After Vancouver we make a small trip in the Fraser river to see the yard were we will go for our winter works, and we start our rounding of Vancouver island. Discovery passage, Desolation Sound, Johnstone Strait, Squirrel Cove, Octopus Islands, Alert Bay, Columbia Cove, Nuchatlitz, Hot springs Cove, Ucluelet…all these places are full of history, a maze of islands, fjords, rapids where the currents can be violent, up to 15 knots, all these anchorages we discover, making slowly our way up to the North, with its rains and fogs. The fauna differ : the sea birds are different, loons, auklets, murres, tufted puffins, the sea otters savour their crab while crawling, the whales are here too. The black bears stay on the the beaches, turning the stones in search of food. We will meet some ashore also, a little too close…We will not see the wolfes, nor the grizzli of Port Harvey, but he will impeach us to hike too far.
Alert bay, in the North, cultural center of the First Nations. The museum is extraordinary, we really enter in the indian culture, and the totems in the village are not only for the show : when they are not the pride of the band they stand in the graveyards, ultimate tribute to the deads.
The west coast is more beautiful, more wild and our meetings more scarce, but more special : so with Bob, in Nuchatlitz, who established here more than 40 years ago, who made all by his own hands : his house, his work shops, the oyster farm, his boat and all this at hours by sea from the first village. He will offer us vegetables from his garden to welcome us, and in the evening the neighbours will invite us for a memorable dinner, with a salmon fished and barbecuded by Bob…At the Hot springs we will take the bath of the year, we could feel in a hammam !
Ucluelet, our last call before Victoria were we took shelter from the first big storm of the season and where we could admire the millenars red cedars on the “Wild Pacific Trail”. The canadian geese flights follow each other, filling our nights with their calls, they migrate southward. Autumn is here, it’s time to come back.
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