Wednesday, July 20

ISLAND BOAT TOUR ON DESOLATION SOUND.

Day 282 – This area, Campbell River to Quadra Island, is often called the Gateway to Desolation Sound. At this point, there are many islands of various sizes between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island. These Islands and those continuing north of here to Alaska, are called the Inland Passage.

The Islands are rich with wildlife and the waters surrounding them have abundant fish and sea life. The inlets on both the mainland and Vancouver Island are home to Black Bears and Grizzly Bears. Some large areas on the mainland side have set aside lands & waters to protect the bears. The Preserve is called The Great Grizzly Bear Rainforest. We will be taking an all-day boat trip to hopefully see the Bears in their habitat on August 9. Meanwhile, we really wanted to see some of the Inland Passageway islands, and we found a tour boat that does just that. Before we left the campground at around noon, we saw a lumber barge go by. This is a very active site, both for commercial ships and for pleasure & fishing boats.

Our boat trip departed from Quadra Island’s eastern harbor at Herriot Bay a little after 12:30 p.m. It was gorgeous out with mostly clear skies and just a little wind. We went out with Chris, owner and operator of Quadra Island Boat Tours. He is First Nations, so we were able to learn a lot about the history of the area. We were the only people on the tour. It was a five-seated fishing boat. This was the best boat tour of our trip, thus far.

He is a former commercial fisherman, and he used to go out on the water for three months at a time. Now, part of the year, he manages a crew that monitors the salmon farms using robotic, underwater video cameras. In the summer when the weather is good, he goes out up to four times daily to do tours in his own boat: early morning fishing trips, a morning tour that goes around Quadra and Cortes Islands, an afternoon tour that goes north & east around the more isolated & mostly uninhabited islands, and an evening fishing trip. He obviously knew what he was doing, being around the water his whole life.

He asked us what we were interested in seeing and pointed out they were NOT a whale watching business, that his people “hate to see whales being crowded and surrounded by 15 boats full of people”, so he would not be hunting for whales, but if on our way somewhere, we saw a whale, he’d be happy to take a quick look while not disturbing the whale. We said we wanted to see places we couldn’t see by car or on foot and that we wanted to learn about the area. He knew where to take us.

Chris obviously loves what he’s doing! We had fun and he did, too. The wind picked up about halfway through the trip. He was very careful and watched every wave to steer as best he could for the least impact. We saw a Sea Lion colony – he knew all about them and where to find them – same with the Harbor Seals. We saw Guillemots and Cormorants and Humpback Whales. He took us to a great waterfall at a Provincial Park that can only be reached by water.

Then he had a little surprise for us. He asked us if we minded if he took a longer trip out to where he had laid Prawn traps. We said no (we NEVER mind a longer trip!). He took us between some islands to where his traps were. He told us that we could have the Prawns he’d caught if we split a Prawn and ate it raw. I said, do YOU eat them raw? And he said, yes, he did in the past, all the commercial fisherman did, but that he didn’t now because he’d gotten sick of them, they’d eaten so many of them when they were out fishing for months. I said, “No way, I’m not eating a live Prawn!” But Rob said he would do it. “Okay, it’s a deal”, Chris says, and he started pulling traps. And yes, Rob kept his word and ate the Prawn! And like Chris said, they taste good, a little sweet.

Then, Chris started laughing and said, “Man, I can’t believe you really did that. You’d never catch me doing that!” OMG. I screamed and stared at him in shock, and Rob was like WHAT!? And Chris, was cracking up, “Just kidding, man, I just had to see your faces, yes, we really at them raw.” HA HA HA. It was pretty funny. I laughed till I cried. And Rob survived. And we took home more than a pound of the freshest Prawns we will ever get. Melt in your mouth dinner, sauteed in butter, garlic, and a little lemon.

Quadra Island Boat Tours: Phone number (844) 777-7428; E-mail info@qibt.ca; Website www.quadraislandboattours.ca.

After the wonderful prawn dinner, we sat out and watched the Salish Strait and took a few pictures.