August 11, 2002 We left Jesse and Allie yesterday morning, in the fog. They had to be back in Seattle for a UW Yacht Club event where they'd promised a ride to ten others, and so had to leave us. We were sorry to see them go -- we were having a great time, and had inaugurated the new Scrabble "travel game." (I have a word or two for the Scrabble people about how their "travel game" is not suitable for use in a marine environment. We'll be making some changes!) We were glad enough, though, to be leaving Tofino. It is as overrun with tourists as it was last year -- many Europeans, particularly German speaking. The cute souvenir shops really got to us this time. We think they should spend a bit of money on their aging marina, and cater a bit more to boaters! We motored from Tofino around the south end of Meares Island, through some crab pot minefields, and through patches of floating seagrass and bright green algae. The tide was against us, and reached as high as 3 knots. We anchored for the night in Mosquito Harbour -- about 12 miles from Tofino, and as remote as could be. In the entire trip we saw no other pleasure boats (sail or power) and only one working boat. Fortunately Mosquito Harbour did NOT live up to its name. We had a few black flies to contend with, but didn't see any mosquitos at all. We anchored, barbecued some hamburgers, and spent the evening reading. On the way in to Mosquito Harbour we had seen an oblong light patch of water, perhaps 15 feet long and 5 feet wide. This usually indicates a shallow spot, but none was shown on the chart. Nevertheless we kept our distance. This morning we dinghied over to check it out -- it turned out to be a colony of jellyfish -- neither of us has ever seen such a thing. These are the big jellyfish you don't want to swim with -- the big ones are ten inches across, and every other size was there as well. There are not jellyfish in the water of the bay generally -- just in this one spot. Usually, when you see them, they're pretty evenly distributed across the water. Also in the wildlife department, we decided to go ashore and get some oysters or clams. No oysters at all, as it turns out, and very few clams. Perhaps we'll have clam appetizers. Not tonight though. Tonight we're doing our one luxury dinner of the trip -- this will be the REAL $220 crab dinner -- at the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort. They advertise eight hour "spa days" for $330, and heaven only knows what staying overnight may cost. We won't be doing that -- but we did decide to try the dinner. LATER: What a place -- what a dinner! We didn't have the crab, but decided to splurge on beef tenderloin. The meal came with five very elegant courses, and some wonderful taste surprises. Our boat was the featured view, against a backdrop of forest covered hillsides and more distant mountains. We made friends with a Dutch couple staying at the resort, and enjoyed some very pleasant conversation. They have a sailboat in Holland, and every summer (except this one) sail to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, etc. In the dining room the resort has a telescope trained on whatever distant wilderness sight you want to see. We found it was trained on our boat. We'll have to watch that we don't have any showers on the back swim step while we're here! (I see they have a website if you're interested...) |
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