September 2009 holidays, part two. After getting back to Ray and Marg’s place in Nanoose Bay on Saturday evening we started to prep for our next trip, the Broken Group Islands, which was to start on the coming Monday. Lots to do with not a lot of time to do it in. Laundry was started that night. On Sunday we had to go into town for a few errands. We first went to the Valhalla Pure outlet as we had broken a pole on our Mountain Hardwear tent again. They weren’t able to help us replace or repair the pole so I was glad we had brought along our spare Sierra Designs tent just in case this happened. We then went to a new outdoor store in Nanaimo just to look around and ended up purchasing a white gas stove, the Dragonfly by MSR. We had been considering switching from pressure fuel stoves to white gas models for some time for a couple of reasons. One was that the pressure fuel types seem to perform very poorly once you’ve used about two thirds of the canister and the second was the amount of room needed in the boats to pack the canisters themselves. We didn’t take the stove with us as we wanted to play with it a bit to get used to it before actually using it in the field. The next stop was the grocery store where we loaded up on the food needed from a list Lila had made up before leaving home. Back at Ray and Marg’s Lila set about finishing the laundry and sorting out the food while I worked with the gear, airing out sleeping bags, repacking the spare tent and the like. It was a busy afternoon but it all went well and we had the truck reloaded and ready to go for an early start the next day.
Early Monday morning, about five thirty, we were up and surprised to see Ray in the kitchen cooking up breakfast. This is not the way to be if you want to keep us from returning. Said our thanks and goodbyes to our gracious hosts and we were on the road shortly after six. The drive to Port Alberni went well and we had no problem finding the Harbour Quay where the Lady Rose Marine Services office was located, right on the dock where the Frances Barkley was moored. The Frances Barkley is a working coastal freighter used to transport goods throughout Barkley Sound and also takes tourists for day long scenic tours. It will also drop off kayakers, with their boats and gear, to any of its ports of call, most commonly Sechart, the gateway to the Broken Group Islands. This was to be our destination. At the dock you leave your boats alongside the FB and store all your gear in large plastic bins they provide. One bin is easily large enough for the gear of two people heading out for a week. We met one other fellow on the dock with a kayak being loaded. His name was Craig and he was from Alberta, and he was meeting up with a group of friends who were already out in the islands. We were to meet up with them later on in the trip.
Eight o’clock arrived, everything was loaded on the freighter, and we pulled away from the dock to begin the journey down the Alberni Canal. We went down to the galley and had some more breakfast and coffee first off. We then just roamed around the boat and enjoyed the trip out to Barkley Sound. There were a couple of things worth mentioning on this trip, besides the beautiful scenery itself. The FB, once it reached Barkley Sound, made its way along the NW coast of Tzartus Island before turning west and taking us right by Stud Islet, a spot we had camped at a couple of years ago. A little further west, out by Baeria Rocks, we came across a couple of humpback whales. The captain of the FB stopped the boat where we were so we could all enjoy the show the whales put on for us. They breached, sky-hopped and showed their tails for about fifteen minutes before deciding we had seen enough and took a final dive and disappeared. We continued on and in another thirty minutes we were pulling up to the dock at Sechart. The people who operate this freighter service don’t waste any time. No sooner are the passengers off the boat, and the bins and kayaks are sitting on the dock and the boat is pulling away again. The proprietors of the Sechart Lodge have you listen to a short talk about the dos and don’ts of visiting the Broken Group Islands, we pay for our four nights up front ($9.50/person/night at this time) and then we’re loading the kayaks and getting ready to begin the trip. There is one edge of the dock that has been stepped down with enough room to allow one kayak to be loaded and then easily manoeuvred into the water. Craig was the first in, then Lila and I got our boats loaded and into the water shortly after. We had arrived at Sechart shortly after eleven am and we were on the water by twelve thirty.
Craig had headed off towards the Brabant Islands to meet up with his group while we took off for the western points of Prideaux, and then Jarvis Island. The water was perfectly flat as we paddled through the Tiny Group and made our way to Coaster Channel.
It was mostly an overcast day with some blue skies forcing their way through the clouds. We paddled out to Faber Islets in Coaster Channel, one of our favourite spots from last year. Last year we had come through here in a heavy fog with a light swell crashing around the rocks and there was an abundance of bird life in the area. There had been an almost supernatural feeling to the area. This year it came across as a totally different spot. We were able to pick out the details and coloring of the rocks for one, it wasn’t the muted shades and shapes of the previous trip. The bird life was there but not in the same numbers and they weren’t flying overhead as we paddled through. The islets were still well worth seeing but completely dissimilar from the way we had remembered them. We paddled through the islets and could now make out our destination of Gilbert Island off in the distance.
We saw there was a tarp set up at the northern edge of the beach but it wasn’t until we were almost right on the beach that we noticed two kayaks pulled up on the southern end. We were a little surprised as we had half expected to have this spot to ourselves, for no real reason other than that was the way we had it before, on our previous trip. We unloaded the boats and found a tent site in the trees, midway between the two camps. I got the tent up and then set about looking for a location for our kitchen tarp.
There really wasn’t a convenient spot to set up the tarp so we decided to go with the beach and work with what it offered. After coming across a couple new knots this year the process of setting up tarps has become much easier and way more pleasurable. The bowline and clove hitch have been the building blocks, but the Prussic hitch and the taut line hitch have brought it all together. Our timing was perfect as no sooner had the tarp gone up when a light rain started falling. We relaxed for a bit and had supper, no campfire this evening as we were both beat from the early morning, and then called it an early night.
