June 12th Friday

From: West Sonora Island    To: Yeatman Bay, Quadra Island
Start time: 0630        Finish time: 1500      Distance: 28 km
Tide: Octopus islands
0152     3.7
0910     1.0
1532     2.8
1856     2.4

Current: Okisollo Channel (Upper Rapids)
Turns   Max     kts
0055    0522   -5.5
0738    1144   +5.1
1416    1813   -4.7
2016    2356   +3.6

Current: Hole In The Wall
Turns   Max     kts
0110    0430   -7.4
0747    1055   +8.7
1420    1721   -6.0
2309    2309   +6.4

Current: Beazley Passage
Turns   Max     kts
0106    0424   -7.0
0733    1049   +8.4
1417    1714   -5.8
2006    2313   +6.4

     At 4:30 a.m. I crawled out of my tent that I’d set up inside the cabin, and had just finish making my morning coffee when I glanced out the window to see an orca about 200 meters off shore. Wow, how many people get to see that with their morning coffee? I kept looking for him but didn’t see him again due to the lumpy seas. It was blowing about 15 Knots and the current was against the wind creating confused waves. Launching a loaded kayak is not an easy job on a rough cobble beach with crashing waves. I moved a few large rocks and placed a bunch of driftwood down for a skid, put my kayak on top and then loaded it.
     I was off the beach by 6:30. It was a little rough for the first twenty minutes until I reached Okisollo channel and was back in calmer seas again, other than a 20 knot NW gusts that came roaring over Sonora island and hitting me broadside. I tucked in close to shore and tried to duck under the gusts. The tide was helping me out and I was making seven km/h. As I was approaching the Lower Rapids I hugged the shore into Barnes Bay then around Walters Point where the current started to pick up speed. I then turned into Owen Bay where I could wait for slack tide. Paddling over to the east side of the bay I was surprised by all the homes here, most of them looked like holiday cabins but there were also a few that looked like they had been here for years. 
     Making my way back towards the rapids, I paddled through a small narrows between Grant Island and another unnamed island. This gap formed a small rapid with a drop of about three feet over a fifty-foot span, ending in a nice pool before emptying into the Upper Rapids.

Down the rapids at Grant Island

I literally shot down the drop into the pool – yahoo! I pulled my kayak up on the rocks and picked a good spot to watch the rapids and eat my lunch. I wanted to leave an hour before slack and then try to get through Surge Narrows before it started to run too fast.
   

Waiting for the Upper Rapids to slow down, I'll wait for the white water to disappear 

 After about ten minutes I heard a woman calling “hello” from the house above me. She asked if      I was waiting for slack. “Yes” I said. She answered, “then come on up for a cup of coffee”. I love the hospitality you can still find in small coastal communities. This never seems to happen while waiting for a bus in Victoria or Vancouver. I went up and had a friendly visit with her, her mother-in-law and two young children over a great cup of real coffee (not instant). We talked about my trip and their life here and of course the rapids and where I might find the most trouble.
     By 1:00 p.m. the white water across the channel had settled down. I pulled out into the channel and it was still flowing pretty good, so I dug in hard and headed for the opposite shore before the current would take me down to Hole in The Wall, where the two currents collide. I had to cross a couple of fast moving eddies, where whirlpools, (some two feet across) formed along their edges.  I was across in no time and on the opposite shore from Hole In The Wall in almost calm water.
     I was remembering a talk I had with Trish’s grandfather years ago when he was still alive. He knew that I had been working close to this area so he asked me, “do you know where Hole in the Wall is?” I did. He told me the Kwak’wala name, then he just started naming off all kinds of places up and down the coast. Some of those names probably died with him. He’d grown up with those names and used them his whole 98 years. When fishing and traveling from place to place along the coast, this was his world - he stayed with the old names, not with what was written on a chart. I wish I could have remembered that name.
     I ducked onto the Octopus Islands to have a quick look, then across Waiatt Bay where I was getting 20 knot gusts hitting me on my right side. As I got closer to Beazley Passage the wind turned and was blowing from behind giving me a nice push but I’d had enough paddling for the day so I pulled into Yeatman Bay for the night. 

Yeatman Bay

     

The kitchen area at Yeatman Bay came complete with moss covered stone back spalsh  

This is a nice spot with a small creek, it looked like it had been logged about 60 or 70 years ago judging by the old bits of logging equipment left on the beach. Around 7:00 pm I was lying in my tent writing in my journal and was surprised to hear people outside. Apparently there is a trail into here along a old logging road. I hit the sack around 8:30 looking forward to a cold beer and restaurant meal at the Heriot Bay Inn tomorrow.

looking north up Okisollo Channel