Vancouver Island Days 4 and 5

1520 hours. Location: 50.46.007N 126.10.646W. Took off from Lagoon Cove shortly after noon. Late start compared to what we’ve been doing. Went up Tribune Channel and ran into a herd (pod? Bunch? Gaggle?) of Pacific Whitesided Dolphins. There may have been 20 or so of them, surfacing and apparently feeding. Unfortunately they took no interest in the boat and didn’t play with the bow wave.




We both keep thinking about that close encounter with the bear. That was pretty cool. She (we think it was a she and we were close enough to see what wasn’t there…)

was walking along the shoreline and came to vertical cliff. Without hesitating, she waded into the water and started swimming, snorting while she did. She swam for probably 50 yards or so then emerged from the water dripping wet.



We’ve also seen a number of young seals perched on logs out in the water. Don’t think I’ve seen that before.



Tribune channel is alternately beautiful, majestic, and scarred. Fjord like, with several waterfalls cresting down steep slopes. Then you’ll come around a bend and see the scar from a clear cut.

Water is bathwater calm and a deep green, reflecting the trees that carpet the steep slopes. Tried to frame a spouting Dolphin with a waterfall in the background. I don’t think it worked, but the memory will stick for a while.




1830 hours. 50.49.21N 126.17.40W. Wahkana Bay. One other boat in the anchorage. A big one – about 80 feet or so.

We tried to get some more dolphin pictures. By the time they came close, I had the wrong lens on. I think all I got were splashes. They came up and visited, but didn’t stay long.



Took a long kayak paddle tonight. Beautiful bay – lots of evidence of long ago logging.



Dinner is barbequed pork with cole slaw. Fleetwood Mac is playing on the stereo. Life is pretty good at this moment…



July 4th 0800 hours. Coffee it the cockpit. The only other boat has left the bay, leaving us in splendid solitude. No man made sounds. We can hear dueling woodpeckers at opposite ends of the bay and the stream that feeds into the bay offers some natural white noise. So far, Wahkana Bay is our favorite. Quiet, protected anchorage.


When we pulled up the anchor, we did have a visitor which we returned to the bay....

1000 hours. We reluctantly left Wahkana Bay and motored over to Kwatsi Bay. There’s a small marina there and it looked nice enough but wasn’t sufficiently enticing to stop. 


Tom, if you are reading this, we’re seeing a lot of drift. 3 observations. First, there’s a lot of it. Big logs, small logs, and branches. It lays in the water in bands and you have to pick your way through it. Second, it looks like whatever caused the drift was recent and violent. Either shreds from logging or the result of landslides. There’s evidence of landslides all over up here. Some recent, some long ago, but with the steep, steep slopes it makes sense. Whatever the cause, it looks like the branches and tree trunks were ripped from where they were with great force. The last observation is that because they’re so recent the wood is green and heavy. Many of them float low and are difficult to see. We’ve bumped 2 so far. Nothing serious and they were relatively small.

Just got buzzed by a few more dolphins. You can clearly see them underwater when they swim under the boat. The aquatic version of a dog chasing a car. They seem to really like Tribune Channel. We’ve probably seen close to a hundred of them so far. Some seem to be pretty playful and occasionally leap completely out of the water. I stopped trying to get a picture of it because it happens so fast and you never know where they’ll be, which one will leap or when they’ll do it.