July 8, 2020. Nuchatlitz Bay.
Liquid sunshine on the West Coast
Nature taught me another lesson last night. When the “drip, drip, drip” started on the deck in the middle of the night, I realized that instead of bemoaning the lack of sun, I should have been thankful for the lack of rain in recent days. Sure enough, today ended that trend, and it rained most of the night. When I woke up, it was still a steady drizzle.
I had debated making today a down day, and the rain decided it for me. I laid in my warm bed as long as I could, then got up and made some hot tea and cereal. I took my time over that, and eventually, the rain seemed to settle a bit. I poked my head out of the cabin. It was still overcast, with a light misty liquid in the air, but the bay was dead calm. The tide was all the way down, so I decided to take the opportunity for a bit of exploring.
Low tide leave a lot more beach to climb
I grabbed a handheld VHF and the Inreach, then put the paddleboard in the water. It was an easy paddle back over to the old church site. With the tide down so far, I had to climb a fairly steep beach to get back on shore. I took a quick tour around the old village and church site, but there is nothing there now except for a few poles and a small driftwood structure. Yesterday, there was a man there mowing, and I took a quick walk around where the grass and weeds had been cut down.
The old village site
I then headed over to Kayak Island. At low tide, it is connected to the old village site by a long gravel bar, that winds its way along like a meandering road. Where I had paddled yesterday was now all dry, and I walked right across. The rain picked up again as I reached the island, and I was pretty soaked through in short order. Once you’re wet, though, the worst is over, so I decided to push on. With the tide so low, I was pretty sure I’d be able to walk right around the island. There was a big foreshore with the tide out, and I explored the gravel beach. As I got around to the open ocean side of the island, the beach faded out, and I had to work my away across some rugged rocks and tide pools. I explored a few, but the rain and the threat of a rising tide kept me moving. It all reminded me of hiking the West Coast trail with my brother, many years ago. The cold and soaked feet that made it easier to just keep moving, with the ocean crashing off the beach were all the same. The difference was that I had a nice warm boat waiting for me to get back to.
Low tide causeway to Kayak Island
It took a bit over half an hour to get all the way around. The tide hadn’t come up much, and there was still lots of room to make it back across the gravel causeway connecting the islands. Once across, I figured I was as wet as I could get, and as long as I kept moving, I was warm enough. So I turned right, and walked around the smaller village island as well. I was conscious of making noise, so as not to surprise the same bear from yesterday, but I didn’t see anything bigger than a bird. Apparently, the other animals had the sense to stay inside today.
Tide pool on the ocean side of Kayak Island
When I reached my paddleboard again, the rain slowed down. There had been a stiff wind blowing on the outer side of the island, but in the bay, it was calm and glassy. I sat on a wet log for a quick snack, then pushed off on my paddleboard. It slid along the calm water with minimal effort. I headed around the bay to explore. The mirror like surface of the water reflected the small rugged islands and trees, and the paddleboarding was almost perfect. After 45 minutes or so of paddling, the rain started up again, and I headed back to the boat.
Calm water reflecting the islands…
…and making perfect paddleboarding
Back on board, I stripped off all my soaking clothes, and left them in the cockpit. I had run the diesel heater in the morning to warm up some water. A hot shower was exactly what I needed to get rid of the damp chill. That and a change of clothes made me feel like new.
After warming up a bit, I fired up the watermaker to put back some of the freshwater I’d used in the shower. A hot lunch of bacon and cheese quesadilla filled me up. The boat needed a bit of a tidy after multiple days of travel, but it didn’t take too long. I settled on the settee to watch a movie under a blanket. I was still hungry, so I grabbed one of the jiffy pops out of the cupboard, and treated myself to popcorn and a movie.
It looks like it is going to rain on and off the rest of the day. I’ve left the paddleboard in the water for now, but being warm and dry inside makes it less appealing to consider another late afternoon exploration. I will probably take it easy for the rest of the day, and cook dinner in the oven to provide a little more heat in the cabin before an early night. Tomorrow, if I can catch a decent tide to get back out the narrow passage, I will head off early and head towards Tahsis, where I can catch up with civilization on their internet. That will be a mixed blessing, as it will mean getting back to work a bit as well. But with the forecast for rain over the next few days, if I’m going to be more or less boat bound, I may as well catch up on my other commitments.
Blog sound track: Kodachrome by Paul Simon. Give us the green of summer…
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