Effingham Bay

I miss heat. And being dry. We spent three rainy, shivery nights in Effingham Bay. With weather like this I really miss having a heater. When the rain sets in everything is wet. My feet are always wet. And cold. At the end of the day we peel off our damp clothes, put on our damp jammies, and climb into our damp beds under our damp bedding.

Actually our early morning sail from Tofino to Barkley Sound was gorgeous. We arrived in Effingham Bay early enough that we were the second boat in the anchorage. I packed a lunch and we hopped into the kayaks to paddle the couple of miles over to Dicebox Island to check out some sea caves but first we landed on an inviting beach to eat lunch and explore. I found some nodding onions to gather and some yummy thimble berries to munch on. Next we paddled over to the sea caves for a look-see inside.

Back at the boat we soaked up the last bit of nice weather as we watched boat after boat arrive. There was a warning for strong winds so everyone decided that Effingham was the safest and most comfortable place to sit out the storm. A dinghy from a neighboring boat stopped by telling us that they were headed out to fish and asked if we'd like any. Never ones to turn down fish we accepted. A short while later they arrived back and asked us to hand over a bucket. They then proceeded to fill the bucket with five fish! After many thanks Jason decided that we needed to bring the bucket down into the boat to keep them out of the sun since we were about to eat dinner. He set the bucket o' fish on the counter when one of them started flipping. Me, being a recovering vegetarian, had a little freak-out session about this. I don't want to sound ungrateful or unthankful but I was super unhappy because I thought we were getting a bucket o' dead fish, not a bucket o' suffering-slowly-to-death fish. Jason grabbed the bucket and started up the companionway when a fish flipped right out of the bucket and flopped around on all of our shoes at the entrance of our boat :(. At this point he grabbed one of Aaron's sticks and clubbed it to death :(:(:(. This may get me kicked out of the sailing sisterhood but the fish violence made me sad, sad, sad. After dinner Jason headed to the cockpit with iPad in hand to try to fillet his first five ocean fish. Meanwhile the boys and I stayed below, away from the carnage, and played a card game. After an hour or so he was victorious and we slid four quart bags of fresh fish into our fridge. Nicely done.

The next day it down-poured all day so we nestled into the boat along with the dozen other boats that had joined us in the anchorage. We spent the day playing a board game and making chocolate chip cookies.

The following day brought lighter rain so we pulled on all of our foulies and ventured out. We hiked across the island to a lovely beach and a sea cave we had visited last year. The rocks on the way there were slipperier-than-all-get-out but it we made there and back with our lives. On the way through the forest we came across the biggest red huckleberry bush I have ever seen so we stopped to snack on as many of them as we could reach with big smiles on our faces.

Click here for photos.