Greywolf’s Chronicles: Desolation Sound and The Discovery Islands

T/T, our dinghy, following Greywolf in Desolation Sound

Greywolf’s boat friends, Kittiwake and Herself, and their crews, had been in Desolation Sound with 1,253 other boats for a few days/weeks when we arrived on August ninth. Greywolf headed for Melanie Cove to rendezvous with Mark and Pam aboard Kittiwake; there was room to anchor next to them and Mark would help us with our stern-tie.

Stern-tie. Boaters can skip to the next topic, but non-boaters will need to read on in order to understand why we were relieved to hear that Mark could help. In deep anchorages with steep walls close by, or in anchorages with Many Many Boats anchored, the skipper, after setting the anchor, takes a line from the stern (square end) of the boat and ties it to a tree on shore. In places with steep rock walls, there are sometimes metal rings in the walls to tie to. This prevents the boat from swinging into a stationery (wall) or not-so-stationery (boat) other object.

The difficulty in completing the stern-tie maneuver increases with age. The line-bearer has to get in his/her dinghy with the line, land on the beach (“beach” does not actually exist in Desolation Sound), and scramble (that is the age-related verb) up the rocks to the closest substantial tree. The Helper, on board the mother ship, pays out the line. Line-bearer takes the line around the substantial tree, scrambles (carefully) back down to the dinghy and returns to the mother ship where the line is “made fast”...tied off.

On Greywolf, our dinghy is safely secured on our boat deck (in contrast to the people deck) when we are traveling in open water. Once we get to the San Juan Islands or Desolation Sound, T/T (his full name is Tender To Greywolf) bobs around behind us. When we talked with Mark and Pam, we had not yet launched T/T.

T/T cannot get from the boat deck to the water on his own. Getting him there involves a carefully orchestrated circus employing two electric winches, snap shackles, pulleys, and numerous guide lines to control the boom that lifts him up, swings him out over the side, and lowers him into the water. This takes more than a few minutes. We were delighted to accept Mark’s offer.

Kittiwake anchored in Melanie Cove with dingy still attached.

Pam is wearing her swim suit cover-up.

Mark was not wearing his swim trunks cover-up. However, he was wearing his swim trunks, swimming toward Greywolf to take our stern line.
Oh!

The Pacific Ocean waters coming through the Straits of Juan de Fuca and up Vancouver Island via Georgia Strait, and the Pacific Ocean waters coming down Vancouver Island through the Johnstone Strait have to meet somewhere. That somewhere is the Discovery Island/Desolation Sound area. The exchange of water is minimal and the summer water temperature reaches the mid-70’s. Mark and Pam, as well as the majority of boaters, love to swim in the clear, deep, warm waters of Desolation Sound.

Mark carefully descending to the water’s edge. Note substantial tree in background.

Returning to Greywolf to hand off the “bitter end” of the line.

These boats, all from Gig Harbor, (Pam and Mark, in the dinghy, are not from Gig Harbor. They’re from Indianola.) were stern-tied in front of a rope swing. Lots of noise. Lots of fun.

Rope swing attempt made good

Boats everywhere!

One of the more handsome vessels....

Warm water! Even I went for a swim. Somehow, my mom’s face got put on my body in this photo. The white blog in the corner is Allie.

This is what our stern line looks like when we haul it back aboard. Don,
Herself’s skipper, has now made us a beautiful ingenious
spindle roll-up device to control the chaos.

Greywolf, Kittiwake, and Herself anchored the next day in Squirrel Cove.
No stern-ties required. Not pictured in the blog are Lyle and Linda aboard “Puffin”, friends of Carol and Don and Herself.

Mark and Sybil trading affection

As we were leaving in T/T for the Farmers’ Market, we noticed a boat headed out of the anchorage with the anchor deployed...chain hanging down from the deck. When we returned hours later, the boat was still there, stopped, but not anchored.

"Yes, there is a story here, but I don’t want to talk about it.” was the gist of the skipper’s terse comment as we stopped to contemplate. Obviously, we were not qualified to help.

Lyle and Linda came by in their dinghy a few minutes later. They stopped also; Lyle was qualified to help. He rigged a line to the anchor and the skipper dumped the unwanted load into the water.

Headed for SHORE!

Are we there yet?

Last year, Allie and Sibyl played chasechasechase and fetchthestickinthewater on the small island in Squirrel Cove. Since then, Sibyl has become Stick Dependent (she’s still addicted to the water). This year, the good times were more solo-canine centered than shared play-time. I’m sure the people were the only ones who noticed the difference.

The dead flowers in the basket tell the story of the summer's weather.
The bike marks the entrance to Taku Resort and Marina on Quadra Island. Greywolf had left her friends and was headed north.

Life is somewhat dull since I have stopped making fun of boat names
that don’t meet my high standards. (Oh. I did make fun of “Serenity Now”,
didn’t I?) I’m trying to focus on names I like.
The story behind this one:
The skipper and his wife were vacationing in Mexico, enjoying cocktails beside a pool at a lovely hotel, and an elegantly dressed elderly woman stopped to say, “It looks like you are suffering terribly.”
I liked the story.

From Quadra Island, Greywolf headed northwest through the other Discovery Islands. In the book Tidal Passages, A History of the Discovery Islands, Jeanette Taylor provides insights into early white settlements in the Islands. In the 1920’s and 30’s 110 people lived on Read Island. They were served by three stores, two schools, daily passenger and freight service from Vancouver landing at two docks, as well as twice weekly steamboat mail service. None of these services exist for today’s much smaller population.

Dock and former store at Surge Narrow on Read Island.
The store closed in 1997. In a photo in Jeanette Taylor’s book, the
settlement looks almost the same.

Each of the islands has its own distinct culture. Doug and I caught a glimpse of Read Island’s “willingness to embrace an alternative life style removed from consumerism and mainstream society” in the early 80’s when we walked the island roads. We were told that Read had become home to many US draft dodgers during the Viet Nam era who had stayed to farm. Marijuana. We saw many fields off in the distance, always giving them a wide berth.