It's been a while since we got back from our Prince Rupert trip, and I finally got everything organized enough to post a trip report.
So here's the whole story. The short form LOL.
Last fall my kid brother and my BIL bought sister boats off a fellow in Peace River who used to run a fishing charter out of Kitimat.
The my brother bought the Codfather, a 25' cabin cruiser made by Zeta
My brother-in-law bought the Codfather 2, what can I say, the former owner is a maritimer.
The Codfather 2 is a Bayline boat. The two boats are the same size and power. Both have Volvo Penta duprop drives and 350 GM powerplants. Both have Radar, GPS and Sonar.
They were told that brothers boat needed a motor plus some minor repairs and my BIL Wayne's boat only needed, new injectors a few minor repairs and a tune up.
To make a long story shorter, nothing was done until last month. Turns out both boats needed a lot more then we were led to believe. But we got them both running properly, and most of the minor stuff repaired.
All that remained was sea trials. Brother Ken opted to spend a day at the coast doing sea trials while Wayne headed to Lac Cardinal to give his boat a test run.
That's when things started to go south. The hitch pin on Wayne's trailer hitch came out, we are not sure why. The upshot was he ditched the boat and tore a hole in the hull.
Since we brothers had planned on fishing together in Ken's boat, this didn't effect out trip, yet. So we headed west. Ken left two days ahead of us, to do sea trials and to spend a day checking out fishing spots he knew.
So we made it to Prince George the first day where we planned to spend the night with a different BIL and our kid sister. Perhaps at this point I should make it clear that I come from a large family. Presently I have nine BILs, and two brothers. There were more of us at one time. It can all get rather confusing, but not to worry, the characters of this little drama don't matter as much as the events.
So we get to Prince George where we are told that Ken has had problems and is on his way back. We are to wait in Prince George for him.
Late that evening he arrives and the news is not good. The props were rubbing against the lower gear box and had destroyed the seal and bearing housing. It seems someone had failed to replace a couple of critical parts, thrust washers, some time befor my brother bought the boat.
Change of plans. We would now wait for Wayne, and go fishing with him. But, first Wayne had to get his boat repaired and then we would have to alternate. There were six of us and the boat could only accommodate three fisherman at best.
An awkward alternative, but workable.
We wound up spending five days in Prince George, visiting, going to yard sales with my sister, seeing the sights and helping rebuild my sisters kitchen.
Naturally I took the opportunity to do a bit of photography as well.
I didn't find a lot of interesting subjects, but I did find a few,
Like this Toad.
Then there were the faces carved into tree bark at a local park.
This is one of several I found.
Naturally there was some wildlife, my favourite subject. But not a lot.
I saw a few bears, like this one.
A few birds. Like this Violet Green Swallow, the BC version of our Tree Swallow.
And lots and lots of wild flowers. This is only one of the many species that are common there but do not appear here.
This is a Wild Tiger Lily.
Finally on Sunday Wayne called to say he had the boat repaired and in the water at Prince Rupert, so we headed for the coast.
A few miles west of Prince George we ran into rain, and it rained every hour of every day from then till we crossed back into Alberta.
Because of all the rain and the resulting poor lighting, I didn't get many photos on the rest of the trip. I'll share some of the best, mostly to show what we experienced.
A typical view of the mountains, on this trip.
The fishing fleet at Port Edward.
A Crabber at Cow Bay in Prince Rupert.
Crab pots stacked beside a processing plant at Cow Bay.