Gambier Island and Deep Cove

I am finding it difficult to keep this blog up to date, I am not inclined to spend an hour or so every couple of days working on it. On Friday I had nothing planned and thought it would be a good day to get caught up on my blog, but it was a sunny warm day and the thought of staying indoors to work on a computer on such a day was off-putting. I went kayaking instead, wore myself out completely, with no energy when I returned to do anything but eat and watch TV.

So.

Since my last blog post I have visited my brother on Vancouver Island, visited Windsong Cohousing with Sam, spent lots of time with Kim and baby Eva, and had meals with several old friends from when I used to live here.

I am planning to spend more time with Eva and then Thanksgiving with family, a brief trip to Sechelt, and then travelling homeward. Right now I am on Gambier Island for the last time this year.

Saturday was a great sunny day, Sunday is "mizzly"---somewhere between misty and drizzly---so we are reading, blogging and marking homework. The dog is sleeping. Johanna and I will leave the island later today and have dinner in Horseshoe Bay, Dave will stay on to continue working on the deck he is building on the cabin.



I went out to Deep Cove on Indian Arm to do a bit of paddling on Friday. It turned out that there was no place in Deep Cove to actually launch from, even though there is a kayak rental place there. So I drove down the road to Cates Park next to the First Nations reserve and launched there. Cates Park is on a point of land separating Burrard Inlet (Vancouver Harbour) from Indian Arm. I paddled up the Arm as far as Deep Cove and then turned around and paddled back.

The first half was calm and windless, with only the wake of passing cruisers to contend with; I guess they were all headed up the Arm to spend a sunny weekend on the water. But about the time I decided to turn around and go back the breeze came up and I was paddling upwind to get back. A bit strenuous. By the time I got back to the small beach in Cates Park near where my truck was parked, I had just enough energy left to get the kayak back on the roofrack and that was it.

But it was lovely to be out on the water.

On the ferry trip to the island Saturday morning I happened to see an old friend on the ferry, so I got to spend the forty minute ferry ride visiting with her. She lives in Sechelt so I may see her again when I am visiting there, we may even go kayaking. I have to say that I have done very little paddling this year and it seems kind of dumb to lug the kayak all the way out here for the very few hours I have spent actually using it.

On Gambier Island we are seeing lots of deer, they are out in force scarfing up everything edible.



Yesterday we walked down to the wharf and saw a school of herring off the wharf. It was a very dense mass of small black fish just below the surface of the water.



On the wharf railings and nearby rocks perched some rather sated-looking seagulls. I guess they were taking a break from fishing.


The school of fish seemed to move almost as a single organism. Periodically the mass would develop an "arm" that would flow under the wharf to the other side and then back again.


At one point it flowed out and around a piling and back to the main body of fish, forming a ring around the piling. When we made noise on the wharf the "arm" would quickly withdraw back to the main school. It was an eerie sight and I wore out my camera battery trying to take pictures of it.

I will describe my visit with my brother and with various friends in subsequent posts.

From D'arcy to Gambier and points in between

I arrived in D'arcy very late on Friday, and while I intended to head to Gambier Island the very next day, it just seemed a little too rushed and I was tired. So I stayed put for a day, walking the dogs and watching videos and just hanging out in one of the prettier parts of the province of BC.

Getting to Gambier Island was complicated. I had to drive to Horseshoe Bay, park my truck in longterm parking and then haul my stuff to the ferry terminal to catch the Langdale ferry. Sam and I stopped for lunch in Pemberton and that kind of made me a bit late---catching the ferry is always a hurry up and wait affair---and so I ended up trying to run from the underground parkade in Horseshoe Bay to the ferry terminal with a heavy backpack, a dufflebag, a shopping bag and my shoulder bag full of stuff for fear of not catching the ferry in time.

But I made it to the ferry and almost an hour later I was in Langdale, where I had to wait another hour for the New Brighton ferry, a little walk-on ferryboat called the Stormaway.


There were five of us and an ambulance waiting for that ferry. It turned out that a young man on Gambier had broken his ankle while hiking, so the ambulance had come to pick him up, but the ambulance could not go on a walk-on ferry, they had to wait for the unfortunate young man to be ferried from the island to Langdale.

One lady waiting for the ferry approached me to find out who I was and who I was staying with on the island; it's a small island and everybody knows everybody so I guess I kind of stuck out as a stranger. In return for that information she proceeded to tell me that she and her husband, who lived year-round on the island, were en route from a hospital in Vancouver to a hospital in Sechelt, but were stopping at their home on Gambier to pick up the necessaries for an overnight stay in the Sechelt hospital. Turns out her husband had been feeling poorly last week so they had gone to his doctor in the big city and he had ordered up a colonoscopy and the colonoscopy had revealed colon cancer. So lickety split they were off to the Sechelt hospital for surgery. Thank goodness the process for diagnosing the problem and getting it treated was so fast (less than a week), but surely worrisome for being such a serious matter.

