When we last checked in with John and Kathy Youngblood on Mystic Moon, their 2004 Selene 53, they were up in Glacier Bay, Alaska (after cruising more than 35,000 miles in the past few years in the Caribbean and the Pacific). They’re now coming down the Inside Passage, and just left Alaska and entered British Columbia. The cruising has been great, despite a fried alternator, and the fishing even better (see the picture of John’s 20-pound, 33-inch king salmon above). Here’s a recent log of their trip:
We left Hydaburg on Thursday the 18th around 9am as we had to time more narrows. It was pretty calm but had some nice current in the Tlevak Narrows…..up to 11 kts…..GO MYSTIC GO!!! We also passed this huge resort, Waterfall Resort, looked like a renovated old cannery but had to be at least 50 aluminum fishing boats tied to the docks. We read they are not friendly to cruisers….ugh. A local in Hydaburg told us they are pretty snobby and charge up to $1600/day….yikes!!! As we were almost to Hydaburg we went through South Pass, another narrow area, and had 11 sailboats coming at us from the opposite direction just leaving Hydaburg…go figure!!! Everyone played nice and we all passed port-to-port but did get pretty close. They were on some Rally and looked liked having a good time!!!
Waterfall Resort: https://www.waterfallresort.com/
Shelter Cove Resort (where we had an excellent dinner): https://www.waterfallresort.com/
We got in around 1:30pm and found to our surprise a very nice, small marina…it had been rebuilt about 4 years earlier…..no power but nice docks!! There were a gazillion kids all anxious to talk and have a tour….they really liked Kathy’s seashells. They played all day, swimming and jumping off the docks and were very loud:)))) We took a tour of the small native village….maybe 300 people….very nice people, all friendly and wanting to talk. We made it to the carving shed where they had just finished 2 large totem poles that were going in front of a recently finished Longhouse. The community puts on a cultural festival the following week and everyone was busy getting ready….we were a bit disappointed we missed the event by a week…drats!!! And….everyone was excited as the salmon had arrived in the local river….just a few Coho and some people were fishing already on the bridge and shoreline. They hope in a few more weeks the river will be full of Coho and everyone will be able to stock up for the winter!!
Some of the locals gave us some tips on where to fish for Kings & Coho. So, the next day Mark and I went out in his dinghy with the two downriggers. In Craig, I had tried to find the magic lure I had used in Whale Bay to catch the big King and lost on the third fish. I did find a lure, while not it exactly, it was close enough….in fact bought two…one for Mark and one for me. Mark used the magic lure and I used another lure that the guy in Craig thought was good as well. Well, no joy for me, but Mark caught 2 nice Coho on the magic lure…yippee!!! Read more:
http://www.mysticmoonvoyages.com/captains-log/captains-log-hydaburg-to-prince-rupert-we-got-salmon/
