Chronicle 14 Hospitality Along the BC Coast

August 19-24

Pierre’s Resort at Echo Bay (Is that rain???)

Pierre’s was on our list of places to re-visit. Pierre and his wife, Tove, owned a small marina around the bend from Echo Bay for a number of years before purchasing the Echo Bay Resort with a partner last winter. Together, they are resurrecting the historic, deteriorating facility. All of the docks are new and they are cleaning up the surrounding area.

But no matter what they do with the marina, the best part of Pierre’s is Tove and Pierre’s hospitality. In addition to providing great showers (they do not have good water, so our water tanks did not get filled) and a more-than-adequate store, they host dinners (pig roasts, halibut and chips, Italian, steak and baked potato) under a whimsical tent. Often the dinners have a theme: ‘50’s, Christmas in July, Dress-Like-A-Pirate, etc. Sixty-two people shared halibut and chips the night we dined there.

Former hotel. –looks much better in this picture than reality

Arro was build for Herbert Hoover in 1922. She now lives in covered moorage in Pt. Angeles.

Additional moorage (formerly Windsong Sea Village) on the opposite side of the bay. Empty in the morning. Crowded in the evening.

Dinner tent and store. The former owners of Echo Bay had this Lake Washington Floating Bridge cement pontoon hauled north years ago to form a breakwater at the entrance to the bay

The draw of the Broughtons, aside from the scenery, is the warmth and hospitality of the marina owners and the opportunity for boaters to share experiences with others who are affiliated with (or blessed by) this need to go places in a small boat. (Of course, Shaman is about the smallest boat around these days.) We reluctantly altered our plans to visit three more marinas because….can you guess? Another gale was coming; if we didn’t take advantage of the “weather window” it would be a week before we could leave.

We motored south from Echo Bay on the type of day that made us think there could never be such a thing as a gale. Headed for the Johnstone Straits we were looking for whales; we found calm seas and following winds.

What do the following pictures have in common?

Pt. Neville, with its small public dock, was our planned destination. We hoped to stay at the dock, instead of anchoring, in order to save Maxwell Windless for times when there was no other choice. The three spaces on the dock were filled and the boats did not have fenders over, inviting new arrivals to “raft up”. We were a little miffed. That’s not very hospitable. (We, or course, have been guilty of the same lapse.) The small group of people talking on shore noticed us looking longingly at the sides of the boats and asked if we wanted to raft.

Yes, please.
Or you can tie up over there. (pointing to the sea plane float)
Isn’t that the dock for the mail plane?
Yes, but you can tie up there. I’m Lorna.

You can’t cruise the BC coast without the guidebooks. We knew who Lorna was: the Postmistress at Port. Neville. She, of course, would be able to give permission for us to tie up at the mail plane float. (We spent a night a Pt Neville years ago, but didn’t recognize Lorna at first.) The men took our lines while Lorna sloshed buckets of water over the float to disperse the river otter poop. As soon as Shaman was secured, they invited us to join them for a potluck dinner that was “on the table and getting cold”. After being assured that we didn’t need to contribute anything, we scurried into the well-preserved former home/post office/store.

Lorna’s grandfather had been the first postmaster on this part of the coast (over 100 years ago). Her father followed in his footsteps, and Lorna now has the job. The house was huge for its time, with high ceilings, large rooms, and exceedingly well- built. The grounds are nicely maintained for the deer and bears. Lorna does not live in this house; her home is on one side, the post office on the other.

In addition to Lorna, our dinner hosts were the crew from the BC Mission Boat. Based in Parkville, the non-denominational Mission Boat Society spends eight weeks each summer traveling to remote (and not terribly remote) native villages “connecting people in coastal communities with God’s love”. They only go to communities where they are invited and people come from all over North America to serve on one-week missions during the summer. During the rest of the year, they travel by ferry and float plane and raise money. We shared a delightful evening; good food, conversation, and music! You get to guess which one of us enjoyed it the most.

You're gonna' need the wheelchair after you stand on your head to read the next chart. Pay attention. West is at the top. North is to your right. You're on your own for the other two.

Chatham Point, source of wind and wave reports for the east end of the Johnstone Straits

Winds in the Johnstone Straits the next morning varied: 18, 6, 3,15, 6, 17. You get the picture. Three or four islands provide channels to bail out to the north (fairly large and solid Vancouver Island is on the south) if the weather kicks up (as was predicted). We traveled from island to island, tentatively making our way east. Chatham Point is where the Straits turn south and become Discovery Channel leading to Campbell River. Shaman made the turn just before Sin or Swim passed her.

We had been following the indiscretions of Sin or Swim for most of the morning on the VHF radio Vessel Traffic Control channel. Our VHF can be set to constantly scan a selected number of channels; this results in overhearing some strange conversations. I’m in the bathroom right now. More information than we need.

Ah, but Sin or Swim. She first came to our attention when Vessel Traffic Control chastised her skipper for being in contravention of the Canadian Shipping Act. (We liked that word.) Vessels much, much larger than Shaman must register with the vessel traffic control system, have certain publications on board, report their estimated time of arrival at specific points, and report their actual time of arrival. The boats get “passed” from one traffic controller to the next along the Straits and Discovery Passage. Sin or Swim apparently had snuck in under the radar and these people were not happy. Her reputation as a vessel that had contravened the rules preceded her. As the hours and transmissions passed, we almost felt sorry for the skipper. The last we heard from her, the skipper was saying, “Yes sir. I understand, sir”

Sin or Swim was 160 feet long, looked like a small version of the Star Ship Enterprise, was registered in some tax-avoidance port in a very small country in the Caribbean, and was skippered by (from the sound of his voice) a US citizen. We speculated on what city he was from and the meaning of the boat name. You may do the same. Doug envisioned L.A., a cigar, an unbuttoned expensive shirt and heavy gold chains down to his nipples. And the boat only had one speed: 30 knots with a wake to dwarf Niagara Falls.

Shaman turned left into Okisollo Channel, the last place to exit before Campbell River, spent the night in Owen Bay and made a record-setting three-mile trip to the Octopus Islands the next day.

That sounds just like us.

Small Inlet

We had gone on a beautiful hike at the head of Wiaitt Bay over to Small Inlet. We laughed after over-hearing the couple behind us on the trail comment on some body-ailment that made hiking difficult.

“Is that hip or a knee problem?” Doug called to them over his shoulder. And that is how we met Karen and John, owners of Evita, a sailing vessel of stellar design: C&C. They were rafted up to another C&C, Lively Lady. An invitation to join them for wine and poo-poos evolved into dinner on Lively Lady, owned by Laurie and Terry.
View from Lively Lady with Evita’s flag in the foreground.

The next day dawned with wind and rain. None of the boats left the bay. Doug and Ratty scurried across the bay to invite “the C&C people” over for dinner. After I took pictures of them being human guinea pigs using our not-user-friendly stern ladder, we shared clam chowder and C&C stories.

And this was BEFORE the wine....

Shaman will play in Desolation Sound for a few days and then head to Nanaimo and the Gulf Islands.