After telling me all this, she then points to another waiting passenger and confides that that woman had also had cancer. I guess island people have no secrets.

In short order the Stormaway arrived and we all boarded and paid our fares. Ten minutes later we were at the dock on the island, where the young man with the broken ankle was lying on a stretcher on the dock. Apparently the ambulance people had decided that they would not take him after all, but rather ordered up a hovercraft to go get him and take him directly from the island to the big city. But that meant that he had to wait a little longer for the hovercraft to get there. I suppose in the long run that was faster and easier, but at the time it didn't seem so. He was getting lots of attention from folks coming and going though.

My friends were waiting there for me and we packed all my stuff into their island car to head back to their place. I was only staying overnight, but it was equally beautiful there (as D'arcy) and very relaxing. We had a lovely supper out on the deck and then later went for a stroll down to the wharf to see the sunset. We also saw a deer in their yard and a seal off the wharf.


The next day we went for a walk with the dog in the woods, puttered around the house and later in the afternoon headed back to the ferry dock to go back to the mainland. The plan was to spend a couple of days in town and then go back to the island, but life got complicated and we ended up not returning to the island at all. We will probably go back for the long weekend coming up.

So in town I have managed to make all the financial arrangements for buying the house in Nova Scotia and had a brief visit with Josh and Kim who are expecting their baby imminently.


I'll also be going back to D'arcy for the Mayhem, an annual event amongst Sam and his friends. Not having ever attended before I can't tell you much more about it. But I am guessing that when a young man invites his mother to a weekend-long party, it must not be anything he wouldn't want his mother to witness.

No Thanksgiving weekend

On Saturday Dave, Johanna and I set out for Gambier Island again. This is the Thanksgiving weekend, but we had no plans for a Thanksgiving dinner, we were just going to hang out and relax. We went over in Dave and Johanna's little runabout, then Dave took it back to Horseshoe Bay and caught the ferry to Langdale and then the foot ferry to New Brighton on Gambier Island. Johanna and I went down to meet him at the dock, but he arrived before we did and was already in the little Gambier Island General Store when we got there. So we had soup and beer for lunch at the store. We all walked back to the house. In the evening we had some leftover sausage from the previous evening, and some salad and boiled potatoes.

Sunday was still a nice day, although the weatherman was predicting rain for later in the day. Fortunately the weatherman was wrong. Johanna had some work she wanted to get done so Dave and I went out in their inflatable kayak to explore West Bay. Although there is no road around the bay, there are still quite a few large homes there, so we just cruised around looking at them. We also saw four seals basking on logs in the sunshine. Three of them slipped into the water and disappeared when they saw us, but the fourth must have been deeply asleep, he didn't move. When we were almost next to him he woke up and looked around for his buddies and then at us with a look of surprise on his face. I think he decided it was too late to do anything, and he just stayed on his log as we paddled by.

For dinner we hunted through all the cupboards and fridge to see what was available, and put together a meal of tinned salmon, salad and an omelet.

Sometime during the night the rain started and by Monday morning it had settled in for the duration. We decided to take the 4:00pm ferry back to the mainland, and just read until then. At the New Brighton ferry dock we listened to folks describing their Thanksgiving dinners the night before. As it turned out, the Langdale ferry was quite late, we did not get into Horseshoe Bay until after 6:00pm. But we decided to have dinner at a local restaurant and Dave and I shared a pizza while Johanna had a seafood soup.

It was kind of nice to come home in the rain, knowing that we managed to enjoy a couple of days of sunshine before that!

Set back and relax

Thanks to Dave and Johanna and Leia for a wonderful weekend on Gambier Island!

I really enjoyed it!

After five days of driving hard to get here, it was really nice to just sit in the sun, go for walks in the woods, and enjoy the ocean views...

The Gambier Island parade

I'm so used to getting up early that today is no exception.

















Leia rouses Dave fairly early for breakfast and getting outdoors, I was up not long after.











We took her for a walk through the woods and down to the wharf.


























Today the Gambier Island community is having a kind of harvest festival, there will be a parade, a craft fair, musical entertainment and community supper.













Johanna and I went down to view the parade and the craft fair.
















The parade consisted of a couple of vehicles, one clown with a small sidekick, a dog in costume, and another dog riding a motorbike (with human help).










And lots of followers.
















They paraded from the New Brighton wharf, past the General Store and up the hill to the Community Centre.













We went for another walk down to the wharf, where we watched some kids rolling a big cedar log in the water...















...with their dog...





































...and a windsurfer...














...while Leia chased sticks in the water.



