Mothership Meanderings: Kayaks Saved the Holiday!

April-May 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Alan Wilson

Pillow lava in Open Bay, Quadra Island, photo Laurie MacBride

August 1998: the weather was blistering hot. We'd finally managed to get away on our long awaited boating trip after weeks of frantic work. This was the first extended cruise on our new boat and I had some trepidations about how I'd adapt to running a diesel engine after years of "keeping it simple" in a kayak. But Laurie had grown up on cruising boats. I knew she was happiest on the water in this mode of transport, and anyway, with a couple of kayaks perched on our cabin top, I figured I'd get lots of paddling. Such was the plan we'd been developing ever since we'd bought the boat the previous fall.

The weather was on our side. It was a scorcher and flat calm as we motored slowly up the middle of Georgia Strait with miles of sea on every side. It felt like we were in a giant's bathtub. We shed our worries and began to feel truly free for the first time in months.

Our goal was to reach the Broughton Archipelago (a paddler's paradise of islands clustered north of Johnstone Strait) and visit with whale researcher and Wavelength columnist, Alexandra Morton. In some ways, the holiday was really a thinly disguised working vacation. We planned to investigate paddling opportunities and environmental concerns en route. But it was a welcome vacation from our computers, phones and email!

Still stuck in the go-go-go mode of work, I was anxious to push on directly to ensure we had time to explore the Broughton and return home within our limited time frame. To her credit Laurie was less goal oriented, just happy to be away from her desk.

The hot weather was welcome, but the engine's temperature gauge soon showed a worrisome tendency to climb above the safe level whenever we slowed to manouevre for docking or anchoring. And this in turn caused me to lose my cool. We decided to seek a mechanic's help and headed for nearby Quadra Island which we hoped would have the resources we needed.

The wind was gusting from the northwest as we stopped in Heriot Bay to get some groceries. The boats were dancing alarmingly at the dock, and we tied up only briefly before heading out to nearby Drew Harbour to see if we could find anchorage in the lee of Rebecca Spit.

We found good holding about 50 feet off the east facing beach between a couple of enormous pleasure crafts. Although we were out of the wind, this was far from my idea of a private little cove such as I'd been visualizing for months. There were over seventy boats!

Rebecca Spit is a Provincial Marine Park, and a remarkable geological phenomena-a sand and gravel spit approximately two nautical miles in length, crowned with a forest of old growth evergreens. But I'd been hoping to 'get away from it all' and here we were surrounded by hordes of others. Instead of footloose and free, I felt the boat to be an unwelcome anchor. I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of the whole enterprise. (I later realized many boaters were waiting out the weather here, as the numbers dropped drastically when it calmed. And even at its busiest, there was plenty of good anchorage available.)

Once we were anchored, Laurie used the cellphone to track down a mechanic in nearby Campbell River. Unfortunately he couldn't come till Monday, and here we were, Friday. If we needed parts, it could be a week or more, and the goal of Broughton would have to be abandoned! My spirits plummeted at the thought.

The next morning, as I sat despondently gazing at the chart of the area, I began to notice the nearby shoreline dotted with islands. Up to that point, I'd been focused on the distance we had to cover every day if we hoped to meet our objective-every day plotting a straight-line course and avoiding the rocks and hazards. But now I felt a shift in perspective. I felt myself slip back into the mind of a paddler, my eyes seeking out the rocks and reefs and shallows, the crenellations of shore to explore.

At the same time, Laurie was reading Bill Wolferstan's great book on the area, Cruising Guide to British Columbia, Volume 2: Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands. Here we learned about nearby Open Bay with well preserved Upper Triassic fossils and pillow lava displays .

We might be 'marooned' but we could at least go paddling.

Taku Resort owner, Fei Wong, shows the Round House to Laurie MacBride, photo Alan Wilson

After breakfast we geared up and set off in the kayaks for the day. I felt my spirits returning as soon as we rounded the tip of the Spit and left the bigger boats behind.

We stroked across to the Breton Islands, a group of tiny forested islets that deserve status as a Marine Protected Area for the rich sea life they support. At one point we surprised a group of vultures, and they in turn surprised us.

