Day 16 - Alert Bay to Sointula (Malcolm Island)

The overcast mornings of late today became a blue sky with low lying fog. In light rain we left Alert Bay and headed north for Sointula, a town on Malcolm Island. We crossed Haddington Passage at trolling speed, and were followed almost all the way into the marina by a pod of about a dozen porpoises.

Sointula is a Finnish settlement, since 1901. From the water you can see its distinctly European flavour – colourful square houses with thickly framed windows, each a little different from the last. We found a nice spot on the dock, enjoyed some hot onshore showers and laundry, then walked 2 km on an oceanfront road, passing by unique properties and homesteads, into “town”. Being Sunday, almost everything was closed, but we were able to order a couple of pints at the Whale Rub Pub.

Sointula is another one of those “secrets” of British Columbia. There is BC Ferry service here from Port McNeill, but the pace of life is pretty darn slow. It is, afterall, an island community of an island. Losing some of its Finnish purity, it is becoming a retirement community. I hope this place always stays a secret little gem tucked away near the Queen Charlotte Strait.

And tonight, we saw a rainbow! You can see its reflection in the water, too, in the last picture.

Day 15 - Village Island to Alert Bay

Overcast skies this morning, which transformed into showers. It hasn’t rained for a while, the boat needs a bit of a rinse off anyways. We aimed to get to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island by noon, as we wanted to tie up to a government dock and have time to explore. That target was met, we rafted up to another boat (an empty and quiet boat, which seems to have lived there a long time), had some lunch, and sauntered to shore to check out whether we’d be treated with showers or laundry here.

No such luck. And, after we paid the wharfinger, we realized that the native dancing show which we had come all this way to see had just started. It was at the longhouse, a taxi cab ride away. Maybe we could still get there for the second half of it. Hopped in a cab we did, and our journey at Alert Bay began.

I could go on and on, but they say pictures say more anyways, so I’ve uploaded a bunch from today. A brief summary of the pictures, we have leaving Village Island, seeing totems from the shore at Alert Bay, rafting up at the marina, Alert Bay government sign, 2 welcome totems, the dance at the longhouse (so glad we made it!), the longhouse doors, a longboat carving space behind the old marine building, the museum of repatriated artifacts with territorial map, decaying wooden boat, Namgis First Nations street signs, fishery building, street art, church, reflected canoe, colonial buildings and hotel, and finally, the burial grounds.

And then we had dinner at the only pub in town that was open. And it was not that bad.