We decided to stay in Bishop Bay rather than travel 28.7 nautical miles (nm) north to another hot springs that goes by two different names, “Shearwater” and “Europa.” Although it would have been epic to visit a fourth hot spring location, staying put in a wonderful place has it’s advantages. Blue cruises at an average of 6.5 nm/hour, so getting to Europa Bay would have taken about 4.5 hours and it would have added time to our journey to Prince Rupert because it’s in the opposite direction. So, Europa Hot Springs will have to wait for another time. It will be added to a long lists of places we want to check out next time.

Like in through hiking, we call a day like today a “Zero Day.” Zero days are an opportunity to rest, clean, get work done, fish, explore, and in Bishop Bay…go soak a few more times. Zero days are the best!

When we fish on a zero day, it is usually from our dinghy. We went out for the late afternoon low tide and caught a variety of creatures: rockfish, cabezon, kelp greenlings, sea cucumbers, small flounders, some sort of white slimy stuff from the deep, and one NICE yellow eye rock fish. Don brought in the “yellow eye” just before we were going to head back to the mother ship. He was down at 150 – 160 feet and fun to bring up. They are illegal to keep in Canada, so we took some photos and sent him back down with our special “descending device.” He or she is the biggest fish we’ve caught this year. We think you can keep them in Alaska, so we will try for another one after we cross the border.

One highlight while out fishing was having an eagle fly by at close range. He or she hangs out in the bay and must have been out fishing, too. Next time I need to be more ready with the camera. Earlier in the day he or she was perched in a tree near the boat. Rigsby, our twelve pound dog, is only allowed to go outside on the deck when we are with him!

The evening was spent enjoying grilled carne asada from our favorite Mexican market in Bellingham, La Gloria. Before we left, we purchased three pounds and froze it in one pound servings. Yum! After dinner we studied the upcoming weather, made a tentative plan for tomorrow, and created a sign to hang in the bathhouse before we leave tomorrow. As I was making the sign, I thought about my friend, Tara, for a couple of reasons. She got me started on making “You are Loved,” signs. I think that all came about from one of her favorite read-a-aloud picture books, “You are Special,” by Max Lucado. (YouTube Reading of the story.) Secondly, I couldn’t find the right supplies or at least what I had wanted for the project. This raises the question of, “How in the world can you misplace little bottles of acrylic paint in a 300 square foot space?” I guess we have too many nooks and crannies that we didn’t do a great job of organizing and labeling before we left. Anyway, back to Tara…whenever “plan A” doesn’t work, she says and follows through with the attitude of “Win a Different Way.” So, thanks Tara, I won a different way with white paint and a blue sharpie. And, all future visitors to Bishop Bay Hot Springs will know that they are loved. Side note…Tara makes and sells the BEST toffee in the world…ANYTIME TOFFEE. Wish I would have bought three pounds of that and froze it!

Low tide is at 6:30am, so the plan is to go back out and fish for a bit in the morning. After that we will fit in one more soak and hang the sign I made for the bathhouse collection. Then it will be off for the Grenville Channel as we try to get at least 2/3 of the way to Prince Rupert. Our weather window for Dixon Entrance is looking like Friday. This can always change, but for now that is the plan.