Later in the evening we returned for the community supper: barbecued chicken or ribs, corn on the cob, Caesar salad and lots of different cakes for desert. Unfortunately Johanna had injured her back and was uncomfortable sitting for very long so we only stayed long enough to eat. I grabbed a rice krispie square and a brownie for desert. We went back to their house and watched Ghost on the VCR.

For once, staying in a cabin in the woods, I have cell phone reception and can make calls. I have to arrange to transfer to another friend's place on the Sunshine Coast on Monday, and my son Josh has offered to take us flying some time that week so I have to talk to him about the arrangements for that.

We have a nice long chat, me standing on the deck under the stars with my little cell phone.

I must say, that is one bit of modern technology I really appreciate, the ability to be in the middle of nowhere enjoying the scenery and still keeping in touch with friends and family.

On the west coast

I woke up pretty early, as usual. While I was puttering around getting breakfast, I noticed a couple in a campsite nearby pushing their van out of the site onto the road. I walked down the road to their site, and asked if they needed help.

I said, I have cables.

The guy said, You saved our lives! So I went and got my truck and cables.

I can never remember the proper order to attach everything but I do have the original owner's manual for the truck and there are instructions there. They didn't know the order either so I pulled out the manual. We laughed over the first few pages of instructions: lots of warnings about making sure both cars are parked near each other and turned off. We had to untie the front rope on the kayak to open my hood.

Their car started up right away, we joked about not leaving MP3 players on overnight (apparently the cause of their dead battery), and they offered me a bottle of ice wine in thanks for my aid. I gratefully accepted. Further, the woman showed me a better knot to use on my front tie down, something her father taught her.

They were moving to Toronto, they had family there. They were the second young couple I met on this trip that were moving from the Vancouver area to Ontario.




Vancouver is expensive, it turns out I am not the only person who has left because it is just too expensive.

As expected, the drive into Osoyoos was spectacular. I could not take pictures of it, the steep winding road requires full attention.



Unfortunately the ticking sound was not going away but rather getting more insistent.

I debated stopping to get advice from a mechanic on what the matter might be, but after running through all the possibilities in my head, I decided I didn't want to know.

I would just keep driving as long as possible and deal with the problem when it happened. I speculated on the fan belt, an engine problem, a transmission problem, something merely caught somewhere flapping in the breeze. But the fact that pressing the gas pedal made it worse and coasting downhill with my foot off the gas pedal made it go away was not reassuring.

Somewhere in Manning Park the rain started. By Hope it was coming down in buckets, drowning out the ticking sound. That made me feel better.

In Surrey I phoned Johanna on my cell, to tell her I was arriving. She and Dave were planning to go to Gambier Island around supper time, it looked like I would arrive just in time.

When I got to New Westminster I decided to stop at the garage where I used to go for all my truck repairs. They would remember me and my truck, and they did. I told them my truck problem and asked if I was safe to continue driving to the Sunshine Coast this weekend.

Stanley said, Don't drive.

I asked, Do you have any idea what it might be?

He said he wasn't sure but it sounded like a bearing in the engine to do with the lifters. I am paraphrasing here, I don't remember his exact words, but basically he thought that if it wasn't serious now it soon would be. He said I should park it and then apologetically said that he didn't think they had room for it this weekend.

I said not to worry, I was staying with friends just up the road and could park there; when I get back from Gambier and the Sunshine Coast I'd call and set up an appointment for the truck. Then I continued on up the hill to Dave and Johanna's place.

They wanted to leave for the island almost immediately, so in less than half an hour we took the kayak off the truck and into their side alley, I hauled out several bags and boxes from the truck and picked out clothes to last me a week on the coast.












I really wished I could take the truck, I wanted to try out the kayak there, but it just wasn't meant to be I guess.

We piled into their car, Dave, Johanna, Leia the dog and myself, and drove out to Horseshoe Bay at the far west side of West Vancouver.










We drove to Horseshoe Bay where we transferred all our boxes and bags to their little runabout and carefully picked our way out of the marina and into Howe Sound.







The Sound was pretty choppy and we had to go slow, the little boat bounced from wave to wave.










Eventually we made it to the West Bay wharf on Gambier Island.

Their house is a short walk up the hill from the wharf, Johanna and I walked there to get their island car while Dave moored the boat at their buoy.


Everyone on Gambier has an island car; these are old vehicles that are just for use on the island. Most of them are miracles on wheels, it's amazing that they still run at all. Dave and Johanna's car is actually their old mainland vehicle, so in relatively good shape compared to other island cars. Dave boasts that he has working signal lights!

Even though I travelled a relatively short distance today, it seems like a radical change for a single day. From driving all day to finally being at rest in a house in the coastal rain forest, with a real bed for the night and no plans to drive any further for a week or more.