Friday, June 21, 2024
A pancake brunch accompanied a late start to a cooler, cloudy day, and after the crab trap had been retrieved (it had caught one too-small crab, which escaped), Martin took me around the cove in Coracle and we poked into some of the tiny rock-lined lagoons surrounding it—what a lovely tour! There wasn’t much wind, so we left Passage Cove at a little after noon and motored south for about two hours, past many fascinating rock formations and numerous islands boasting thick stands of very tall trees, to Walters Cove on Walters Island, a remote place reached via a twisty passage between islands, islets, and rock clusters.
We docked near the little general store in the village of Kyuquot (Walters Cove) and bought some necessary items (fruit, eggs, corn chips, and half-and-half—they’d just sold their last container of milk shortly before our arrival!) to take back to the boat before walking the forested trail to the friendly Java the Hutt restaurant on the shore opposite the wharf at which we were moored. The trail to the restaurant branched at one point, and, since we had plenty of time before the establishment opened at 4:30 pm, we took the path that led to a wonderful rock-and-gravel beach that featured many bleached chunks of driftwood and a rope-and-board swing! After clambering around on the rocks and logs and enjoying the view of the portion of the sea we’d just passed in Braesail, we took the trail along the top of the cove’s bank that led us past huge logs that had become home to mosses and fungi and new tree sprouts and through stands of salal, Oregon grape, thimble berry and salmon berry bushes, and some tiny wildflowers.
At length, we arrived at Java the Hutt, with its somewhat rustic interior and its excellent view over the cove, and we enjoyed a very good dinner, which we finished with some marvelous apple pie! Back on the boat, we visited with Jiri, originally from Czechoslovakia, whose sailboat was docked behind Braesail, and with whom we’d chatted on the dock outside the general store shortly after our arrival. We were able to provide him with information about this part of the Vancouver Island coast and about Haida Gwaii, to which he was planning to travel, single-handing his large boat on a long overnight passage, beginning early on Saturday morning.
We finished a day filled with unexpected pleasures with reading, writing, and study as the sun finally crept out from behind the clouds for a last look at the first full day of summer, and we listened to Maurice Durufle’s magnificent Requiem for chorus and orchestra, played through our fine stereo system in honor of a dear friend (a superb violinist and teacher, also named Walter) who’d died on Wednesday morning. May the angels lead him into Paradise, where eternal rest and resurrection glory are now his in God’s presence!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 