Every harbor has at least one interesting boat, especially an older boat, we love the wooden sailboats, the funky ones, built by a true artist, we love going to the marinas down town, where Bert usually sees some good ideas which we can implement on our boat.     We had a good few days, within a few weeks, we will be taking off out of this marina and first haul the boat out, it has been a long time, and them maybe stay around for a while before we head towards Comox.

This is SV “Blue Jacket” , a ketch. cannot tell you must about her, other then that we like her, she is moored in Port Browning.

We continued on our walk, around the bay towards the light house.      The woods are so peaceful, everything is so incredibly green this time of year, small wild flowers are showing themselves  amongst the grasses and moss,Birds are busy, and all is quiet around the otter burrows.   We saw signs of Mink, and found several Owl pellets also called castings.  The pellets consist of undigested fur,feathers and claws and bones from their prey.   We didn’t see Owls but i always have the feeling that one is watching  from above!!

You can see the shapes of the seals under water, lying on their backs. The guy on the right is sleeping, nose straight up in the air. Nice whiskers!!!!

The water must be nice and warm, we were quite far above them, but at least you can see the ones under water in this shot.

Early Saturday morning, Bert went for a walk while i did the dishes and washed my hair.

Once he came back we had coffee and he told me about all these seals, around 28 of them, all of them at the head of the bay, hanging around, but quite a few of them were underwater, just lying there!!        I became very worried and we headed to shore.                      We landed at the beach near the orchard , what a beautiful place, the pear trees were blooming , the apple trees just coming out, the grass lush and deep green, i just love this place!!           We hiked along the shore line till we were above the seals, and yes, there they were, all lying around, but some on the water, some under the water,on the bottom, lying upside down!!!!  Their white bellies shone in the sun , the ones on top just kind of looked at us,hanging around, some were sleeping, with their noses straight up in the air.     Bert told me to keep looking at a little group of three seals, under water, and after  10 minutes or so, they moved and came up, then some other seals went down and turned themselves up side down !!!    This is weird, i am just not sure why they do this, getting rid of parasites on their backs maybe?   Does anyone out there maybe know why they do this??

We sailed out of Bedwell harbour, the wind was all over the place again, so we kept the engine running also, we decided to head towards Montague, on Galiano island, but as we started passing James bay ,on Prevost island, we saw that no one was there, not a boat, not a person, and that was just too good to be true!!!     We anchored near the reef, (not too near), and after shutting down the engine, we just sat there , listening to the incredible quiet, the peace, just the odd snorting of a seal, the sound of duck wings beating.    We love this place, it is also where we picked all the apples last fall, in the old orchard at the Provincial park.

There are trails all around the bay, where you walk through old forests , or soft, green meadows, the trail leads all the way to the lighthouse at the head of the bay.   Bert went for a small walk while i made dinner, and after dishes we settled down, to just take it all in.

This is what i wrote:

THIS IS JAMES BAY

SUCH QUIET!!  SMALL CIRCLES OF WATER,RIPPLING OUTWARDS LIKE SATURN’S RINGS

SMALL FISH COMING TO THE SURFACE,FEEDING AT HIGH TIDE.

THE BALD EAGLE SWOOPS DOWNWARDS,ITS GOLDEN TALONS OUTSTRETCHED,

THIS COULD BE A CHANCE,AN OPPERTUNITY, A SMALL FEED, FOR THE EVENING TO COME… BUT, THE LITTLE DUCK DIVES AND THE EAGLE MOVES ON,

SEEMING TO BE ON A MISSION ,HE FOLLOWS THE SHORE LINE  AT GREAT SPEED!!

A CANADA GOOSE PAIR SUN THEMSELVES IN THE EVENING ORANGE LIGHT ON A GRASSY SLOPE, THIS COULD BE A NESTING SITE……OR MAYBE NOT…..

THE LOCAL OTTER COMES SWIMMING TOWARDS US ,FISH IN HIS MOUTH,

WE CAN HEAR THE CHEWING, THE CHOMPING,VERY QUICKLY HE EATS TWO,BOTH FLOUNDERS,THEN CONTINUES TO THE REEF.

A PAIR OF BUFFLEHEAD DUCKS FLOAT AROUND ,SO IN TUNE WITH EACH OTHER,

A LONE MERGANZER FOLLOWS, FULLY ACCEPTED, DESPITE HER LARGE SIZE.

THREE SILVER BODIES BOB UP AND DOWN;THREE SMALL SEALS,CURIOUS ABOUT US,

WE WHISTLE AND THEY STARE,AND STARE, LOOKING WORRIED WITH THEIR DARK EYES.

SLOWLY THE LIGHT FADES AND AS OUT OF NO WHERE, A DOZEN SHEEP APPEAR!!!

ONE, A MAJESTIC MALE WITH BEAUTIFUL HORNS,HE IS IN CHARGE!!!

THE SOLAR LIGHTS LIGHT UP,THE BOAT LOOKS WARM AND INVITING!!!

THE SMALL DUCKS START A CLEANING FRENZY,LITTLE WINGS BEATING AS IF MOTOR DRIVEN,THEY CHATTER AMONGST THEMSELVES;ALMOST TIME TO SETTLE FOR THE NIGHT.

THE SEALS NOW SOUND LIKE OLD MEN, SNORTING AND GRUNTING,SEEMINGLY IN EACH OTHERS WAY.

THE HORIZON IS ORANGE SOFT,PEACH AND VELVET, WHAT A WEALTH THIS IS FOR US, TO TAKE THIS ALL IN,

WE FEEL SO TOTALLY BLESSED!!!

These photos are from 2008, we were anchored in Silva bay, and took the dinghy for a look around the smaller islands. Some of these islands have incredible rock lace, one of them being Vance island and Carlos island.   I just have to share these, i find these rocks beautiful!!

Sand stone “rock lace” on Vance island.

All through out the Gulf Islands, ( IN THE SALISH SEA),  every where you go ashore, you are bound to find some intriguing shore lines, amazing rock formations, beautiful sculpted sand stone rocks, marked by years of salt water, splashing and dripping in the same spots…..  i call these” rock lace”, as some of them are beautifully crafted by nature.

The Gulf islands consist of high ridges of erosion resistant sandstone and conglomerate, in between lies more easily eroding

Conglomerate rock.

Sandstone with “rock lace”

As dry and rocky the shores are, these little succulents keep on growing, Tough little plants!!!!!

shale, the conglomerate is especially evident at the shores of South Pender Island, huge conglomerate boulders line the shore, broken off from higher up, while in between , sand stone  ridges and rock show the “rock lace”.       I have a lot of older photos of the rock lace , from the shores near  Silva bay.      There, whole caves have washed out from the constant waves.

We stayed three nights, when we were walking towards the shopping Centre, on North Pender, we met a very nice couple from Alberta, their power boat was tied to the dock at Poet’s Cove, Perry and Jo-Anne, Perry heard our accents and started talking about Holland, he is part dutch too, so the dutch names of many little places in Holland were coloring the conversation!!!             We saw them again later on at Poet’s Cove and invited them to come for coffee on board of Curtsy the next day.     They had never been on board of a sailboat before and both were pleasantly surprised!!!      But, i am getting ahead of things, the night before we had a most beautiful sunset, so i need to share that.

Gorgeous heh??

A second photo never hurts, the beautiful colors are slowly fading away…..