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Published: June 20th 2017
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Geo: 48.7238, -123.341
Portland Island is also called Princess Margaret Marine Park because British Columbia gave her the island as a gift in 1958. She gave it back later and it became a marine park.
Al tells us that last week when he was there people were swimming off the dock - I am suspicious because I am currently wearing a tank top, a short-sleeved tee shirt, a long sleeved tee shirt, and a fleece sweater under my windproof, waterproof jacket. Oh, and I have on a warm knit hat under my coat's hood. I already feel like I'm swimming...
We set sail for Portland Island...and it starts to rain. Oh well. When we arrive, we drop the anchor and use a rope to tie the back of the boat to a "pin" onshore. If there isn't a pin, then you tie your rope around a tree. Doing this keeps the boat from swinging around the anchor and bumping other anchored boats nearby. John and Janet volunteer for pin duty. The rope is fed through a thingy (I'm sure that is the nautical term) on the Ibis and they row the dinghy toward a rock with white paint on it - that signifies a
pin. Janet can't reach the pin, so John rows a little further down to another pin. Success! Janet threads the rope through the pin, without dumping them out of the dingy, and they row back feeding out the rope. Now we are safely anchored and tied off.
Jeff, Al and I don our lifejackets and get into the dinghy with them for a short ride into the dock at Royal Cove to take a walk.
We take a very nice short hike on the island and discover that it is covered in blackberries! SCORE! Our walk slows considerably as one or the other of us stops to pick a handful of freshly rain-washed berries and pop them into our mouth. So good and so unexpected! Janet and I lag behind a bit until Jeff calls to us to hurry up. We do and he points out a young raccoon who is in the berry bushes eating away. The little raccoon doesn't seem bothered by us but he slowly disappears into the thick brambles.
Before the island was returned to British Columbia by the Princess it was farmed. There are "middens" that show coastal natives used the island extensively. At one time there
were apple and plum orchards here. We get to the orchards which have, of course, gone wild by now and enjoy a couple of freshly picked apples. The area was clearly an organized orchard at one time and I wonder about the people who planted these trees. How long did they stay? Did they have big gardens, too? Did they fish, take advantage of all the shellfish along the shore? Why did they leave and where did they go?
We return to the Ibis having eaten too many blackberries to be hungry so dinner was simple - we took some hummus and vegies up top, some beer. We had a spirited conversation about banana slug escargo. Would it taste like slimy bananas? Sue had planned delicious menus for us and we've already gone rogue on her. We never did eat our "real" dinner that night.
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Tom
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So...when can we expect the blackberry jam?? :)