July 20, 2020. Joe’s Bay, aka Turtle Island, the Broken Group, Barkley Sound
If you imagine what a sailboat vacation around Vancouver Island is like, you probably picture a lot of days like today. It’s taken us about 6 weeks to have that imaginary day, but it was a great one!
We were both really tired after yesterday, and arrived hungry and irritable in Joe’s Bay. We went to bed as soon as we had the boat tucked in, but it was still well past cruiser’s midnight when we fell asleep (it was about 2230). The anchorage was quiet and still all night, and we slept well for the first time in a few days, absent the fishing boat wakes and loud music of the Tofino Resort.
We took it easy this morning. Sara slept in, and I got up at around 0700 and read my book, enjoying the stillness. Once Sara got up, we had a late breakfast of tea, cereal and fresh blueberries. Then, we set about the main project for the day, which was to get Sara’s paddle board out of the lazarette, inflate it, and go for a paddle.
Still morning in Joe’s Bay (Turtle Island)
Getting the paddle board out was a bit of a feat. We have a deep lazarette on the boat, with a huge amount of storage space. We had put the second paddleboard right at the back, not anticipating that Sara would be back so soon. We had to empty the space of everything in front of the board before we could haul it out in it’s bag. With two of us doing it, though, it really only took a few minutes, and we soon had the board out, and everything else put away.
I took the board up to the foredeck, and we inflated it on top of the dinghy, which is still up there. As we do more and longer paddle board trips, the dinghy is becoming less necessary, and hasn’t been off the deck since North Harbour in Quatsino Sound.
Eventually we had both paddleboards set up, and in the water. We put together a picnic lunch, and headed out to explore. We realized last night as we were coming in to Barkley Sound that we are actually anchored not far from the beach we camped on in 2015 when we came kayaking here with our kids and friends. That seems forever ago now.
Sara likes to wear her best dress for paddleboard outings
We paddled over to the same beach, and pulled up on it for a walk and a look around. It seems smaller now than it did 5 years ago. Maybe because we don’t have little kids to watch out for. Or maybe because the tide was up. Anyway, it is a beautiful little beach, and it was a nice stop. It was still too early for lunch, though, so we paddled back to Joe’s Bay.
Willis Island kayak beach
On the way, I realized that I had a phone meeting of ICU administrators scheduled at 1300. Since we have cell access here, and we weren’t in a hurry, I called in to the meeting, sitting on the paddleboard in the middle of the bay. Unfortunately, no-one else seemed to dial in, so after waiting for ten minutes, I hung up and we kept going. It would have been cool to take a meeting out on my board.
We paddled around the back of Willis Island. Turret Island was a mile or two across the bay, with another beautiful beach that we could see from the end of Joe’s Bay. It was all upwind, but we started to dig our way across the bay, and in 30 or 40 minutes, we managed to get across and out of the wind.
Coming on to the Turret Island beach
We pulled up on the deserted island, and sat and had a lovely lunch, looking back across the sunny bay. The warm, soft sand felt great between our toes, and it was at that point that we realized we were actually having the imaginary “sailing vacation” day. After going for a walk on the beach, we set out back towards the boat. The paddling was much easier downwind.
Shortly after we got off the beach, a boat came roaring through the bay. We braced ourselves for their wake to hit us, but as soon as the occupants of the boat saw us, they slowed down, and altered course to come right at us. We weren’t sure what that was about, and as I’ve said before, it’s intimidating to have a big power boat with twin 100 horse power outboards heading toward you on when you’re on a paddleboard, but they came slowly and carefully.
It turned out they were park rangers. They haven’t seen people that far out on SUPs in the area, and thought it was cool, so wanted to come over to say hi. We chatted for a while, and I asked why there were no kayakers on any of the beaches. Apparently the Pacific Rim National Park is still open, but there is no camping allowed, so no kayakers. It seems like this would be a pretty safe place to avoid COVID, even if you were out with a group of kayakers, and I know there is camping going on in more populated places, so I’m not sure of the rationale. I’m sure there’s a reason, though.
Heading downwind back to Joe’s Bay
We paddled around Joe’s Bay on the way back to the boat. By the time we finally got back, we had been out for almost four hours. It was a long paddle, and we were both pretty tired. I had a nap, while Sara read in the cockpit.
This evening, we barbecued chicken and zucchini, and roasted some potatoes in the oven. After dinner, we watched a Beneteau First 435 come into the anchorage. He motored all the way from the entrance, across the entire bay, which is nearly empty, and dropped his anchor a couple of hundred feet from our boat. In any crowded anchorage, it would be a totally reasonable distance, and it doesn’t really bother us. It provided us with the eternal cruising entertainment of watching another boat anchor. It’s just funny that he came so close to us, and to the boat in front of us, when there is so much empty space around. It seems to be a pretty common practice, though. Maybe something about safety in crowds. After all the empty anchorages I have been in, it is even more remarkable. We’ll have to get used to more people as we head south again, though.
Soundtrack: Fleetwood Mack – You can Go Your Own Way. We’ll keep trying to do that…
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