We are well into our last month on the water. The last blog post was sent from Port McNeill on North Vancouver Island. Just six miles away on Cormorant Island we docked at Alert Bay. Alert Bay is rich in native culture. At the U’mista Cultural Center we were moved by the display covering the impact of the St Michael’s Indian Residential School. The school was built in 1929 to serve native communities from Campbell River to Prince Rupert. Native children were taken from their families and educated in a way that robbed them of their culture. The school was closed in 1975 and demolished in early 2015. A search of the internet reveals many Indian residential schools all across Canada. Any of you students reading this blog may consider a writing assignment comparing and contrasting the Canadian vs. US treatment of native cultures. Neither country has anything to be proud of.
The Long house and the Namgis burial grounds
The Broughtons is a collection of inlets, islands and waterways on the mainland side of Queen Charlotte Strait. That was our next destination. In Shoal Harbor met up with M/V Carlinda and positioned ourselves for the two mile hop to Echo Bay in time for the Thursday night prime rib dinner.
In Shoal Harbor you have your choice of float houses. One not floating so well.
We were pleased to have M/V New Adventure, Anacortes, join us in Echo Bay. I forgot to take the photo with our plates piled high. This is David with Bonnie and Norm from M/V New Adventure taken after desert. The prime rib was delicious. The dock hand who also helped serve dinner had the best technique for mashing the baked potatoes.
Carl and I took the hike over to Billy Proctor’s museum. Billy grew up in the Broughtons and spent his life fishing and lumbering. At 80 years old he is an “elder” who entertains visitors at his museum full of “stuff” he has collected over the years. He is also an author of books“Full Moon, Flood Tide” and “Tide Rips & Back Eddies”. Good reading for those traveling to or interested in the Broughtons. That’s Billy with his hands in his pockets. He is a rather shy guy, but he will tell tales if you get him going.
An old doll and a couple of books that were surely useful in their day.
Port Harvey was our final stop in the Broughtons. We enjoyed kayaking the shoreline. It is a rough life up there. Many of the marina operators are looking to sell and move on. If you know anyone who would like a hard life in an out of the way place with tons of natural beauty tell them of the great opportunities. It would probably help to have deep pockets so you didn’t have to depend on any income from the marina. I’ll bet you can get this “fixer-upper” boat for a good price.
Octopus Islands and Waiatt Bay were our first stop in Desolation Sound. This is an area where timing currents is important. We came in through Okisollo Channel and left via Surge Narrows. We said farewell to M/V Carlinda at Octopus Islands. They left for the morning slack to fast track toward home. We left on the afternoon slack with plans to meander a bit longer. Below is the view from my kayak as we toured the Octopus Islands.
We hiked from Waiatt Bay to Small Inlet only to find the mud flat exposed at low tide. Don’t you just love David’s Seahawk green boots?
Gorge Harbor, Cortes Bay, and Okeover Inlet were each given a night. We specifically went up Okeover Inlet so we could have dinner at the Laughing Oyster restaurant. We weren’t disappointed in the buffet which featured lots of seafood including their famous oysters. I found the pork roast to be delicious as well.
Grace Harbor marked the end of Desolation Sound for us. The density of boats is getting greater and we can notice the Canadians who are enjoying their August boating vacations. As we move into the more populated areas we are torn between eating out and using up the food we have onboard. Captain Dave makes his scrambled egg special for breakfast.
We planned to stop at Lund for water, laundry, etc. When we called for dock space we were told that they were full. On to Plan B which was the marina at Westview. At Westview they squeezed us in between a couple fishing boats. We were able to do our laundry, shopping and fill our water tanks. The bonus at Westview was that we had arrived for their summer street fair. The entire community was out walking the street and enjoying the local foods. We came away with a whole blackberry pie from one stand and a big cup of homemade ice cream from another. Yum!! I know, you wanted a photo of the pie and ice cream and all I give you is a heron on the dock, sorry!
Pender Harbor draws boaters as well as land vacationers who can get there via ferry. It is located on Sechelt Peninsula. The shore is lined with majestic vacation homes and there are more being built. We enjoyed a nice steak dinner at the Garden Bay Pub. For desert we went to Lauvern’s Grill and got more ice cream to go with the rest of the blackberry pie on the boat.
The weather is good for crossing from the mainland side of British Columbia to the Vancouver Island side. We were fortunate that the Whiskey Golf torpedo test area was not active so we could head straight for Nanaimo. The Nanaimo Yacht Club guest dock was full so we opted to anchor over near the Dinghy Dock Pub. You can’t be that close to the Pub without going in for dinner. We skipped desert tonight (no pie left). The next morning we see the Nanaimo Yacht Club guest dock empty as the boats leave to cathc the morning slack at Dodd Narrows. We scoot over to the dock, drop our bikes and head to the grocery store for a couple items. We also visited the map/book store only to find that they were out of business. Darn!
We left Nanaimo for the afternoon slack at Dodd Narrows 
and proceeded to Ladysmith. There was plenty of room on the Ladysmith Yacht Club guest dock. The boat next to us was out of LaConner with owners from Manhattan, Kansas. Chuck asked if we might be able to help him and the “morning girl” help get his wife, Marge, off the boat so that they could visit the Bakery. They have been spending summers boating to Alaska and these waters for the last 27 years. In 1997 Marge was injured in an auto accident and is a most inspirational quadriplegic. You can find an article written by one of their “morning girls” in 48 Deg North, June 2013, “Morning Girl Sailor”:
digital.turn-page.com/i/131916-june-2013/30.
Those of you who know Ladysmith know that they were pushing that wheelchair uphill quite a distance to downtown Ladysmith.
Our plans were to stop at Chemainus to see the play. We called and found tickets were sold out so plan B took us to the Maple Bay yacht clu guest dock. As luck would have it we arrived for Wednesday night dinner and a movie. For $6 we ate lasagna, salad and desert then watched Peter Sellers in “Being There”. It was a very funny movie. The movie was made in 1979 and Sellers died in 1980 of a heart attack.
Cowichin was our next stop. They have a number of attractive float homes as well as a great Maritime Center with historic boats and maritime memorabilia. Ladysmith, Chemainus, and Cowichin are within easy range by car from Victoria and that was obvious from the traffic and people on the streets.
From Cowichin we planned to go to Todd Inlet so we could visit Butchart Gardens and enjoy the Saturday night fireworks. For east coast friends, Butchart is like Longwood Gardens. The weather forecast had us reconsider. We are delighted that this area is finally received much needed rain. However, the fronts moving through are also brought high winds.
Again, on to Plan B which was to position ourselves close to home. We move from Cowichin to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island. After anchoring and taking a hike we listened to the weather and decided we should get even closer to home. We pulled anchor and headed to Hunter Bay on Lopez Island. Only 7 miles of water separate us from home. While strong winds and rain caused power outages and wreaked havoc with some of the boats in Anacortes we were securely anchored in Hunter Bay. All good trips must come to an end and as the sun set Saturday, August 29, 2015 we made our plans to come home the next day.
Thanks for traveling with us!
