False Bay on Lasquiti Island, a two-hour motoring trip from Tribune Bay on Hornby Island, provided Braesail and her crew with a marvelous afternoon. During our journey across the Strait of Georgia to the bay, we passed the Sisters Islets Lighthouse and some rock clusters on which sea lions lounged, their “Aaurck, aaurk, aaurk!” ringing across the water.
After lunch for us and an oil change for the boat, Walt and I toured the bay, which is ringed by a number of nooks and reefs, in Coracle. The surprisingly clear waters of the bay were a gently undulating blue-gray field throughout which filmy white jelly-daisies of all sizes were scattered, and we could see oyster and other shells on the muddy bottom below the dinghy. We tied up at the ferry dock and climbed the ramp to the shore, from which the Lasquiti Island Hotel, Pub, and Restaurant and the “Provisions” general store/deli/bakery looked out across the bay.
The small store contained basic provisions, a deli case and a baked goods case, and a corner filled with books and hung with artworks. A table of free books, a picnic table with benches in a vine-draped shelter, a substantial herb garden, and more tables, benches, and chairs on the lawn overlooking the bay added to the welcoming, relaxed atmosphere. We bought superb Nanaimo bars (chocolate/peanut butter for Walt and chocolate/mint for me) and enjoyed them outside in the shade before the pub opened a 3 pm.
At that point we repaired to the old-fashioned hotel pub to enjoy beverages on the sun-washed deck. Refreshed and back in Coracle, we motored around the bay, observing examples of many different types of watercraft: power boats, “cat boats” (one sail, one mast), sloops (two sails, one mast–Braesail is rigged as a sloop, now that her inner forestay and staysail have been removed), a cutter, a ketch, and a schooner (three sails, one mast), a catamaran (two hulls), a trimaran (three hulls), some rowboats, skiffs, and kayaks, a canoe, various inflatable dinghies, a wooden Chinese-style junk (three masts and three sails) built by a local sailing couple, and another junk under construction. Quite a gallery!
Back on Braesail, Walt napped in the aft cabin, and I was fortunate enough to hear the whuffling of a whale as I sat in the cockpit. I saw several misty clouds of spray rise from the water, watched the humpback’s dorsal fin and arched back break the water’s surface and disappear again–always such an awesome sight!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 