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 |
Waiting for the Upper Rapids to slow down, I'll wait for the white water to disappear |
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 |
looking north up Okisollo Channel |
The trail from Yeatman Bay takes you to Quadra's Main Lake, a leisurely 30 minute walk.
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