August 15, 2004
Bunsby Islands (N 50° 6' W 127° 31')
We arrived at the Bunsby Islands yesterday morning after our trip from Columbia Cove and were reminded of one of the distinguishing features of the west coast of Vancouver Island: rocks. Lots of rocks. Scattered everywhere. Not that we hit one or anything, but it's a whole 'nother ballgame out here as compared to the inside. We go slower and scout carefully before entering a "rock pile." Many of these dangers are marked by kelp or they stick up above the surface at low tide. They are the easy ones to spot. Others are nothing more than a white smear in the otherwise dark water. The worst ones are so deep that only the depth sounder will tell you that they are about to jump up off an otherwise smooth bottom and grab your boat.
It was worth it though. After threading our way in we went out for a ride in the dinghy and found a fantastic miniature sandy beach which was created by the ocean swell driving over a rocky reef through a narrow slit in the reef. The sand was so fine and clean it looked tropical.
After our dinghy ride we came back to Nakia and sat on the foredeck and watched our mascot, "Crab Crusher," eat lunch. Crab Crusher is a sea otter who's been hanging around our little cove. He seems to have a great fondness for red rock crab and swims along the shore diving for them and then floating on his back crunching them loudly, with the sounds of him eating echoing off the trees.
After Crab Crusher had left Linda sat on the foredeck quietly reading. I was working below and when I went up on deck there was a large black bear foraging on the beach 150 yards away. I told Linda, "You have to look around once in a while!" We had a great time watching him flip over rocks and then eating whatever he found underneath.
This morning being Sunday we had a special breakfast. Salmon (what a surprise) thinly sliced and fried in butter placed over toast with eggs over easy on top, then topped with Hollandaise sauce. Yum!
After completing some chores we spent the afternoon exploring in the dinghy, this time visiting a small inlet nearby which has the remains of an old native fish weir. I'm not really sure what a fish weir is, but we saw it anyway. We also spent some time watching an osprey diving for herring. It was the first osprey we've seen in Canada. The morning overcast burned off by the time we were exploring the fish weir and it was another beautiful sunny afternoon.
This evening we were reminded of one of the other distinguishing features of the west coast: fog! We had just finished dinner and I looked out to see a fog bank rolling in. Within half an hour we couldn't see out of the anchorage 1/4 mile away. If it's like this tomorrow morning, we won't be going anywhere (we had planned to leave for Rugged Point or thereabouts via Walters Cove). We've been extremely fortunate with the weather this time so we can't complain!
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