unscheduled

ahh, how good it feels to have our formal commitments behind us and officially be free of obligation!

don't get me wrong, those 'obligations' were all that and then some: hands down the best weddings we've ever been to. part of the wow-factor may have been that we sailed to them both, but mostly it was about being among family and friends and sharing incredible experiences with incredible people. um, and sailing.

after leaving egmont, we cruised a long day up to maude bay (a branch of BC’s own thunder bay) and tucked in the cavity of a modest peninsula covered in cabin-style homes. the weather held out all day - we had some epic sailing that day - but turned to rain in the evening, forcing us indoors for the evening. the kids were pooped after their exciting week with grandpa wayne and fortunately had a solid sleep - we, however, did not. The wind somehow snuck in there just enough to set rafiki rocking and that dang mast thwacked away all night - so i guess that problem was not as solved as we thought….

fatigue or no, we moved along again the next day. sailing for hours, we tacked back and forth and back and forth across malaspina strait…. and made almost no ground! the tide must have been against us (surely rafiki is not that bad at going upwind!) because when i popped my head up to see if i should ready the anchor, i had to rub my eyes. “was that not where we just came from??” i asked aaron. he laughed a yes, then turned on the motor to help us make way.

we often motorsail - either to help us cut up wind if our destination is directly into the wind, or to buck tide, or sometimes we need to motor and just raise the sail to help out the littlest bit. it’s kind of fun - it looks like sailing but is typically faster, and makes the boat more stable in certain situations. but it’s also loud (and smelly, with a tailwind) and not as mystical as being pulled or pushed along by the wind. so we motorsailed our little way up the eastern shore of texada, trickling into sturt bay in the late afternoon.

when sid and sage were with grandpa wayne, they spent hours at the pool every day. though they still swim with life jackets, their confidence increased tenfold, and they are obsessed with swimming - which is great!!!! swimming is something we can ALWAYS do, and since the kids don’t seem to feel the cold of the water, they can do it anywhere.

immediately after we dropped our anchor in sturt bay, the kids were ready to swim. sid quickly decided he was going to swim to shore, so aaron readied the tender to be a support vessel. with dad at the ready, sid climbed down the ladder, bravely dunked his body into the cold, dark ocean, and swam with all his might. his stroke is somewhere between a breast stroke and a doggy paddle, but whatever it is, it works. he swam the 50 feet to shore in no time flat. i was so impressed, not only that he could do it, but that he did it so bravely - i find the ocean so scary! i kind of like to swim, but i am always pulling my feet up close to me, lest something unsavoury be lurking out of sight. but of course, i say nothing of my fears, and sid hasn’t mentioned anything yet!

he had wanted to swim back to the boat, but maybe realized the length was a bit long and so hitched back with dad in tubs. then sage took her turn going for a swim, paddling a short distance from the boat before accepting a handy rescue from papa. we tucked in to a warming dinner of boiled potatoes and venison gravy (thanks mike and jen!) - and barely did the kids swallow their last bite than they wanted to swim again! this time sid did a round trip, reaching out to a red buoy maybe 30 feet from the boat and back again, no problem at all. he loves it, and we love that!

another perk of swimming is that the kids sleep well after time in the water. which is good, cuz that darn wind shifted unexpectedly and sent waves into the bay, setting rafiki on another rollicky night-long ride. while our babes snoozed away, we gritted our teeth and debated setting sail in the middle of the night - to stop rolling and also to take advantage of the wind!

maybe we should have, but we didn’t and perhaps missed our chance to work with the wind in our favour. we left texada to find seas full of fetch but with no wind - the worst! so we motor/sailed along the coast, passing the populated shore at a distance too great for detail.

our sights were set on the copeland islands, and we soon arrived. we were sure to choose an anchorage that would have no swell, and set our anchor on such an angle that passing wakes wouldn’t toss us side to side and make that damn mast thwack (it is thwacking at the time of writing, argh!). i mean, even if the mast didn’t thwack all night, it’s difficult to sleep in such a motionful sea. your muscles are constantly flexing and engaging to balance you, no matter what position you’re in, making it hard to truly rest. i do wonder what it’s like on the open ocean…and could i do it? (yes.)

