We were supposed to leave the Queen Charlotte's on Wednesday and head back to Sidney. We called the fellow who is putting in our new motor and the word was that the boat wouldn't be ready until at least Monday. SURPRISE, SUrPRISE, SURPRISE! So, to make the best of the situation we changed our tickets and we aren't leaving Masset until Sunday.
What a good decision, it has been marvelous here. We are becoming quite proficient at catching crabs, and even took a break from it today and ate the ones we had netted yesterday, they were just as good today! We had a chat with the people that have been looking after the house for Barry's sister and in the course of the conversation they asked if we enjoyed eating salmon. Well what could a person say but "of course". They gave us a Coho which apparently are running now and later on asked if we would care to have some halibut, so now we have a choice for our dinner, crab, salmon or halibut!!
They also told us about how to get to some remote beaches so today we drove out to the east beach that runs up and down the Hecate Strait. The vechicle we are using has 4 wheel drive and it is a good thing. To get to this beach you drive along a paved road, which turns into a gravel road, which turns into a narrow, windy gravel road, then you drive out onto the beach and continue on down that for about 7 or 8 kms. Then you put the truck into 4 wheel drive and proceed along a very narrow sandy trail about 400 meters above the high tide mark. This trail is very soft sand and the vegetation is tall grasses right beside the track with 1 to 1 and 1/2 meter spruce trees crowding into the track, soon you find your self slipping and sliding along the trail just hoping that you don't meet another vechile. If one came along you would have to reverse for 500m to 1 km until you could find a place to pull off so someone could pass, fortunately we didn't meet a soul.
On the east beach the waves rolled in, it was close to low tide so there was about 200 meters of beach before the driftwood was piled up. Behind the driftwood the sand dunes stretched up to about 30m high, when the tall trees were growing. We arrived on the beach and it was bright and sunny, but just off the coast was a rolling layer of whiteness, then the fog rolled in. One minute you could see for miles and the next you could only see for about 100m down the beach. Barry and I wandered down the beach for about an hour, hunting for agate. Barry, of course, had way more success than I did, but I did manage to collect a few lovely pieces. Later the fog lifted and we sun tanned, read and I played around in the surf. Life doesn't get too much better than this.
Tomorrow we plan to head out to the west coast of the islands and visit the Pacific side. I am really looking forward to that. We have to travel on logging road and it hasn't rained for at least 4 days so we should be in for a dusty trip.
I am hoping the boat will be ready to be sailed by the end of next week. I think that this is a good possibility. I'll keep you posted.
