day 18 AM – Yuquot & Friendly Cove, Nootka Island

Today was one of those days where, by the time you finally go to bed, you can’t believe how much stuff happened between when the sun last rose and now. Today was kind of like 2 different days, and so it gets 2 separate blogs.
We woke up feeling refreshed and good. JP had moved all of his stuff from the salon into his own, well-deserved cabin. He no longer had to be last one up, and first one up. After breakfast, we dinghy’ed over to a floating dock, tied up, paid the friendly local who greeted us and invited us in, and began our exploration of the lands surrounding the cove.

According to archeology, the main village of Yuquot (“place of many winds”) has been settled for at least 4,200 years. It is one of the earliest and longest continuously populated sites on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Approximately 1,500 Mowachaht lived in 13 long houses that overlooked Friendly Cove when Captain Cook visited the west coast. Led by their powerful Chief Maquinna, the nation developed a lucrative fur trade with visiting European ships. Today the people of Yuquot mainly live near Gold River, but the cove is still part of the Mowachaht reserve. A totem erected in 1929 to overlook the village toppled in a 1993 storm, and lays fallen in long grass. A Catholic Church-turned-museum houses colourful replica totem poles from the village of Yuquot, and 2 stained glass windows which depict the European version of history in the area. One window shows a Franciscan monk giving a sermon to the natives, and the other depicts the Nootka Convention of 1790, whereby Spain relinquished to England all its claims to lands in the northwest lands of the New World, including what is now British Columbia. Captain Vancouver met with Captain Quadra in Friendly Cove in 1792 where they officially carried out the terms of the agreement. Or something like that.

A short walk from the church toward the sea took us to a lovely and lively forest path, and along the way we paused to pay respect at the local cemetery buried in the woods. Then down to the beautiful pebbly beach where the Pacific Ocean crashes into Yuquot point. The black volcanic rock along the water’s edge was practically dripping with sea life – anywhere that life could take hold, life had taken hold. Barnacles, muscles, anemones, and plant life overlapped wherever it could where sea met land, and beyond. After walking back along the beach, we wandered up to the lighthouse, and met the lighthouse keepers who told us a bit about their way of life. Once a month their groceries are helicopter-ed in, and all water is collected from rain off of roofs, so rationing is crucial. The lighthouse keeper was most interested in Cap’n Adam’s catamaran anchored in the cove, asking him all sorts of questions. We could see the keeper’s own wheels start to turn. “Aluminum, eh? Pretty steady, eh? How fast does it go? Oh, not very. Yeah, I could see myself getting one of those and then just floating away…”