Princess Margaret Marine Park (Portland Island)

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Geo: 48.7232, -123.338

We awoke after spending the night in Royal Cove on Portland Island, and after breakfast (cereals and fruit with ample quantities of coffee), decide to go ashore to hike. John has equipped himself with a plastic bowl and lid - his intentions are clearly not hiking!
Back in the dinghy, over to the dock we all start out together. John peels off at a "Y" in the trail to go berry picking down the path we followed yesterday. Janet, Jeff, Al and I start on the long trail around the island. It is beautiful - think verdant forest, green, green moss on the trees, on the ground, ferns - sword and bracken intermixed. Green and moist everywhere. Add to that the quiet of the forest except the occasional sound of a kingfisher.

Al points out a tree stump that has a vertical slit in it and explains that the lumberjacks cut this slit, put a board to stand on into the slit which let them cut into the tree at a better vantage point. There is a lot of logging in this area of Canada.

Somehow, when we get to a junction in the trail, we get off the circle (around the island) trail. Janet and I looked at a trail map, see the "You are here" marker and we're confused about the direction Al is heading, but we just look at each other and follow along. Sure enough, we end up back on the same trail as John, meeting him and his bowl nearly full of blackberries. Janet elects to stay with John and pick berries; I grab a handful from a nearby bush and follow Jeff and Al down the trail - to catch the circle trail.

We follow the trail to Shell Beach. Aptly named, the ground is covered in shells...so many crushed, pulverized shells that you don't see any dirt at all. There is also sea lettuce here so I pick several pieces to take back to John and Janet to try. Leaving Shell Beach it is clear that we're off the trail again. What we are on is slimy, disgusting, smelly and very slippery algae and kelp covered rock. Yech! Jeff and Al are a bit ahead of me. I'm concentrating hard on not slipping and landing on my butt in the primordial mess. This is my only clean pair of pants!
Something round and bright red catches my eye and I ooze my way over to it. It is about the size of a Ritz cracker. I turn it over with a stick and it closes up - like a little drawstring purse would close. How interesting. I shout to Jeff that I think I've found a jellyfish and he shouts back "there is one here." I get my camera out, but he is clearly anxious for me to catch up. I slither my way across the goo (and didn't fall down). When I get to them I ask Jeff where is the jellyfish? Well, he didn't know anything about a jellyfish - they just wanted me to catch up. Bummer!! I didn't get a photo of what I saw and I was NOT going back into that slime again!

Al is sitting on an enormous tree trunk that has fallen onto the beach. The three of us have some chocolate and apples. I have to climb up onto some rocks to get onto the huge tree trunk and it is so wide and tall that Jeff helps me down.
Al picks up a clam and a mussel to show me. I would never have seen them myself - they just look like rocks with barnacles.
We hike a bit longer and come to a campsite. Al leads us up the path and I'm wondering why, if this is a circle trail, we are on a trail going back the way we came and uphill? Apparently, Al wonders that as well. He stops, we turn around, hike back down to the campsite, find the correct trail and continue on.
Eventually, we work our way back to the dinghy dock. John and Janet have a full container of fresh blackberries - about 5 quarts! Oh boy!

I am hot, tired, sweaty and hungry. Time to get back into the bouncy dinghy and head for the Ibis.

Janet and I are excited to get onboard because we are sailing for South Pender Island this afternoon. South Pender Island - land of a hot tub! And hot showers!! Hot damn!!
John and Janet row out to untie the rope from the pin. Lucky for them they used the second pin yesterday because if they had been able to reach the first, Janet would now have to get out of the dinghy and climb a very steep little hill to reach it - the tide went out.

We set sail - or, actually, set motor. We've had the sails up only once so far on this trip and that was the first day when we sailed through what Jeff has come to describe as the "Straits of Hell" - gale force wind, remember?
It starts to rain, actually it has rained every day on this trip and there has been a near-constant cold, biting wind - but today we don't care - there is a hot tub at the end of this route. It begins thundering and I find myself wondering about what would happen if lightening were to strike the mast...I go below and make hot tea or hot chocolate for everyone.

Jeff is the skipper for this leg. Basically he is driving by instruments and has to keep the little dotted line on the solid line - which is the route Al has mapped to the harbor. It is a little like playing a very slow video game. I find myself hoping that Al's navigation on the seas is better than his navigation on land!

All of a sudden I see a dolphin! So exciting! Janet and Jeff see it as it passes behind the boat. We've all been looking for whales, but the dolphin is the first sea animal we've seen since the seals at Oak Harbor.

We arrive at Poet's Cove on South Pender Island, drop anchor and scurry around grabbing swimsuits (for the hot tub), shampoo, soap and everything for a nice shower. Bags or backpacks in hand we get in the dinghy. Jeff admits that he is not a water person, but even HE has never worn a life jacket to the shower!

We dock and walk up the hill to the pool and, oh no! the hot tub is closed for maintenance! REALLY???? Janet and I exchange several words that we would not repeat in front of our mothers. We open the gate to the pool - according to Al there is a $10 charge each, but only if you get caught. Janet sticks her hand into the swimming pool and to our amazement the water is warm. We all change into our swimsuits - Janet and I slide into the pool - it is warm "enough". There is a ferocious wind so we keep all but our heads submerged. Suddenly we heard a loud clang! One of the big umbrellas over an outdoor table comes twirling through the air, over the pool and splashes down without impaling us. Janet and I swim over, making sure to stay as submerged as possible, to lift it out.
Jeff joins us as does Al. Neither Jeff nor John stay in the pool very long but head for the warm showers. Janet and I stay in the pool because the guys have our shampoo and conditioner. We decide that when they come back, we'll have them stand by the women's locker room door with our towels so we can race out out of the pool and indoors as quickly as possible.

Janet decides that I can't shave my legs "under these conditions" and we laugh as we keep the hot water flowing. After our showers (ahhhhhh....) we walk over to the bar/restaurant and join the men for brews. I have a nice cup of decaff to warm me. WAY too soon it is time to get back into that damn dinghy and motor back to the Ibis. As we leave the restaurant, Janet stops and says, "Something smells really good. Oh wait, it's ME" and we giggle all the way to the dock. Our dingy ride is a little exciting because it has gotten dark, Al says "there's a big rock around here somewhere" which we do avoid smacking into. I thought if I end up in the ocean after that lovely shower someone is going to die. When we left the Ibis no one turned the mast light on. Hmmm...which of these bobbing black blobs is our boat?

Here we are... Being clean has improved our temperaments. Our "berth" (bedroom) is small but certainly manageable as long as just one person is in it at a time. At bedtime, I get ready for bed and crawl in and then Jeff comes in and scoots until he can swing his legs over my head to get into the bed. In the mornings, I crawl forward until I can swing my feet over him and we reverse the whole process. It is time for our bedtime contortionists' routines.

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Comments

[jkutzik]

cool!