July 17, 2020. West Whitpine Cove to Tofino Resort and Marina
It was a calm night and morning in West Whitepine cove, and I slept like I was in a house, and not on a boat. I raised the anchor in the warming sunshine, and motored out into Millar Channel, past the marine farm, reversing my course from yesterday. There was no sign of yesterday’s fog, though, and I could see across the channel to Ahousat clearly. I could also see their cell tower. Since I had time to spare, I idled the engine and drifted in the warm morning while I phoned my parents and Sara to update them on my position.
The trip into Tofino is complicated, and not well-suited to deep draft sailboats. There are lots of shallow passages with rapid currents flowing through them, and my speed varied from 4 to 7 knots without changing the RPMs on the engine, as I turned each corner into a new channel, and a new current. I was trying to time my arrival for about 1200, which was slack current at the marina. The marina staff had warned that was best, when Sara made my reservation, as otherwise, docking can be tricking.
By taking it one channel, and one set of markers at a time, I slowly made my way into Tofino. There were whale watching and fishing boats zipping past all over. The whale watching boats, in particular, seemed to carry their load of orange coated tourists at random. At one point, I thought one of them was trying to come over and talk to me, as they were driving towards me full throttle. Then, suddenly, they stopped a few hundred yards away. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing. I looked for the whale they were watching, but saw nothing. I couldn’t afford them too much attention, though, because I had to focus on the shallow passage I was transiting at the time.
Eventually, I came into Tofino, and worked my way carefully along the docks along the waterfront. It is very shallow in here, too, and I threaded my way carefully between patches of skinny water. I approached the dock right at 1205, which was a bit of a miracle, as my speed had varied so much en route that there was really no predicting when I would get there.
I radioed in on 66A, to see if I could get some help with my lines. Sara had assured me that they had lots of dockhands available to help. No one answered. I radioed again after a couple of minutes, and still no answer. I was getting close to the dock, but didn’t know exactly where to go, so I turned around, right over a shallow patch, trying to juggle the radio and steering at the same time. I tried my cell phone instead, and got the restaurant at the marina. They transferred me to the marina, but still no answer. I tried a third time on the radio, and then a second time on the phone, and finally got through to someone. After being put on hold twice, she found my reservation, and said someone would meet me on the dock.
I executed another tight turn, avoiding a 2 foot deep spot marked on the chart, and slid onto the dock, right in front of an RCMP boat. A very pleasant young fellow named Ethan helped with my lines. He is 19 years old, and has just moved down here from Smithers. He really seemed to be enjoying working on the docks, and his chatty and relaxed air made up for my frustration getting some help. He explained that the girls in the marina were busy, as the Harbour Air flight was on it’s way in. In fact, the flight landed a few minutes after I tied up. It comes to the same dock I am on, which will be really convenient for picking up Sara tomorrow.
This is how close the Harbour Air flight lands. Tomorrow, it will be Sara getting off that plane!
After the flight landed, the marina manager Megan chatted with me for a bit, and helped me move my boat back into the space vacated by the RCMP boat. I breathed a sigh of relief at finally being tied up securely in here, and went up to the marina office to check in. Unfortunately, they were busy with tourists that were going out on a whale watching excursion. So, I popped over to the pub next door to get some lunch, but they had people waiting too, and couldn’t say how long it would be for a table.
I headed back to the boat, and dug into my dwindling rations to stick with the old standby, a cheese and meat quesadilla. I am getting in the mood for something different, but I was so hungry and tired at that point, that anything would do.
Once I had some food in me, I felt better. I went back up to the marina office, and tried to check in. The staff there were pleasant, but seemed very new. They didn’t know the wifi password, or how to get into the laundry room, or really anything. They tracked down Megan, and she hooked me up with a key to the laundry and a wifi password, so I was set for the afternoon.
I went back to the boat and logged in to wifi, then sat down on the hospital email to catch up on work. I then caught up on my laundry, updating the blog while I waited for the cycle to complete. With a full bag of clean clothes, I headed back to the boat, did some more PFTs, and then went in search of dinner.
Tofino is a marked contrast to any town that I’ve been in recently. It is sort of a cross between Venice Beach in L.A., and Whistler, with a West Coast flair. It’s busy, full of young people here for surfing, fishing, and wildlife outings. It’s loud, with muflerless motorbikes running up and down the main street. I found it all pretty overwhelming in relation to the empty coves I have been frequenting over the past weeks. I stopped at a pizza place, and had a delicious pizza for dinner. Between the waiters and the chef shouting at each other and the loud music, I ate as quickly as I could and then went for a walk around town.
I guess maybe I should have been taking tourists with me. Big business in Tofino
The grocery store had a long lineup, so I left that for tomorrow, and grabbed some milk at a convenience store for breakfast. I’m back on the boat now, having logged back in to the hospital system and worked through some more tests. Sara called, and we chatted and confirmed plans for tomorrow. I can’t wait to see her!
I have a feeling it might be a bouncy couple of days on this dock. I’m at the outside of the marina, which is pretty much the only place in town that can accommodate my draft. The fishing and the tour boats are zipping by pretty much constantly. They seem to ignore the “no wake” sign, and there is a fairly consistent wash against the boat. Hopefully it will settle after dark.
Rod Stewart is singing Ooh La La on the stereo. I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger…
No comments:
Post a Comment