The trip to Princess Louisa Inlet actually gets broken in to two parts. From the entrance to Jervis Inlet, it is approximately 45 miles to Princess Louisa and the timing of the trip is dependent on transiting the Malibu Rapids at the entrance to Princess Louisa at slack water as tidal flows in the rapids can reach a turbulent 9 knots.
There are no real protected anchorages once you begin the journey up Jervis Inlet so our strategy was to make the 45 mile run from Nanaimo to Thunder Bay near the entrance of Jervis and anchor for the night there before making our run to Princess Louisa.
It is a beautiful little bay with spectacular scenery.
While Deb was enjoying a sunny afternoon reading on the fly bridge, Steve and I broke out our crabbing gear for a shot at Dungeness crab.
Having not crabbed before, we were uncertain of the whole procedure but our strategy was to load up a bait container with chicken parts and strap that to the inside of our trap and deposit the trap (attached to two floats) in 60 feet of water.
While at Port Sidney, we asked some fellows across from us about the best way to carb and they advised that they were not the ones to ask – they had launched a crab pot in 100 feet of water with only 60 feet of line attached. The carb trap went to the bottom (dragging the floats down with it) never to be seen again. We made sure we had excess line.
Later in the evening, we pulled the pot and had captured two nice sized critters.
“Deadliest Catch” look out – you ain’t got nothing on us