Inside Passage 2009

Back on the water after a relatively long “rest”/resupply in Nanaimo.  Today was a great day.  We paddled about 11.5 miles along the coast of Vancouver Island in some pretty big conditions.  The character of the paddling seems to have changed.  Whereas before we were island hopping and in quite protected waters, now we have the Strait of Georgia to our right, looking for all the world like the open ocean.  The wind was from the east and not too bad, but had kicked up 4ft wind waves.  Let me tell you, the 4 footers seem like real monsters, looming over your head as they approach, picking the boat up like so much driftwood, and for a second giving you an entirely new perspective as you perch on the crest.

We did fine with the paddling though, and continued along the coast and crossed to Southey Island in the afternoon.  Pretty wild spot, it took a while to locate a campsite.  Beautiful though, and we cooked dinner and went to bed early after a relaxing evening.

We finally made it to a bank and got some Canadian funds.  We’ve been waiting for a weekday, non-holiday to get our business here done.  So today, Monday, we headed into Nanaimo to pick up our packages, and resupply food and fuel.  Tied up the boats on D dock for about $10 mooring fees, then did a bunch of running around including laundry and the chandelry.  Happened upon a cannon firing ceremony and they let me fire the cannon.  Pretty cool.

Highlight was dinner at the Thirsty Camel, a very cool falafel joint near downtown.  Go there if ever in Nanaimo.  We can’t seem to upload photos from the Vancouver Island libraries, so that is a bummer.  We’ll get them up when we can, though, possibly after the Discovery Islands.

I hate “rest” days. They are anything but. They are stressful and pretty much miserable. Tide was waaay low this morning and the 2 islands New Castle and Protection were actually joined by a sandbar, closing our south passage to Nanaimo. Waited til around noon to paddle over when the tide re-filled the passage. Moored amidst the big ships for our free 3 hours. Walked around and got oriented with town but everything was closed. Bought lettuce and some other fresh veggies and made a sub but it was not quite as fulfilling as I thought it would be. We’ve been eating pretty well so far. Not really craving anything in particular.

May 23, 2009 ~ Asked around yesterday to figure out the best time to slip through False Narrows and decided on a 5am wakeup to hit the 9:45am slack through False Narrows. Boy did we mess something up. We were in the pass at a pretty strong outgoing tide. The narrows were choked with seaweed and grasses and kelp of all sorts… home to many crabs as we found out. As the tied went out, it was like paddling through molasses, the grasses were so thick. We decided to hop out and walk our kayaks aways.

Coming out of False Narrows, we had to decide if we were going to cross Dodd Narrows and continue up the coast of Vancouver Island or follow the coast of Gabriola and then content with a crossing over to Newcastle Island. The Vancouver Island coast looked industrious with possible shipping hazards, there were possible currents to deal with crossing Dodd Narrows. Gabriola was supposed to be more scenic with huge sandstone cliffs, but log booms lined the shore we could see. We chose the more scenic route with the crossing at the end. As we paddled by the huge log booms, the wind and water picked up and we fought it hard through 4 foot waves/swells.

Finally pulled into Descanso Bay where the ferry terminal is, but found no camping. We were directed around the corner for the camping. We were dehydrated and getting moreso every minute in the heat. We were not comfortable making the crossing in the wind and waves and decided to eddy hop around to Descanso Bay camping. Upon arriving, we got water and made a lunch immediately. Spoke with some folks and learned that the ferry from Gabriola (the one we just paddled by) to Nanaimo is free in that direction.

Decided to paddle back up to the ferry and try to take the ferry across to Nanaimo, then paddle to Newcastle Island from the Nanaimo ferry terminal. Unloaded the heaviest items into our 2 duffle bags and carried our loaded boats onto the ferry. Shuffled them across the ferry during transit, then got some help carrying them off at the other side. The public dock was between a tenth and a quarter of a mile from the Nanaimo ferry terminal, so then we carried all of our stuff back down to the water.

Paddled across the little channel and got in to camp exhausted around 8:30pm.

Life Lesson: Boats are meant for paddling in not for carrying across land.

Hot… maybe 85 degrees. Very low on water. We stayed to see the petroglyphs in Degnen Bay, just a short paddle across Gabriola Passage from where we were camped. Again, conditions in the passage were nothing crazy. Found the first glyph near the water. Tied up our boats near the gov’t dock and walked about 1.5 miles along the road back to a church where a trail led to the other carvings. The carvings date back to around 500 BC. We only saw about 6 of the supposed 50 glyphs. We also saw a really neat owl. I thought the petroglyphs would be carved onto the sides of cliffs, but they were actually on horizontal sandstone slabs on the ground. Moss and dirt and leaves, etc. were growing over much of the stone. On our way back to the dock we tried to get more water but there is no water in Degnen for public access. We’ll need our remaining 4L to get us through the rest of today and a pretty long paddle tomorrow. Pizza tonight.

May 21, 2009 ~ Warm with wind in the morning. Wakes Cove is located across the Gabriola Passage from Degnen Bay. It is on the North end of Valdes Island. We learned that camping is NOT permitted, despite it being marked on our map as a campsite.
We were prepared for strong southerly currents crossing Tricomali Channel this morning, but had only a bit of chop. However, the chop and wind picked up and we had to fight our way up the coast to Blackberry Point. Thought Phil was going to give up… he was so dejected from the battle to gain ground. Wind died down just in time and convinced him to keep going to Wakes Cove. We passed large sandstone cliffs eroded out into dripping, blobby formations.
Gabriola Passage was not bad… funny currents, but not strong.
Dinner I tried another new concoction, but used too much wheat flour and the patties came out gritty and grainy. Worst dinner so far.

May 20, 2009 ~ Crazy hot out today!! About 90 degrees in the sun according to Phil’s watch. I removed the drawstring on my drysuit this morning. My back feels better already. Paddling along the shores of Galiano Island we got up close and personal with a seal rookery and a sea wall with dozens and dozens of bird nests. Many different types of birds and they sure were making a lot of noise. Currents seemed to be with us all day today until the very end.

Eden is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Rocky ledges (not conducive to kayak landings and made for a challenging unpack and pack of the boats), wildflowers – pink, purple, white, and yellow of different sizes and shapes. It was tough to pick a place to pitch our tent because we didnt want to crush any flowers. The island is small, smaller than a football field. No deer. Lots of hummingbirds. Made another new dish for dinner out of the NOLS cookbook that turned out well – vegetarian meatballs with pesto sauce.