June 27,2008 Squirrel Cove Cortes Island
I believe Vancouver named this island Cortes after the Spanish captain he met when they were both doing surveys to claim the land for their own countries.
The day turned sunny and quite warm after an almost winterish day yesterday, raining and cool. We stayed in and read then as the rain let up took the dinghy and motored over to Laura Cove. The intertidal zones are a linear display of yellow and brownish greens from the kelp. There are clumps of oysters everywhere, and they far out number the mussels unlike the Oregon coast where we don’t have any preponderance of oysters. The water is very clean and there is no trash, very pristine, but many areas are affected by red tide and you cannot harvest any clams, mussels or oysters.
We went ashore here on Melanie Cove. It’s very verdant and felt much like the Oregon Coast with it’s depth of sword ferns and density of conifers, minus the Redwoods. How fortunate we are to have our towering giant Redwoods! Also make note of BC’s own variety of slug, unlike our banana slug, theirs has a giraffe’s spots!
Made a pit stop as we left Desolation Sound and actually sailed! Across to Refuge Cove on West Redonda Island. This is a year round community that is very laid back and tourist friendly. Ken thought I might want a burger (I think they call that projection so we each had a $12 hamburger that I guess was worth it. They had no internet there--I was hoping to post to the blog.
We had met some people in LUND who lived their working lives in Medford, but moved to Friday Harbor a few years ago and just joined a sailing club--their up here with some other boaters. They know Roger Vanderbeek well. Don and Mary. We chatted with them at lunch--all about boating of course.
The beauty is spectacular here--reminds me somewhat of Glacier National Park with a salty twist. Lots of boats around but not too many. The woman at the Refuge Cove store said it will really be busy in July and August. Just now I saw 2 Black Oystercatchers--no surprise they would be here! They have outstandingly prominent long reddish orange thick bills, as one would expect they would need. A family of Canada Geese and their young just paddled by. And most touching to me, I heard the brief and distant call of the Loon. I just spied a kitty cat on a cute little power boat from Oregon no less.
Ken spent quite a bit of time pouring over the charts to get us through the notorious Yuculta and Dent Rapids, which we will be leaving for at 6 in the morning. Thank God for these long days! There is no good close staging area, and so we must travel 25 miles tomorrow to be there at slack ebb at 12:45. We will have an ebb against us, and we need to do 6 knots. Stay tuned!
I believe Vancouver named this island Cortes after the Spanish captain he met when they were both doing surveys to claim the land for their own countries.
The day turned sunny and quite warm after an almost winterish day yesterday, raining and cool. We stayed in and read then as the rain let up took the dinghy and motored over to Laura Cove. The intertidal zones are a linear display of yellow and brownish greens from the kelp. There are clumps of oysters everywhere, and they far out number the mussels unlike the Oregon coast where we don’t have any preponderance of oysters. The water is very clean and there is no trash, very pristine, but many areas are affected by red tide and you cannot harvest any clams, mussels or oysters.
We went ashore here on Melanie Cove. It’s very verdant and felt much like the Oregon Coast with it’s depth of sword ferns and density of conifers, minus the Redwoods. How fortunate we are to have our towering giant Redwoods! Also make note of BC’s own variety of slug, unlike our banana slug, theirs has a giraffe’s spots!
Made a pit stop as we left Desolation Sound and actually sailed! Across to Refuge Cove on West Redonda Island. This is a year round community that is very laid back and tourist friendly. Ken thought I might want a burger (I think they call that projection so we each had a $12 hamburger that I guess was worth it. They had no internet there--I was hoping to post to the blog.
We had met some people in LUND who lived their working lives in Medford, but moved to Friday Harbor a few years ago and just joined a sailing club--their up here with some other boaters. They know Roger Vanderbeek well. Don and Mary. We chatted with them at lunch--all about boating of course.
The beauty is spectacular here--reminds me somewhat of Glacier National Park with a salty twist. Lots of boats around but not too many. The woman at the Refuge Cove store said it will really be busy in July and August. Just now I saw 2 Black Oystercatchers--no surprise they would be here! They have outstandingly prominent long reddish orange thick bills, as one would expect they would need. A family of Canada Geese and their young just paddled by. And most touching to me, I heard the brief and distant call of the Loon. I just spied a kitty cat on a cute little power boat from Oregon no less.
Ken spent quite a bit of time pouring over the charts to get us through the notorious Yuculta and Dent Rapids, which we will be leaving for at 6 in the morning. Thank God for these long days! There is no good close staging area, and so we must travel 25 miles tomorrow to be there at slack ebb at 12:45. We will have an ebb against us, and we need to do 6 knots. Stay tuned!
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