We awoke to an overcast Tuesday morning. It wasn’t raining when we got up but it had been during the night. We took our time over coffee and breakfast, threw a pack lunch in the boats and started off on our daytrip to the outer islands to the south of us. As soon as we cleared the narrow passage between Gilbert and Effingham Islands we could hear the roar of the surf. We hadn’t had a lot of experience in big water but it was looking like we may be getting some more today.
We paddled past Bauke Island and made our way to Dicebox where there was supposedly a cave Lila wanted to find. We circled around Dicebox Island and found the cave on the western shore of the islet directly adjoining Dicebox to the east. Continuing on toward Cree Island the rollers started getting bigger the farther south we went, due to fewer islands protecting us from the south westerly swell. This, to us, was getting to be pretty big water and our hopes of travelling around the outside of these islands, along the exposed coast, were diminishing quickly.
We decided instead to just enjoy playing in these swells in the relative safety of Cree Island. It’s hard to accurately judge the height of waves but as we paddled into some of these it was like a wall of water had appeared and blocked out the horizon and the surrounding islets as well. If I had to guess, I would say some of the rollers were in the six to seven foot range. Your boat starts to nose up and then you’re climbing over the swell and coasting down the opposite side. It was a lot of fun playing in these conditions knowing we could duck back into the lee of Cree if necessary. Even trying to turn around on the rollers was an experience. Whether right or wrong, and as I didn’t want to be turning and be broadside on the waves, I would work at spinning the boat around as quickly as possible while near the peak of the swells. Seemed to work fine and I never felt in any danger of losing control. It’s always nice to be able to put yourselves in situations that challenge you a little and take you outside your comfort zone a bit. What may have felt death defying a couple of years ago, may feel mundane now, it just keeps opening up more doors for us, more places we feel comfortable paddling in. Since we weren’t going around the outside we turned and headed back around the north shore of Howell Island. Paddling between Howell and Wouwer there are a couple of islets that sea lions use as haul outs.
These are huge mammals that deserve a wide berth. I’ve never heard of one causing kayakers any troubles but I also don’t want to be the exception that proves the rule. We watched two of the sea lions as they lunged and bit at each other until one decided it would be best to find another resting spot. We decided to take another stab at the outside and headed towards the southern tip of Wouwer but once we were past the shelter provided by the islets off Howell we again turned back. It was a little disappointing not to make it around but we figure we’ve got a few more years in us to get the necessary skills and experience to do it safely. If we were able to do everything we wanted the first time, this hobby of ours probably wouldn’t have held our interest like it has. So we turned back and travelled around the eastern point of Wouwer and followed its shoreline out to Combe Rock.
I was really taken with this outcrop of rock. We were protected from the open water but were able to watch the swells crashing at its base, a small group of cormorants setting just out of the water’s reach. At one angle, this reddish brown rock was like a knife’s edge jutting out of the ocean. I could have sat there for an hour enjoying the swells, the rock and the birds but it was time to move on and we made our way through a small flock of birds sitting in the water and headed north-east towards Island #76. We paddled between #76 and a small islet off its south-east shore and continued on to a nice sand beach on the western side of Cooper Island for a snack break. Here we found the biggest moonsnail shells I had ever come across. They were about four inches wide and just about as high.
After exploring the beach and up near the tree line, always keeping an eye open for one of those Japanese glass fishing floats, we started back for the Gilbert camp. As we neared the beach at Gilbert we decided we weren’t done for the day, we could hear the surf calling again, and continued paddling along the western coast of Effingham Island. We travelled between Effingham and Austin Islands and stuck our noses out into the open water past two sea stacks/islets that sit off the coast there. It is just amazing how the water can be so calm in one spot, protected by islands, and within five minutes paddling time you can be playing in six foot swells as we were now. Two things we both want to learn in the near future are rolling and surfing, as these two skills would go a long way in making us more comfortable in these waters. We love being out in these conditions but we also try not to overstep that fine line between bravery and stupidity. The view here is overwhelming in its emptiness. Sitting in the kayaks, rising and falling on the swells, you look out at nothing, and are impressed with it. Miles and miles of horizon, just a line in the distance, and you feel a little less significant and things that were important last week become inconsequential this week. It’s an easy and comfortable feeling to get used to. We turned around at this point and made our way back along Effingham to our camp at Gilbert.
It was only two o’clock when we got back to camp and after arriving another group stopped by for a break. There were a couple of nice kayaks in this bunch and I got talking to the owners as I’ve been looking for another boat myself lately. The boat I paddle, a Nimbus Telkwa Sport, is a great boat in my opinion. It is a
typical western boat in that is fairly wide and comfortably stable for even inexperienced paddlers. The other huge benefit is that it can haul a lot of gear for trips like this. What I’m interested in getting now is a lower volume boat, one a little more challenging to paddle. This group today included a Valley Aquanaut and a NDK Romany. The Romany is way too low volume for my needs but a nice boat, and the Aquanaut is a little bigger than what I had been looking for but was still in the running. The owner of the Valley boat had nothing but good things to say about it and got me thinking a little more seriously about this model. Time will tell, in a perfect world I would own a kayak for every occasion and mood.
The skies cleared up a bit this afternoon and we spent the time sitting on the beach reading or walking the shoreline snapping pictures. The other two couples camped here pretty much stayed to themselves, just as we were. It’s odd how sometimes there is very little interaction between groups in close quarters and other times people join up together as if they were family. After supper we dug a shallow fire pit and had a small blaze down on the beach. We knew it was time for bed when the rising tide decided we had had enough of a fire for this evening.
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