We have officially christened the dinghy ‘Otto’, as a derivative of the Finnish word for vehicle *auto*. Thought we would stay on the Finnish theme, as Asunto is Finnish for home. And Otto just seemed right. We love Otto. He took us so many places we never would have explored without him. All of these trips were several nautical miles, and some over rough seas!

First there was the exploration of Malaspina and Lancelot Inlet, then the trip up to the end of Pendrell Sound from Walsh Cove.

Paradise Island, up Lancelot Inlet

Oyster Cove, Pendrell Sound

Next he saw us safely through the Yucata rapids from Dent Island to Big Bay.

Yucata's by Big Bay, running at about 10 knots

Further north, Otto took Kolby scuba diving off the east side of Helmken Island in Johnstone Straight, before we circumnavigated the island and played in the rapids off the north end.

Otto makes dinghy diving easy

Race Passage rapids

He took us from Cameleon Harbour to Thurston Bay on Sonora Island to explore streams.

Exploring Thurston Bay

Further south he carried us across Rebecca spit to Heriot Bay for ice cream and Sea Bone Island (name by us).

Otto anchored off 'Seal bone Island"

Heriot Bay - public wharf on the left, lodge docks on the right

 To the south of Comox is Sandy Island, where we anchored Asunto. Otto diligently brought us to the harbour of Comox to explore the very sleepy ‘downtown’ (2906).

Tie up at Comox Harbour

Not to mention all the different places we took Otto to drop the prawn and crab traps!

Prawns in Waddington Channel

First crabs off Sandy Island

Sadly, on July 27, Otto’s seat met its demise in the Strait of Georgia. The welds that held the seat to its posts had been breaking all trip, and the rough seas were the final straw. Kolby lashed down the seat for the rest of the journey and is currently trying to jerryrig something with 2x4s!

With a last minute decision to bring the crab and prawn traps, we took the dinghy over to Granville Island on Saturday morning to purchase a fishing license. $24 later and we were determined to live off the land. our fist seafood venture in the Copelands was very successful: during a dinghy adventure we found a cove where you could simply pluck the oysters from the beach, no tools required. Fresh oysters on the BBQ:

Our next stop was a nook up Malaspina Inlet. We drop the prawn trap in 300 ish feet of water off Sarah point, mainly because there were already 3 others pots down. We also dropped the crab trap in 30ish feet by an oyster farm (Kristine had some notion that sea life was in abundance around these farms). After a trek to the lake/bog, we stuffed our face with salmon berries and I harvested sea apparatus to eat with the crab I was certain we would catch. However when we went for the crab trap it it was gone, not to be seen at all. Perplexed we went home and I cooked up the sea asparagus to eat with out previously frozen, Atlantic caught cod. So far this living off the land thing would leave us very hungry. Sea asparagus in the pan:

In the morning we decided to look for our crab pot once more and sure enough, there it was. Turns out the tide and come up and the weight of the pot had sunk the float. Gleefully we pulled it up. It felt heavy… but it was full of big, orange sea stars. Ah well, we still had the prawn trap.
Using the anchor windlass we pulled the trap over the bow roller. 300′ is a lot of line. Forever later I could see the prawn trap- there was something in it!!! Bring it on deck, and nada. Just an unlucky rock cod and a tiny crab.

Since then we have dropped the prawn trap 4 more times, in various places and Walsh Cove. Loot is as follows:
1) 1 prawn, 3 weird crayfish/crabs,
2) 7 prawns, 25 weird crayfish/crabs,
1 rock cod.
3) 1 ghost shrimp
4) 3 prawns

Still waiting for the mother load. We did collect a few more oysters from Pendrell sound. They were small and delicious, and not of the Pacific oyster variety. Kolby figures they are escapees from oyster farms. Now we are heading for Teakerne Arm, our last Deso stop before heading North. I hope our seafood haul increases once we leave these nutrient poor waters!