white shell beaches are beautiful.

After a long slow cruise, we arrived to a moderately full anchorage.  Our first anchorage selection resulted in the anchor just skipping across rocks so we moved to a different location that after a few skips seemed to hold good.  Skylar started fishing right away and brought up a few small flounders.  Then he got a big one on!  This thing was ripping line and had the pole bent way over.  After a couple minutes of fighting Skylar got a little too aggressive with it and the line broke.  He was ticked!  We will never know what it was but it will always be a monster in his mind.

We all hiked the island then came back for dinner on the boat.  We know of a little hot spot for Lingcod so we all took off in the dinghy after dinner to try and catch some fish.  30 minutes pass without even a bite.  Then all of the sudden Skylar and I get one on at the same time!  We both land our fish at the surface while Julie gets the net out.  Both were Lingcod but Skylar’s was really big.  Julie got mine in the net and on the boat.  Just as she went to get Skylar’s the fish went berserk, got off the line and swam back to the depths.  The 2^nd big fish today Skylar lost, he was not happy.