Crossing Queen Charlotte Sound

This is the kind of morning we hope for to cross the Sound. We had some wind against us , but not too strong. We left at daybreak from Kalect Island Cove on Hope Island, just off the north of Vancouver Island.

KALECT ISLAND COVE

This cove is one of our favourite anchorages. The island is an ancient First Nations site, and you can sometimes feel spirits or some kind of connection with what has been before. We have some great memories here - yoga on the steep, smooth pebble beach with Katharine and Ted, watching the sea otter float past the boat on his back with a crab on his stomach, otter eating crab biting otter. And collecting limpets with deacon Dave, who moved almost as slowly as they, among the marvels of a very low tide beach.


This picture shows some of my Kalect Island treasures from this year. The most aromatic daffodils – from whose garden bulbs gone wild, and prolific? Abalone has become almost extinct on this coast, I have never seen one. But the mink sure have. Thomas and I found these abalone shells all over the island, and each of us had a conversation with one of these quick and fearless little mink at either end of the beach. Hanging above my flowers is a butterfly shell, from a chiton of another summer’s collecting. Thomas found 2 of them for me on Kalect Island and I boiled them up to remove the shells inside. Says my book on shells, “The giant Pacific chiton has the appearance of a wandering meatloaf but do not be deceived. The common name gumboot chiton gives a clue to the toughness of the chiton’s meat.”


What the picture doesn’t show is the dug up patches of midden, looking like an archeological dig. Someone is searching the past on this spot, maybe it’s about finding strength in their roots, and we hope they will find something to grace the present in this beautiful place.

Orcas in Fitzhugh Sound

The famous golden Dungeness of Codville Lagoon


TIME TO GROW FOOD

While we were in Namu we planted seeds for the garden bed in Crippen Cove. The coming of the sun for a few days (and wind from the wrong sailing direction keeping us still) got us inspired. The boat feels wonderful with plants growing everywhere. I’m perusing a little book from the 60’s "The Secret Life of Plants". Cutting edge new age insights about the wonder of plants – how much we can learn from and communicate with them. It’s all true, you know.

Planting seeds, collecting, transplanting and drying supervised by
Elizabeth the boat doll and Thomas the sailor dog.

You should see what they grow in a floating greenhouse tied to the Namu dock! They make soil from starfish and sawdust. She’s got orange plastic tape around plants from Namu’s past, to save them from demolition as a road to the lake goes in. Imagine the interesting plants the many different ethnic groups grew when Namu was their home.
Prize Cherry tree
Peach trees

We're able to post this thanks to the folks in Ocean Falls who've set up internet access. To read more about this interesting community determined to continue living in this beautiful place go to http://www.oceanfalls.org

Website: www.oceanfalls.org