Sailing Vessel Karma

You’ve heard the name mentioned here before, but this, well they, deserve their own story here. Once upon a time we were stranded in Port McNeill, whole Heinicke family in tow, looking for a ride back to a broken down Karma in Lagoon Cove, some 30 miles east in The Broughtons. Each day Heather and I were wondering the docks asking each and every person we came past if they happen to be heading east, hoping someone would give us a lift. After getting to know the docks, we knew when new boats showed up so when a new Jeanneau Sun Oddesey 345 docked we knew what to do.

The very kind Murat, originally from Turkey, was aboard situating lines and was happy to chat. Unfortnuately they were heading north, but we chatted fo r a while as he was quite friendly and it’s always a treat to exchange sailing stories. They were in town for a bit trying to find a replacement solinoid for their windlass which had stopped working. Eventually we left and let him know if we had found a ride and we parted ways. We later found out they were possibly thinking of waiting out the time for their solinoid to arrive if they could sail us back there, that’s far too kind!

Upon pulling into Pruth bay amongst the cloud we had sailed through we reconigzed the unmistakable lines and interesting rig of Qualia as we approached. Murat was out on deck, and it was fun to cross paths again, this time with our own boat! We chatted on the radio and were directed into a good anchoring spot just off their stern, between them and shore, still close enough to have signal for the 300mb of daily allouted internet from the Hakai Ocean Institute.

As we were paddling back past their boat, Murat on their iconic swim step, invited us for dinner, a fresh caught halibut of all things, how could we refuse?

We showed up to a cockpit chartutertie board of fresh baked sourdough, Turkish olives, cheeses, and of course, the lovely Linda who we now met for the first time officially. Linda, a scientist of sorts in the fermentation/yeast department, meticously makes probably the best and most offical sourdough onboard we’ve ever had, and makes an array of kombuchas onboard as well! After just a bit of introductions we were all chatting like we were long lost friends and it was clear this was going to be a pairing for the books.

Cruising each and every summer for the last 8 year or so out of Vancouver, Linda and Murat head north when the weather is nice then go around the outside of Vancouver Island to wrap off a summer lap of cruising and fishing. Yes, fishing. This is a major focus of their time on the boat and something we are interested in but know nothing about. Having been up the central and north coast as well as down the outside it was great to get a lot of recommendations and advise on where to go and what to see and what to worry about. Our charts are now littered with anchorages not in any guide books given to us by them.

The dinner served was immense, both in quantity and in flavor. Linda had landed an absolutely massive halibut the other day and they needed to work their way through the fillets as it took up the whole fridge. When they whipped it out we understood. It was an entire full size frying pan, one single cut, about as thick as an Oxford dictonary, and so perfectly pan seared and seasoned, thanks to Murat’s simple but expert preparing style. “You gotta come fishing with us tomorrow, you were planning to leave so soon?”

After a very nice North Beach and bushwhacking romp to another secret beach it was back at 1pm to make some spring rolls to bring and get picked up at 2pm by Qualia. They lifted anchor and came along side Karma twice, first time to hand us their dinghy painter so we could leave the dinghy tied to anchored Karma, and the second time for us to jump on board. We brought along the spring rolls as well as our old school used tolling fishing pole and reel.

They troll off their stern quite often and use the flip down swim step to catch, bonk, and fillet fish in such a controlled and swift fashion you’d think Jeanneau designed the boat with this purpose in mind. Murat was excited to try out a new setup for salmon involving a downrigger with a weight then pinned to the fishing line which had a flasher and a hoochie on the end. Linda trolled with the more simple, 8oz weight to 4 feet to dodger to 3 or for feet to a spoon. This one was WonderBread packaging colored so it was named ‘Wonderbread’.

It was awesome to see actually how to do the different setups and how to troll off a sailboat, or just troll in general for that matter. We motored out of the channel, wow their younger sibling of a motor the 3YM20 was smooth and quiet, and then we hit the outer reefs where we slowed down to 1.9 to 2.3kts and set the lines. From that point, we were fishin’.

For a while we didn’t have any bites, but no matter as the company was good and the scenery was nice. It was a bright and sunny day out as well which made for a good time. There were a few hiccups with the downrigger setup as it was all new, and then bam, fish on Linda’s reel. It was a pretty quick fight and they landed a ‘blueback salmon’ which is a Coho at a certain time of its life where it gets some blue on it. It was fascinating to see the whole process of getting it on board and then bonking and storing it in the bucket. It made the process seem more approachable than if we were just winging it on our own.

We then used some of their older gear, which they graciously gave to us, to setup our rod and give it a go. We trolled for a while and I landed a Grey Rockfish! It was pretty interesting to feel how much the rod bends and how the different fish fight. Funny enough though, when we had the fish on the swim setup for the bonking it flipped about just right and got away! No worries it was good to see that happen first hand as well!

Right as it was then time to put the gear away as we were pulling back into the channel Linda got another fish on the line! After a bit of fighting and trying to avoid putting Qualia on the surrounding rocks in all the excitement they landed a lincod! Round 2 fish dinner tonight!

Back in the bay they dropped us on Karma while they reanchored. We then head over to see the next step in the process, the filleting. To our untrained eyes it seemed that this would be the part most likely to cause a huge mess or ruin the entire fish. Murat set to work and is a master. Again on the swimstep, it was a much faster and cleaner process than Heather and I were thinking before we’d ever seen it done. Both the Salmon and the lincod had pretty similar processes and we left having more confidence we’d be be able to try that in the future, now that we had the correct gear to have any hopes of catching something.

The four of us now practiced at the fish dinner aboard Qualia, we had the outside table out, snacks prepared, and fish and bread cooking and backing down below. We learned a few simple and easy ways to cook the fish to preserve it’s flavor though it’s doubtful we will be able to pull it off like Qualia’s crew. Old friends for real this time, the dinner was a hoot. Different fish prepared different ways, drinks and kombucha being poured, we were probably one of the louder boats in the anchorage.

A slow morning after was in store for both crews, awaking in the late morning we decided to lounge around on the beach and maybe go to the lookout trail they had talked so highly of. We passed by and decided that we might meet up for a sunset hike.

The lookout was the perfect culmination of Pruth Bay as you could see the beaches to the west and the rugged landscape of Calvert Island to the east. We lazed around up there where we then met the crew of SV Ashram, to be much discussed in the future here soon.

A lunch and a beach hang out day later of sunbathing and using Heather’s sun harnessing wood burning appratis, we went back in search of Linda and Murat for the sunset walk. While initially not up for it, we all 4 eventually set off for just the West Beach to get a view of the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. Hilariously enough, the sun sets pretty far north at this lattitude so we were watching it over the trees with the ocean to our left, but it was a good one never the less and there isn’t much better than a beach walk with friends anyway.

We parted ways the following morning to buddy boat with SV Ashram further north in a cove suggested by Qualia. We said our goodbyes, collected the frozen fish graciously gifted to us, and glided off to catch up with Ashram’s ragtag crew. Always sad to say goodbye, but hopefully we will catch them on the West Coast as we and they make our ways down later in the season.

A special thank you to Linda and Murat for befriending us and really making the season for us!