Out of the mists and “bearing” east

Monday, June 24, 2024

Braesail and her crew are presently at the dock in Zeballos on a spectacularly beautiful evening. The little town of about 120 people sits below the mountains surrounding the headwaters of Zeballos Inlet, which is an extension of Esperanza Inlet and winds toward the interior of Vancouver Island. We arrived here a little after 3 pm and enjoyed the warmth, the sunlight, the birdsong, and the gurgling of a little stream that spills into the water near the docks.

In the morning, Martin and I motored around the spacious Nuchatlitz anchorage in Coracle on “a misty, moisty morning when cloudy was the weather.” The tide was quite low, and as a result, wide patches of kelp, eel grass, and floating sea debris extended far from the beaches on which we’d hoped to land. Martin had to shut off the outboard motor and row because the propeller kept getting fouled with eel grass, and we were able to make very close approaches to clusters of rocks covered with golden rock weed, kelp, and other marine vegetation, but couldn’t find a good place at which to pull the dinghy onto the shore—all was deep, sticky mud and grass. It WAS fascinating to pass slowly above the beds of eel grass, see tiny fish darting among the leaves and fluffy stems, and watch other slightly larger, flattish, rainbow-irridescent fish leaping out of the water and splashing back amongst the leaves again.

Since we needed to leave the marine park at noon, Martin and I shook the water droplets from our hoods and jackets and rowed and motored back from the rocks, islets, islands, and lagoons without having been able to visit and walk around on a beach, but we could see and hear surf splashing outside our anchorage, and I had a lovely time despite the dampness and gray skies. I was happy that Hans and Martin had been able to make their expedition at a higher tide when they could beach Coracle and do some exploring on foot around the islands.

We motored slowly on Braesail through the provincial marine park and were treated to wonderful views of the islands and rock formations and the surf frothing and spouting among them. The inflow wind rose gradually as we traveled up lovely, forested Esperanza Inlet; at one point, I happened to look at the shore most distant from the boat, and saw two black somethings on the beach. I thought I saw them moving, looked at them through our binoculars, and found that I’d been right: I was seeing a mother black bear and her cub! I watched them as long as I could, and was so happy to have seen them!

At last we were able to raise the genoa at the bow of the boat and sail gently and peacefully for about an hour before we lost the wind completely and had to motor to the docks in Zeballos.

Once Braesail was moored securely, Hans and Martin went for a short walk, Walt napped, and then Martin and I went for a longer stroll through the main part of the little village. We found the post office, which offered tables and chairs, a small variety of candies and chips, gifts, souvenirs, and free Wi-Fi, and we chatted with Paul, who happened to be picking up his mail, and with Yvonne, the very friendly woman who’d run the post office for many years. She gave us snacks along with information about available goods and services, told us when the local library and museum would be open, and, when Martin inquired about laundry facilities, offered to wash his clothes herself!!

The post office closed at 5 pm, but Martin and I were able to continue using the Wi-Fi outside the building, where benches were available—we were very pleased! With our email downloaded, we walked to the small general store to buy a few items (including the milk the store in Kyuquot had run out of), visited with the kind lady at the counter, returned to Braesail for an evening of trip planning, dining on soup and salmon, reading, finishing various chores, appreciating the beauty of our surroundings and the helpfulness of the people we’d met, and looking forward to returning to the post office, library, museum, and fuel dock on Tuesday.