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Up the West Coast of Vancouver Island:
Jarvis Island to Lemmens Inlet, Meares
Island,
Clayoquot Sound
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Day 5:
Lemmens Inlet, Meares Island, Clayoquot Sound |
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We left early the next morning in a light fog to pick up fuel at Ucluelet.
We could have easily spent many more days in Barkley Sound, but since its close,
we'll be back. This is a picture from the fuel dock at Ucluelet looking north.
This guy came in with a fairly loaded Zodiac and still with room for
passengers. |
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After fueling, we tied off at a public dock to walk into town. A
long, steep stairway led to the road from the dock. It's called 52
Step Dock, but there are apparently 53 steps. |
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The village was just waking up, as it was still
quite early, so most stores were still closed. Outside one shop were
some very creative sculptures. |
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A large fish processing plant was operating
though, although one beside it looked permanently shut down. It's good
to see some business still working though. Some pretty scary-looking
goo was coming out through these pipes. |
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Looking back towards the public dock from
town, the fog was thickening. |
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In the Ucluelet Small Craft Harbour, at the
north end of town, the permanently-moored steamship Canadian Princess
is the centerpiece for the
sportsfishing resort
of the same name. From 1932 to 1975 the ship served the Canadian
Hydrographic Service as the hydrographic survey ship William J. Stewart.
It was purchased for the resort and renamed. The vessel, which
originally cost more than a million dollars, was almost lost in July of 1944
when it struck Ripple Rock, in Seymour Narrows just north of Campbell River.
Many vessels have come to grief there. |
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It started to rain pretty heavily, so we
returned to Dirona to begin our second exposed coast run, from
Barkely Sound to Clayoquot Sound. Conditions were quite calm, the fog
cleared, and the rain soon stopped. En route we saw several humpback
whales. |
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For a large part of the run we were opposite
Long Beach, part of the
Pacific Rim National Park. We also passed
several sailboats, enjoying a nice run down the coast. We were heading for Tofino, a town we had visited by car from Victoria, but never from the
water. We were having an amazing day so far. |
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This is the Lennard Island lighthouse, established in 1904, just off Tofino.
Looks like a pretty lonely place. |
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With mounting excitement, we turned north into Templar Channel towards
Tofino. We felt we'd entered a time warp at the sight of the 188-foot
barkentine
Concordia heading towards us. The ship is
one of the several educational vessels that run the west coast in the summer. |
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Tofino is a bustling port town. This is
the view approaching from the west. We tied off to the
1st Street
Pier, visible in the left of this picture. It is quite exposed to
passing wakes, but we were only stopping for a few hours. There is a
larger, more protected public dock farther along to the east. On the
far left of the shot, the well-equipped Tofino
Coast Guard station is barely visible. |
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We toured around town for a bit and then stopped
for lunch at the
Sea Shanty
restaurant, which overlooks the waterfront. We had to wait a bit for a
table on the deck, and the service was a but unorganized. But the food
was good, with Piper's Ale on tap, and the was view astounding. This
picture was taken from our table, looking across to the Native Reserve at
Opitsat with Lone Cone in the background. It's a busy waterway. |
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Leaving Tofino, we headed north towards Opitsat
and turned east and north into Lemmens Inlet, the westernmost of the two
inlets that indent Meares Island. We were originally planning to
anchor in Adventure Cove, where the ship Adventure was launched in 1793.
It is now a National Historic Site. But there were two floathomes permanently moored there, plus a boat at anchor, so we continued
north and tucked into the southern nook of the westernmost cove at the
extreme head of Lemmens Inlet. This is the view looking east from the
anchorage into Lemmens Inlet. It was a lovely anchorage, which we had
all to ourselves. |
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