We drifted, open-mouthed, past 14 of these improbable birds hopping on the sand, looking like refugees from the desert, with red heads and big black bodies, no doubt with carrion nearby. Later we encountered a seal nursery of moms and pups as we paddled among the rocky shallows between the Bretons and Quadra Island.

We were entranced by the complex rocky shoreline of Quadra and the pillow lava around Open Bay. Pillow lava is volcanic rock which has been rapidly cooled by contact with sea water into a distinctive 'pillow' shape.

We ate lunch and basked in the sun on a rocky islet amid a rubble of drift logs. Then we relaunched our kayaks and discovered bright red sea urchins like bright red pin cushions dotting the rocks. In Hyacinthe Bay we found a little islet where we shed our clothes for a brisk swim.

Drying off in the sun, we enjoyed crisp apples from a solitary tree the birds had largely left alone.

We returned to the boat revived and restored. That evening we barbecued our dinner on deck and later rowed ashore for a walk on the Spit. As we stood gazing east, the sky faded to a soft pastel blue and a full pink moon rose above the mountains of Desolation Sound. It was a magical scene, filling us with peace and contentment.

I realized that with Read Island and Cortes Island not far beyond, it didn't matter if we were going to be stuck here. We could paddle everyday. And I was reminded that, despite the frustration of thwarted plans, the slower you go, the more you see.

Postscript

The mechanic was able to get us underway with no additional delay on Monday. We did reach the Broughton and had many great adventures that summer.

Services

Quadra Island is only a ten minute ferry ride from Campbell River on Vancouver Island. Kayak rentals, lessons and tours are available through Campbell River Kayaks (1 888 545-5595 or seakayak@island.net), Spirit of the West (1 800 307-3982 spirit1@connected.bc.ca), or Heriot Bay Inn (250-285-3322). Both the Heriot Bay Inn and Taku Resort (1 877 285-TAKU, www.takuresort.com) have RV sites, shower, laundry, rooms, etc.

There is no camping on Rebecca Spit itself-it is a day-use park only-but there is a large private campsite at the head of Drew Harbour, the We-Wai-Kai Campground owned by the Yaculta Indians (250-285-3111) with showers, laundry, water, security, etc. If you'd like more upscale accommodation, native run Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge has rooms and meals (250-285-2042).

Taku Resort-situated across the Harbour from the Spit-has a seasonal dock, tennis courts, hot tub, fully appointed rooms and cabins. A lovely beach front meeting room, the Round House, is perfect for small gatherings year round. For the past two years, Taku Resort has been the site of the annual Board and Staff retreat for the Georgia Strait Alliance. Taku makes a great jumping off point for exploring the surrounding islands.

Geology and Archaeology

Rebecca Spit was "originally formed by longshore drift with southeast winds and waves moving sand and gravel from the Cape Mudge cliffs... deposited as a natural breakwater protecting Drew Harbour." (Cruising Guide to British Columbia, Volume 2: Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands, Bill Wolferstan, Whitecap Books, Vancouver/Toronto, 1987, ISBN 0-921061-23-4. )

An archaeological study has turned up evidence of First Nations fortifications at the south end of the Spit, an entrenchment likely dating to the period of 16th to 18th centuries when Salish tribes defended themselves against incursions of the Kwakiutl from the north. (Excavations at two trench embankments in the Gulf of Georgia region, Donald H. Mitchell, Syesis, Volume 1, British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1968.)

Spring Guide's Exchange

This year's Spring Guide Exchange, organized by the Sea Kayak Guides' Alliance of BC, is being held at Rebecca Spit, April 28-30. For more information, contact Ralph Keller at 250-287-0635 or email him at coastmtn@island.net. Full details are available at www.skgabc.com

Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Centre

Not far from Rebecca Spit, situated in Cape Mudge Village on Quadra Island, the Kwagiulth Museum preserves the history & traditions of the Kwagiulth people. Opened 1979 to house a portion of the returned "Potlatch Collection", it features sacred ceremonial objects, cedar bark regalia used in Winter Ceremonies, masks, headdresses, coppers, and other objects that were confiscated in 1922 by the Canadian government to enforce a law banning potlatches. After 60 years of negotiations, much of the collection was returned to museums in Cape Mudge and Alert Bay. Phone: 250-285-3733 Fax: 250-285-3753. Email: kmccchin@island.net Web: www.island.net/~kmccchin