May Long Weekend at Egmont

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I barely have the energy to type after this hectic Queen Victoria Day weekend, and it’s only Sunday.

Friday morning Kent mowed, Pop trimmed some trees and planted geraniums and I weeded. Crystal, Dave, Morgan, Trevor and Hugo arrived at 1230. We ate lunch then fished on the dock for perch to use as bait fish to catch Lingcod. We caught a few, but the tide wasn’t right so we mostly drank beer and laughed.

Our friend Gerry called on the VHF to say he was nearby and anchoring for the evening, so we decided to load everyone aboard (including Pop) to go to where he was for a visit. We stopped along the way to pick up the prawn traps but it was quite windy so after one pull Kent made the decision to carry on.

Gerry had his brother, sister-in-law and sister aboard and another couple were there with their boat as well. They had been to Princess Louisa Inlet for a few days of prawn fishing and partying.

As we traveled, Crystal, Morgan and I made an awesome big pan of nachos with moose burger and tons of other toppings. After we tied up alongside the Ocean Spirit and they all came over to visit and have a couple of drinks. Pop enjoyed seeing everyone and made a great deal of very interesting conversation about the area.

While we were visiting someone spotted a bear on the beach so Trevor, Morgan, Dave and Crystal took Gerry’s dinghy over to see if they could get close. The bear saw them coming and vamoosed – not even coming out of the brush for the nice apple they threw to him – hence – no pictures.

Before dark, we headed back to Pop’s. I put a loaf of french bread in the oven, sauteed a huge batch of prawns and Morgan microwaved corn on the cob. We feasted on our trip home! I didn’t think about the amount of butter we consumed with that dinner until indigestion woke me up in the middle of the night. It was definitely worth it.

We were all fairly early to bed, exhausted after a day in the sun.

Saturday morning we started with a pancake and bacon breakfast. Crystal, Dave, Morgan and Trevor did the Skookumchuck trail walk and were back in a couple of hours, then we all fished again for perch. My 1st cousin once remove, Michael who is 10, came to visit and helped by collecting tiny crabs on the beach for us to use as bait, then he fished as well. Sean and Kaia arrived mid afternoon and joined us fishing. We caught about 15 perch then went out to try our luck on the Lingcod.

Crystal caught the first one, I caught the second and Dave caught the third. Whose do you think was the biggest? Yep – mine – and I took great delight in rubbing it in! We had a wonderful afternoon fishing then went to pick up the prawn traps, rebait and reset them. Our catch was fairly good, with about 140 and I froze them for Trevor and Morgan to take home.

Back at Pop’s dock, we gathered all our dinner supplies together and took them to the house to make dinner. I think we finally ate about 2030 hours – chicken and steak shish kabobs with ceasar salad. Again – an absolutely delish meal!

Again, it was a fairly early night as the fun, sun, sea and salt air take a huge toll.

Sunday morning Sean made his ‘famous’ breakfast of ‘huevos rancheros’ then we went out to pick up the prawn traps, rebait and reset. The haul wasn’t quite as good but I bagged them for Dave to take home. I love having company as the young guys do most of the hard work with the traps. Even with a prawn trap puller, it’s still hard physical work with 4 strings of 2 traps each.

Morgan, Kaia and I made cupcakes while the others were pulling the traps, then when the work was done we iced and decorated them. Our idea was to each make one to look like ourselves and we had so much fun choosing the right candies and icing colors to personalize each one. Kaia decorated 4 of them and the rest of us did at least 2. Morgan made one to look like Pop and took it to him along with one of her as well. It was very cute!

I forgot to mention one string of traps went amiss and a local friend found it floating in very deep water a few miles away, he pulled the traps and took them home to his dock then phoned to let us know. We went to pick it up from him Saturday afternoon. It’s great to know people are that helpful.

We planned to have Lingcod for lunch on Sunday but by the time we were ready for lunch it was close to the time C, D, M & T had to leave so we had bunwiches instead. You have to be very flexible with that many people around.

Sunday evening we fried the lingcod for dinner and enjoyed it with new potatoes and asparagus. Kent, Sean and Kaia are watching a movie now and I’m dreaming of my bed.