August 9 – September 10, 2023
Our last month in Canada was spent enjoying the bounty of Ucluelet, and bouncing around the majestic Barkley Sound. Our first mission on arrival to ‘Ukee’ as the locals say, was hiking to the beach, and having a pizza night with Tangent before they left for Oregon! We walked almost 5 miles from the dinghy dock in town to Florencia Beach – a quintessential style PNW beach where the mist from the crashing waves prevents a view to the other end of the wide sand flat, that grows and contracts by many yards with the tide. Flanked by tree topped rocky cliffs, and strewn with loads of giant driftwood – we picked out a nice tree to sit on, and enjoy our packed lunch. Marie and Alex had found a few shorty wet suits at a thrift shop, and were kind enough to share one with me, and we were all soon ecstatic to be back out swimming and bobbing in the surf.
Though we were a little sore from overdoing it our first day back on land, it was such a treat to have miles of roads and trails to walk and explore this bustling summer town. We spent days making small trips to the grocery, slowly stocking back up, doing laundry, and checking out all the welcoming shops, markets, and restaurant hangouts around town; always picking blackberries along the way from the prolific bushes that seemed to be around every corner. One of the drawbacks of reentering a populated area is getting sick, and unfortunately the day we were set to leave Ukee I woke ill with Covid. We decided to keep to the plan and head out to the Broken Group Islands since we had everything we needed and I wouldn’t be able to leave the boat anyway. Thankfully, Alex remained symptom free, and we spent a quiet week in Turtle Bay while I slept, coughed, and watched movies.
Once I was feeling human enough to remain vertical for a few hours, we took the dinghy out to explore more of the Broken islands, and found a tiny beach to land on at Turret Island. It was partly foggy that day, and the views all around were dramatic and mystical as we wandered around the shoreline of soft sand, rocks, and driftwood.
The next day we sailed up to the Pinkerton Islands where Alex finally caught a couple of Red Rock crabs. Anchored in a narrow channel between the small islands and the mainland of Vancouver Island, we marveled at finding ourselves in this special little oasis. We were well protected from the weather, and enjoyed exploring all the nooks and crannies on our paddle boards, and watching black bears on the shoreline in the evenings – one even swam right in front of our boat! While here, we ran into a couple we’d met on the inside passage a few months before, and they told us about an epic spot we had to check out.
That’s how we found ourselves at our next anchorage, near the mouth of Pipestem Inlet, where we were greeted with a couple warm and sunny days, and a full moon in the evening. The draw of this anchorage is Lucky Creek which is deep enough to dinghy about a mile up, to a couple of waterfalls, on a rising tide. We tied the dinghy to shore along the trees, and climbed around to get to the top of the rocks where multiple pools and waterfalls invite you to take a dip. We stashed our stuff on the rocks, and eased into the first large swimming hole. The water was chilly, but it felt so refreshing to swim in fresh, clear water. A rope swing entertained us for a little while, and then we continued climbing farther up the river to several more swimming holes, and swam under some beautiful waterfalls. Through the crystal clear water we watched some fish dashing around and jumping in one of the deeper pools. I’d forgotten to bring the water proof camera case – and since swimming was the only way to get back to the larger waterfalls – we have no photos.
Venturing back out to the Broken Group Islands, our last stop, before returning to Ucluelet, was Effingham Bay. Only a few other boats occupied this large and well protected Bay – so we anchored out in the middle with plenty of room to ourselves. That evening we briefly caught up with our friends on sailboat Manna who were taking off early the following morning for Oregon. We took a lovely hike through the vibrant green rain forest the next day to the east side of the island, where a mix of rock, sand, and driftwood covered a beach that led out to a large sea cave. The day was absolutely stunning with views across the water to Vancouver Island, great beachcombing, and tidepools full of anemones to explore. On our way back down the trail we chatted with several kayak campers and another sailor, and then found that our strategic dinghy anchoring would now require wading through several feet of water where the tide had come in. Oops!
Back in Ucluelet that week we caught up with our friends on sailboat Karma; Alex lent them a hand with their repower project while I tried to help keep them fed as their boat was a bit torn apart during the project. In the meantime, we readied our boat for Alex’s Dad to arrive, as well as reorganizing and preparing for our passage to California. We got extra sails out, and stowed our inflatable dinghy and large outboard. I spent a couple days making large meals to freeze that would be easy to reheat during the passage, and we stocked up on easy and filling snack foods at the grocery. Jim arrived and spent a couple days hanging out in Ukee with us while we waited for the weather to improve for our passage.
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