Mayne Island SKABC Labour Day Weekend, 2013
Leader: Bruce Pickwell Review and photos: Joan Boxall
Gathering together at the newly-managed Eco-camping on Seal Beach, Miners Bay, Active Pass, Mayne Island, we meet our gang of twelve in eleven boats. We plan on doing the eighteen nautical miles around the isle. A circum-navigation. It is Labour Day weekend after all. We walk to the Springwater Pub which has been doing business on Mayne Island since 1892; a particular favorite for miners en route to the Caribou and Fraser River gold rushes. We’re panning for gold too: a golden weekend, post electrical storm that brought buckets of golden rain to the Lower Mainland. Rain to send salmon upstream; rain to green our forests and gardens.
We leave just after nine on an (in) Active Pass slack-tide morning, and round picturesque Georgina Point and Lighthouse. A nor’wester’s blowing. We cut across Campbell Bay, and past Georgeson Island, trading wind for current.
Square dancing aka ferrying gets us all do-si-do’ing our way to Winter Cove, Saturna Island’s sunny shores. We circle to the right, chain across, turn those kayaks to meet our corner islands, Curlew and Lizard. Bow to your partner, SKABC, pass through Georgeson, weave the ring…it’s been a Labour-Day-full: ‘Nine to Five,’ sings Dolly, ‘What a way to make a livin’, and we swing right back to Miners Cove, Mayne Island, ‘What a way to live!’
The return route is an up-and-back promenade home from St. John Point along Mayne’s southern shore, past Village Bay, and around Helen Point. We’re glad to return to Active Pass before any whirlpools surface. We’re more up for a whirl in Eco-camping’s hot showers, then we prep the annual celebratory potluck meal. There are more-than-enough restorative calories to replenish: corn chips, dips, quiche, bouillabaisse, ribs, pork tenderloin, chili, salads, apple crumbles, macaroons, date squares…did I mention hydration? That, too. Allemande left, star right, pass out.
Sunday, we leave Active Pass to launch from Paddon Point on Mayne’s eastern shore, down a short steep ramp facing Curlew Island. Today’s water is calm, and we chain the Belles of the Belle Chain Islets. Okay, no more square dancing…this is more of a waltz. One, two, three…one, two, three hours of meandering and viewing Harbour seals, Turkey Vultures, Bald Eagles, Western Sandpipers, gulls galore, who all pose on rocks that mirror chunky clouds. Back via Samuel Island’s north side. Boat Passage is an impasse.
Raptors’ fishin’ grounds
Other raptors follow the Turkey Vultures’ keen sense of smell
Tuesday’s SKABC club meeting with Sue Davies as guest speaker, fills us in on raptors. Who knew that Peregrine Falcons stun-punch their prey at 300 km/hr? Or that the beak is the raptors’ knife; the talons, their fork? Or that Turkey Vultures wash and cool their feet in their own ‘clean’ feces, and deter predators by regurgitating in and around their meals. Or that owls hear in 3-d forming pictures of their prey in the darkness? Or that raptors help us avert avian flu pandemics by being bacterial epicures? We’re a rapt (or) audience, listening like hawks, falcons, eagles and owls to Sue’s presentation, and plan on making OWL, Orphaned Wildlife & Rehabilitation Society, one of our causes or respectful pauses when viewing raptors along our shores.
We’re in time to munch leftovers or take in the Lion’s Club’s salmon BBQ fundraiser. Thank goodness we paddle for our suppers given baked potatoes, tenderly squeezed and dolloped with butter, sour cream, and a sprinkle of chives; Caesar salad, bun and brownie-a-la-mode.
Monday, the SKABC gang is still up for an early slack-tide start exitiing east end of Active Pass and along east side of Galiano Island, stopping for lunch in Montague Harbour, then back in the same direction to Pocket Beach near Helen Point (beach glass mecca). Mayne Island sea kayaking bulletin:
Line dancing in ferry line-ups?
Strictly prohibited!
