'GUESS WHERE': WCF's ferry Identification game!
Sept 16, 2014 18:31:20 GMT -8
Low Light Mike and Starsteward like this
Post by WettCoast on Sept 16, 2014 18:31:20 GMT -8
I got back yesterday from a four day fishing & sight-seeing trip 'down the channel', as people say here in Kitimat. Down the channel means south of Kitimat down Douglas Channel and out into the maze of islands & waters between the lower end of the channel & Hecate Strait. We fished for salmon (coho), halibut & crabs, and were successful on all fronts. We also did a lot of whale watching seeing dozens of humpback whales and at least two 'fin whales' (2nd largest species after the blue whale). Have any of you ever had the 'pleasure' of being exposed at close range to a humpback whale exhalation? Let me tell you something...
We also saw a very large sea lion colony at Ashdown Island, tons of marine birds & so on... We also went looking for the elusive white black bears on Gribbel Island. These bears, known as Kermode or Spirit bears, eluded us, so better luck next time. I have seen them before, though.
We also saw the Northern Expedition headed south on Friday & back north on Sunday. It is now on its winter schedule due to the BC Government imposed cuts. All this in perfect blue-sky weather with smooth seas most of the time.
On the first day (Friday the 12th) we left Kitimat just after 7 AM and were down in Wright Sound by around noon. We then hung around off a place called Fisherman Cove on the north end of Gil Island while we fished for coho (caught five of them). I knew the NorEx would be heading south & visible from where we were, but I thought that that would happen later in the afternoon, or early evening. At any rate, the new schedule has the ferry departing Prince Rupert (for Port Hardy) at 11 AM rather than 1 PM as it used to be. That meant that we saw the NorEx enter Wright Sound from the south end of Grenville Channel at about 4PM. I took a lot of pictures from a fair distance away but with 450 mm of telephoto power to 'reel the beast in'. We had finished fishing and were planning to head down to the north end of Princess Royal Island to find a spot to spend the night, so we followed the NorEx, well back off of its starboard side. It was then that I got the brain wave of trying to get a photo of both the NorEx and the memorial markers at Juan Point for the two souls Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rossette lost in the sinking of the Queen of the North. Well, once in a while ideas do work out.
We ended up spending that night and the next night in Barnard Harbour on the north west side of Princess Royal Island. Some may recall that the CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier was at anchor in that same place when the mayday call came during the early morning hours of 22 March 2006...
I was travelling with my brother Walter who owns the boat shown in the photo below, and also lives in Kitimat. There was a third person in our party, Robin, a retired journalist & professional photographer from Toronto who formerly worked for CBC & CTV.
Black Jack in the Sunset @ Barnard Harbour, Princess Royal Island - 12 September 2014
© WCK-JST by Wett Coast, on Flickr
We also saw a very large sea lion colony at Ashdown Island, tons of marine birds & so on... We also went looking for the elusive white black bears on Gribbel Island. These bears, known as Kermode or Spirit bears, eluded us, so better luck next time. I have seen them before, though.
We also saw the Northern Expedition headed south on Friday & back north on Sunday. It is now on its winter schedule due to the BC Government imposed cuts. All this in perfect blue-sky weather with smooth seas most of the time.
On the first day (Friday the 12th) we left Kitimat just after 7 AM and were down in Wright Sound by around noon. We then hung around off a place called Fisherman Cove on the north end of Gil Island while we fished for coho (caught five of them). I knew the NorEx would be heading south & visible from where we were, but I thought that that would happen later in the afternoon, or early evening. At any rate, the new schedule has the ferry departing Prince Rupert (for Port Hardy) at 11 AM rather than 1 PM as it used to be. That meant that we saw the NorEx enter Wright Sound from the south end of Grenville Channel at about 4PM. I took a lot of pictures from a fair distance away but with 450 mm of telephoto power to 'reel the beast in'. We had finished fishing and were planning to head down to the north end of Princess Royal Island to find a spot to spend the night, so we followed the NorEx, well back off of its starboard side. It was then that I got the brain wave of trying to get a photo of both the NorEx and the memorial markers at Juan Point for the two souls Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rossette lost in the sinking of the Queen of the North. Well, once in a while ideas do work out.
We ended up spending that night and the next night in Barnard Harbour on the north west side of Princess Royal Island. Some may recall that the CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier was at anchor in that same place when the mayday call came during the early morning hours of 22 March 2006...
I was travelling with my brother Walter who owns the boat shown in the photo below, and also lives in Kitimat. There was a third person in our party, Robin, a retired journalist & professional photographer from Toronto who formerly worked for CBC & CTV.
Black Jack in the Sunset @ Barnard Harbour, Princess Royal Island - 12 September 2014
© WCK-JST by Wett Coast, on Flickr