A Journey.
375 nautical miles. Orca, humpbacks, Dahl dolphins, Pacific White Sided dolphins, sea lions, sea otters, black bear, sea wolves, bald eagles, rain, fog, wind, and things that make noise in the night…ahhh the natural world.
Our criteria:
TIME- While we wished we had unlimited time, we decided that 5 weeks was enough time. It seemed like the maximum amount of time we could each get away from our respective jobs and still have the feeling of a journey.
DESTINATION- Vancouver Island
SPECIFIC destinations- Telegraph Cove- Johnston strait- Cape Scott- Pacific Coast Island groups.
CIRCUMNAVIGATE?- We decided against circumnavigation for a several reasons –
FUN! We wanted to have an organic flow to the journey, If we liked a location we might want to explore a bit
We were less interested in populated areas
Both of us were very interested in a journey of exploration, not a fly by.
No pressure, this was big. We both have busy stressful jobs in the healthcare field and we just didn’t want to feel pushed or stressed. We just wanted to breathe it all in without feeling like we were on a mission.
CONTINUOUS- YES (as much as possible and practical)
START and END points- flexible but generally starting in the east and moving counterclockwise around to as far as time would allow.
Of course Mother Nature makes her own agenda, and that is the one that we were the most interested in exploring. We were looking for the off ramp of the treadmill of artificial life. And seeking to get in tune with the real world, at least temporarily. Looking at the wind, tide, currents, precipitation and the destinations possible, to guide our daily activities, instead of feeling like we needed to push on no matter what.
My friend Jackie Jones, who lives in Cornwall England, and I met when I was traveling and teaching in the UK. We got along great and have stayed in touch. We have paddled together before. We spent 10 days paddling from Key Largo to Key West several years ago. We had contemplated some other trips and then COVID hit which nixed those. Then I had an accident and broke myself, that put me out of commission for 2 years. When we started discussing the possibility of this trip we were both ready to commit to something longer than either of us had ever done before.
Following our above criteria we met on Vancouver Island on Aug 9th. We had been looking at the weather which was calling for strong SE winds for several days. We decided on starting on Quadra Island, at Rebecca Spit Provincial Park, we rode those Southeasterly winds up the Johnstone Strait. Southeasterly winds generally bring wetter weather, and while we started with a hot sunny day, by the next afternoon clouds, fog and rain were with us as we traveled up Johnstone Strait. While it was wet, we enjoyed the tide moving us in the right direction for most of the day and winds pushing us along, at much faster speeds than we would achieve on the rest of the trip.
After a few days of rain, wind and the right tides, we moved into the Telegraph Cove area, enjoying whales, dolphins and all kinds of wildlife. The sun came out, and we took a day off to dry out. We took a day to explore Village Island, a Native Cultural site. Still the fog was with us. We continued to head west. We camped on Malcolm Island and took another foggy day off to explore Alert Bay, another cultural site.
Eventually coming to Cape Scott. We had great conditions with low winds, and virtually no swell to round the Cape, just the fog to contend with, but it did lift long enough for us to get around. Once on the Pacific Ocean we were less restricted by the tides, which was a fairly dominant constraint on the Strait. The Swell became our main concern. We still had the fog, which was often present in Johnston Strait but easier to manage by handrailing. However we needed some visibility on the West coast because of the swell in the Pacific Ocean.
We did have a couple of weather window related issues which caused us to get “off the water” a couple times, and get back on in a more sheltered location to allow us time to paddle versus, sitting still and waiting for a weather window. Luckily we had Jackie’s family who offered great support through out our whole trip. So our journey wasn’t continuous. Our trip ended on Sept 19th, on Vargus Island.
There were times when we were wet and cold, and I would think, “Why does a person work very hard their whole lives to have a comfy place to call home, a roof over their heads, and then spend their time off going somewhere to be uncomfortable, sleep on the ground, clamber over rocks, and choose to be wet and cold day after day?” We would chuckle a bit and then try to answer that question. WHY?
For me, it is just a unexplainable yearning to be in a kayak, and paddling to somewhere, day after day. Becoming more in tune with nature, seeking a connection to the earth we call home. It is hard to define, for me it is life’s blood…
Overall we had a fantastic trip with lots of laughs, fun memories, wet days, ultimately it was a journey. And what is life but a journey?
