Day 6 - Heriot Bay to Octopus Island Marine Park (Quadra)

Despite their best efforts to arrange a water taxi and re-arrange their flights home, the reality of the “island time” slower pace of life and less frequent scheduling (no water taxis on a Sunday? Really?!) meant our dear crew of Shannon and Shaun had to depart as originally planned. We would have loved for them to stay a few more days – help with pulling up the anchor, adjusting the sails, taking the helm, charting our course, making meals, pouring drinks, and choosing playlists is always appreciated. We will miss your smiles, enthusiasm, and laughter. But as you know – this is just the beginning. There will be many more trips for you to crew on. We’ll see you back in the big city!

After saying our fare-ye-wells and filling the tanks with more diesel, our crew of 2 headed back out into the blue. We motored up Hoskyn Channel between Quadra and Read Islands, then passed between Peck and Stuart Island. This Beazley Passage was narrow, and we passed through it on an ebb tide. Cap’n Adam commandeered the boat like a pro, but the water was swirly and a bit unpredictable. We definitely could feel the power of the sea beneath us. Continuing through Surge Narrows, we then motored through Okisollo Channel between Quadra and Maurelle Islands until we reached our destination of Octopus Islands Provincial Marine Park on the north end of Quadra.

The anchor was back down again by noon, and we spent another day in the scorching sunshine. We decided to take a dingy tour around the marine park in the late afternoon, to generate a bit of breeze in our faces to cool ourselves off. Seals, raccoons, a weasel, and plenty of other boats, but alas, we spotted no octopus.

Day 5 - Cortes Bay to Heriot Bay (Quadra)

Today was our last day with Marla, our hired instructor from Cooper Boating. We kind of wondered for the last couple of weeks before we left whether it was really going to be worth the money we spent to bring her on board. But now that we are on the other side of our Basic Cruising course, all 4 of us are in agreement that it was money well spent. We all learned a lot. Not only is Marla extremely knowledgeable about boating, sailing, and catamarans, thankfully she is fun, funny, tells great stories, laughed at our stupid jokes, and was a pleasure to have on board. When she hopped off the boat, it felt like we were saying goodbye to a new friend. Marla – you are always welcome to crew on our boat! I look forward to the day when our paths cross again!

Our journey from Cortes Bay to Heriot Bay on Quadra Island was calm and quick. A relatively short 3 hour trip, the anchor was down again just after 1:00 pm in Rebecca Spit Marine Park. Happy Hour started early today - we were blessed with fierce sunshine and no wind at all, making us feel like we were somewhere tropical. We dingied to shore for provisions in the late afternoon, got a little taste of the local culture (like all small BC islands - a mix of folks who have been living here for generations, and folks with their new-waterfront-cedar-houses-and-silver-convertibles), then dingied back in the evening for dinner at the local pub.

By the time we got into the dingy for our journey back to the boat, the phosphorescence in the water was stunning – it looked like we had neon blue lights illuminating our wake. In our haste to get to the pub, we had forgotten to turn on our anchor light at the top of the mast. A big thank you to the boat anchored next to us, who must have heard us coming (in retrospect, most of the bay probably heard us coming) and shone his spotlight on Thunderpussy so we could see where to go. We would have found it eventually, but probably not before we woke up everyone else anchored in the bay.