5 Jul 22

We were up early to commence the run to Friendly Cove, or at least to kick “Massilia” off. They left at 08:20, but we lounged around for a while and left just after 09:00. It was flat calm outside with a low westerly swell, so we decided to head close in to Estevan Point (well, 2 miles off), rather than head out to the 100 m contour, as originally planned. We had a favorable current most of the way to Nootka Soundand were happily anchored at Friendly Cove by 14:00. We went ashore almost immediately, met some folks on the dock who had just walked along the Nootka Island trail and were waiting for a float plane from Gold River; one of them turned out to be Matthew’s 6th grade teacher. Then, we walked up to the church and then over to Sanford’s carving house; Sanford is a First Nation’s carver of international repute. After that, we had a long chat with his father Ray Williams, who is 80 and a character. While we had a burger and a beer, we got a bunch of his life’s story and he showed us a bunch of photos from way back when, including one of his grand-father and Chief Maquinna. Ray was sent off (some would say kidnapped) to residential school when he was young, for 8 years, 11 months out of each year. While at school, of course they were not allowed to speak their native language and were not even given a name, but were called by a number. And that was just the beginning of the abuse; unbelievable what the white man did to the indigenous people. Sanford’s carving were beautiful; we have his website and will no doubt buy one of them later on.

49-35.665’N, 126-37.011’W; Log = 28.7, Sum = 344.8 N-m; Eng. hrs. = 4.8, Sum = 2941.0

6 Jul 22

We had a lovely sleep in Friendly Cove. It was foggy and cool when we awoke, but the clouds lifted after a bit. After breakfast, we all rowed ashore and went for a tour of the lighthouse, which was fascinating. On the way to the lighthouse, we chatted with a couple of young women who had just finished hiking the Nootka Trail; turns out they are both nurses from Vancouver. Doug and Donna are husband and wife lighthouse keepers and have been at Nootka Lighthouse for 5 years. Donna keeps some lovely roses and other flowering plants, along with her duties as lighthouse keeper. After that, walked back over to Ray’s house for another long chat and a salmon burger and a beer. Turns out that Ray was a long time friend with a guy (Bill) from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, who John knew and who was a good friend of John’s dad. Bill came up to Yuquot for years in his sailboat and even put a couple of Ray’s kids up for a period when they were in high school, which happened to be the same high school where John’s sister taught French for years (the kids did not take French, so they did not know Annette, but still, it is a very small world up here. Then, we walked over to the lake and went for a quick swim in the tepid, fresh water with a few of Ray’s grandkids and several of his great-grandkids; what a hoot. By then, it was starting to rain, so we scurried back to the boat to dry out and warm up, just in time for happy hour. After dinner, John and Laurie worked on their crafts and we had a short sing-along, even trying out my new addition: Shake Russell’s “Cowboy Coffee”.