Sincerely, Denise

PRUTH BAY AT ANCHOR

Friday, May 22nd

Surprisingly, John awoke at 6:30 and went fishing with Greg and Bill. It was a quick trip though, they came back just two hours later pretty chilled to the bone. I spent the morning cooking in the galley, and made a macaroni salad and a big batch of clam chowder for future meals, it always tastes better on day 2, so maybe it is tomorrow night's dinner? This was my first major cooking project in the new boat, and I am loving my new galley, so much more space for my creations. Our plan today was for a lunch time weenie roast on the beach, a tradition that Shannon started years ago, and is something we try to do every stop here. Shannon and David had originally planned to be here with us, and Shan was in charge of organizing the weenie roast. Since they peeled off earlier than expected, Shan passed all the supplies to Connie so that we could carry on her vision.

Pruth Bay has the most GORGEOUS beaches on the west and north sides of the island, they are like a beach you'd find in the tropics, sweeping half moon bays with white sand beaches. They are absolutely stunning! So after gathering the troops on our dinghy around 11:30, with everyone bundled up (it was overcast and chilly), we motored over to shore to the docks at Hakai Institute, a marine research facility that's been here for a long time, formerly a fishing lodge. Hakai Institute is privately funded by a multimillionaire and his wife through the Tula Foundation. They are doing amazing things so it's worth reading up on them. Upon arrival, we unfortunately learned that beach fires were prohibited this year, a first, so disappointing! But also understandable since there is no way to fight a fire on this small island, and it would be devastating. BC and Canada/US overall have had a terrible time with wildfires the past 10 years, so we are guessing there is a moratorium on all manmade recreational fires just to be safe. After a short hike east to west across Calvert Island we came to the first beach "West Beach" and everyone that had never been here before just gasped when it came into view. It is nothing like you'd ever imagine seeing up on the rugged coast of BC. Then we did the rather technical and challenging hike to "North Beach" equally gorgeous with so much sea life. It was a really low tide so we hiked to the tall rocks at the water's edge and viewed the plentiful sea life - mussels, anemones, starfish, periwinkles, and all kinds of shell life. On the beach we found gobs of abalone shells, beautiful mussel shells and polished rocks and wood. As the day wore on the sun came out and warmed us all up while the wind died down, making us shed our layers and enjoy this unexpected gift of a beautiful day!

Since we weren't able to have our beach fire and weenie roast we decided to come back to the boat and execute lunch here. The boys had to move the boats out to deeper water this morning before our hike. As we were eating lunch in our new location, we spotted a huge eagle's nest on shore and that was another hour of entertainment as we watched Mom and Dad Eagle take turns sitting in the nest and guarding the nest. There were ravens nearby on neighboring trees that we surmised were waiting for an opportunity to steal the eggs or baby eaglets. Now we are all spent for the day. Too late of a lunch to make dinner, so now we just have to stay awake until a reasonable bed time hour! What a great day.

The iconic scary tree at Pruth Bay on Hakai Institute land, carved directly into the tree in the 1980s

Greg and Connie awaiting "Boober" (Boat Uber, our dinghy) to pick them up for our trip to shore

Another boat in the bay, but the picture was about all the seals atop mostly submerged rocks in our bay

Wolves!! We didn't see any of them but if you haven't seen the documentary "Island of the Sea Wolves" it's directly related to wolves carving out a habitat and existence subsisting on marine life. It's on one of the big streaming services.