(maybe.)

the copeland island that we anchored at (there are lots!) was sizeable and included a marine park. our first steps ashore showed us a crabby beach, a patch of wild onions and a huge arbutus tree, excellent for climbing. the path wandering around the island brought us to a beach covered in rocks that were so black, it seemed like an illusion. it could have been the rain making them so vivid, but it was quite a trick. past the beach we found a trail with a wonderful diversity of plant life (check out my oddly sensual lichen video) and fantastically twisted arbutus trees. i was mesmerized by the intensity of the colours - the lush leafy greens of the usual coastal vegetation, the nearly neon of the fresh arbutus meat, and spiky moss so verdant it was almost offensive. it goes to show what a little protection can bring to a piece of land.

copeland collage

we accidentally split our party and ended up off-roading a little, meeting up on what looked to be an unofficial segment of trail on the rocks by the shore. nobody seemed to mind that it was raining, though a little cookie break went a long way. we found our way back to the trail proper and headed for rafiki for a - finally - quiet night at anchor.

our last full day on the water for this section of the journey brought us full circle to the gorge on cortes once again. we arrived under sunny skies - quite the opposite of our first visit here - and dropped our anchor in about the same spot. the anchor was barely set before the kids were clambering into the dinghy to head for the pool. last time we were there it was still covered and was officially freezing cold, but the resort must have had guests by this time, and the pool was uncovered and warm.

pool monsters, overlooking rafiki in the harbour - calmer this time!

the kids swam for hours, back and forth across the pool, practicing jumping and summersaults and bubble blowing. there was a lot of clinging to mom and dad, lots of kid-launching - oh, and lots of hot-tubbing (though it felt slightly less rewarding now that the temperature was less arctic). in the hot tub, sid braved a few strokes without his lifejacket! it was quite exciting. all in all i’d say we had an epic time there.

a calm gorge harbour

the next day (i guess really our last full day out, though we didn’t go too far) we nipped down to manson’s landing - also on cortes, but not too far from the gorge. sid skillfully skippered us out of the gorge, navigating the narrow channel all cool-like, with his sunglasses on, but more importantly: with proper focus. he took the task very seriously, keeping his eyes on the water ahead and asking skipper dad about anything he doubted. it was adorable and impressive.

future coast guard?

sid relenquished the helm to aaron who brought us safely to the manson's landing dock - only to find we weren't allowed to tie up there! we did for a bit, packed up our beach bag, then the kids and i headed for hague lake while aaron went to anchor the boat. part way up the road, sid found an entrance to the trail that we knew was there but couldn't find. being in among the trees made the "long" uphill trek more pleasant for certain small family members.... we were distracted from our "aching legs" by cool plants and mysterious scraps of a wool sweater (we were hoping it wasn't cougar carnage!).

in the end we made it to the lake! though the water level was quite high, there was enough sand to stick our toes in and feel the heat of the sun. we spread our blankets on the grassy patch above the beach and lazed about, waiting for dad and friends to show up. in the islandiest of ways, other people we knew but weren't waiting for showed up shortly after we did, and soon the kids were having a time on the beach, digging in the sand and jumping around in the water. their small army multiplied as more friends showed up and soon they had quite a scene going on the slim shore.

these kids know how to beach!

the sun was up and over and gone by the time we wrapped up at the lake. our friends that we intentionally met up with gave us a fun and illegal ride back down to the dock, where we said our farewells! we won't see these dear friends again until the fall, which is sad on the one hand, but on the other it means: adventure!

our socializing for the day was far from over; after weighing anchor for the second time that day, we headed back past the gorge to anchor out at shark spit on marina island, on the west side of cortes. we had planned to see some more friends there, and they had just arrived before we did. soon we were ashore with them, cooking over a fire while the kids ran free in the long grass and tall trees (sadly i took no pictures). the kids are all long-time friends now, and they ripped all over that spit till the last dregs of daylight were gone. it was a summery end to the summeriest of days.

our plans to go ashore in the morning were thwarted by the absence of our friends - which was fair. our kids slept until ten a.m., if you can believe it! the others were already long gone on a circumambulation of the island, so we hauled up the anchor once again and set our sights to cruise back to quadra, the southern portion of our journey now complete.

this trip has been incredible, though it hasn't all been it hasn't been all easy breezy. as a family we go in and out of cohesiveness, as could probably be expected cramming four people on a 30 foot boat. there have been stretches of time where one of the kids remains in a state of defiance and unending complaints; there have been meltdowns (from both the big and the small humans); there has been discussion of ending the trip early and returning to regular life... but i think really all of our hearts are in staying committed to this journey.

as i explained to them the other day, if we go home, we go back to regular life. mom and dad go to work, kids go to school/daycare, and we become spread out across mediocrity and familiarity - a thought that grinds my heart to smithereens. i pointed out that if we do that, we don't get to do arts and crafts together all the time, we won't explore beaches together every day, and we will miss out on special things that we can't even begin to imagine. i think i sold them on hanging in, but we'll see how it goes after our stopover on quadra! we still plan to head north, so wish us luck.