Cabin Fever Chronicles – Getting Outdoors with Rod

Bill & Lisa cooking it up!

Morning dawns dry and cloudy. The temperature’s pleasant. Wiping our eyes, we crank out and eagerly consume some morning nectar: French press coffee. Then it’s time to fix a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and hash browns!

Other campers are doing the same – nobody’s rushing today. There are some families with kids out here. Many are bringing their youngsters via tandem sea kayaks. Some will be heading out to the reef to try their luck fishing! I’m anxious to see what they catch.

We’re going to head across the Coaster Channel and check out Effingham Island. We pack up lunch – put our immersion gear on, and set off. We head around the back side of Clarke Island – paddling a channel between Clarke and Benson Islands. In the shallows close to shore, I can glimpse myriads of bat stars, starfish, crabs, kelp, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and fish.

The channel is not very wide, and the islands lying to our right and left block our view. They focus our attention forward. When we reach the end, where it opens to the channel, we are treated to the most amazing sight of the whole adventure.

For right there, twenty yards in front of us, a gray whale surfaces! WOW! Its entirety reveals itself – from head to tail, for a moment. It is traveling right across from right to left in front of us!

Then it dives, its tail above the surface as it goes down. Completely amazed, we try to follow its path and be near when it surfaces. This turns out to be pretty challenging! It eventually surfaces at an island near the other side of Clarke – and attracts more paddlers. But that’s the last we see of it. Somehow it gave us the slip!

Having lost our gray whale we make our way across Coaster Channel to Camblain Island, then Cooper, behind Gilbert and finally Effingham Island. It’s only one nautical mile across Coaster Channel. Conditions are benign. A mild swell coming off the Pacific. Halfway across I hear a pfffuuuufff! And looking to my right I see a whale spout – and another! It’s two whales moving across the channel – now they’re over on the ocean side of Cooper and they’re moving inward. They are going to pass in front of us. We speed up but cannot catch them. Although they appear to be lumbering they are moving along fast. Judging from the tails I know these are Humpback Whales. It’s a mother and its calf! Like the gray whale, they move off until we can’t see where they are anymore.

Once we reach Camblain and the channel in between it and Cooper, we want lunch! We spot a beach and head for it. This beach has mountains of shells. A few other kayakers land on the beach – they say they saw Orcas further out towards the Pacific! We’d love to see some killer whales!

After lunch we continue the explorations and then once we reach Effingham we turn back to Clarke.
I confess to being tired. I’m looking forward to cooking dinner, some wine, and being out of my dry suit!

Nothing like fresh Lingcod!

Back at Clarke we go about the business of creating a meal and a fun atmosphere for dinner – and a beach fire! In the midst of dinner our neighbors pay us a visit. And they have something to share – they caught a good sized Ling Cod and cannot eat all of it! Would we like some? OH YEAH! You bet!

Bill cooked the fish up in butter and within just a few minutes it was done.

This was my first lingcod and it was delicious. The flesh is white and firm. Not flaky like sole, nor steaky like swordfish. Somewhere in between. To die for! I can’t even remember what we were supposed to have for dinner.

The sun went down and it was time for a beach bonfire! I had no idea the lengths to which bill was intent on going. It was man-sized!

Then it was time for freshly prepared dessert. Bill made something called Bananas Foster…with great fanfare!