Day 37

Day 37 – July 18, 2006
Position: n49-12.2/W125 51.3 – Adventure Cove

Today was a short motor of 16 miles; the waters around Tofino are
shallow with extensive tidal drying areas. CLOSE attention is the word
of the day re navigation. Inside these inlets and sounds you can be in
500 or more feet of water; as you approach the entrances to the sounds,
you can be in less than 50 feet. Most of the way today we were in 30
feet of water with the danger of quickly being in much less if you
couldn’t sort out navigation aids.

Our route took us past Toffino and a bit north up Lemmens Inlet which
has a very narrow channel (unmarked) and stuffed with crab pots.
Adventure cove is small, with 2 house floats in it. Its claim to fame is
that this is the cove where Capt’n Gray wintered in 1791 and built Fort
Defiance. Gray is the person who “discovered” the Columbia River. He was
also the first American to circumnavigate with the Stars and Stripes.
Despite this key site of American history, I could not convince Ralph to
come ashore to search for the Fort.

During their stay here they built a ship called the Adventure; I recall
reading he did this to keep his crew occupied. The site of the Fort was
finally located in 1966. It has since been reclaimed by the forest
because I stomped around and could not find any remnants of the Fort.

We finally got a crab this afternoon, but as I was hoisting it up and
waiting for Ralph to get a bucket to put it in, I let it escape and now
we have no crab, again. Ralph tried to fish this evening, but the fish
are still winning the battle. Thank goodness we have some protein in cans!!

Tomorrow we hit Tofino; here is what one of the guide books says about
“downtown Tofino”

“Tofino’s bustle and busy-ness may surprise you.We found that
pedestrians hurried past but didn’t look us in the eye. The dogs seemed
nervous. It is quite a contrast to the pace upisland, where strangers
say hello to each other, and the dogs, when they move at all, do so only
to accept a morsel of food or as cratch behind the ears. After growing
accumstomed to the charms of life up island, Tofinao, with its commerce,
fast traffic and loud engines can cause culture shock”…..

We are nervous but ready to deal with it…. Some of us haven’t had a beer
in a week now!!