Happy to be sailing into another beautiful spot
The Polkinghorne Islands are a small archipelago in the northeast corner of Queen Charlotte Strait. They are largely ignored by the main guidebook we use, with a caution about poor holding ground for anchors. We decided to poke in and check it out anyway, and we found good enough holding to decide to spend the night in the settled weather of the past week.
Anchored behind a tangle of islands
It turned out to be a good decision, because we ended up with a bunch of fresh fish without even trying. First, we ran into Dave and Marcia aboard Juniata, a very well kept Pacific Seacraft 37. We first met them last summer while holed up in the same anchorage waiting for gale-force winds to subside, and this time they just happened to be stopping for lunch in the next cove eastward from our anchorage. They popped over with a freshly caught rockfish fillet for us.
A pair of eagles stand guard over the anchorage
Next, a small powerboat from Bellingham joined us in our anchorage. They dinghied over to apologize for disrupting our solitude – no problem for us, as we don’t mind having another boat around. But they were on their way to go fishing and offered to catch us some bottom fish. Who are we to refuse an offer like that?
Sure enough, and hour later they come back around the point – their grandson had caught a ling cod that was almost his size, and true to their word they had a large rockfish for us.
