A rainy start in Lund aboard the Misty Isles
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he whole crew (almost)
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Entering Desolation Sound
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Do you have anything to eat down there?
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Squeezing by Otter Island
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View towards East Redonda Island
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Captain Jonas navigating through a tight spot
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Typical bluffs along the Desolation Sound shores
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A brief glimpse of the snow-capped mountains east of the Sound
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Does this look desolate to you?
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Incredibly thick jellyfish in Prideaux Haven
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Under the watchful gaze of the seal colony
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Leaving the Sound (and its weather) behind
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Desolation Sound chart
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Desolation Sound
by Heather Harbord, 11 Jul 2020
Brandishing our masks, six members boarded Misty Isles at Lund for a day trip to Desolation Sound. Two of the 8 passengers mandated by Covid-19 regulations had got sick the day before and were unable to come.
A steady rain started but after several months locked down at home because of the pandemic, we were happy to be outside and the tarp spread across the ship’s boom was an added bonus. Leaving Lund, we proceeded north up Thulin Passage but were unable to get close enough to the pictograph because a wide log boom was tied up below it.
After rounding Sarah Point, we welcomed the calmer seas and lighter rain. With hot coffee and teas in our hands, we slid along the north side of Mink Island and were lucky enough to see the snowfield below Mt. Denman. The peak itself remained shrouded in cloud all day. This was the same weather Captain Vancouver encountered when he named the place in 1792.
Captain Jonas explained how the food chain works from plankton to orca. He also showed us the entry in Andrew Scott’s Raincoast Place Names describing how Mink Island’s name was changed to Repulse Is and then won back by a petition signed by neighbours from Lund to Refuge Cove.
At the end of Mink Island, orange tents lit up several levels of the Curme Islands which is not a good place for boats the size of Misty Isles to visit because the water is either too shallow or too deep to anchor. As we approached the narrow channel between Otter Is and the mainland to enter the outer part of Prideaux Haven, a pair of Marbled Murrelets dived but most other birds and the whales stayed away all day.
The rain stopped so we toured Melanie Cove where the initial settler, Mike Shutler, built his cabin in the 1890s, well sheltered behind a small island. Black Oystercatchers screamed round the anchored yachts, just as they did when Wylie Blanchet and her children visited in the 1930s. Several of us had read her popular book The Curve of Time which Jonas passed around. Parts of the inner waters of the cove were populated by large numbers of Moon Jellyfish.
Before leaving the area, we stopped to admire the sleek bodies of a small herd of silvery Harbour Seals on Pringle Rock named after the Columbia Coast Mission captain who ran up on it.
More coffee and tea plus thoughtfully provided little bags of two each of the famous Samantha’s cookies enlivened the voyage back past Portage Cove, Zephine Head and Sarah Point. During the run down Thulin Passage we bucked a strong southeasterly wind but reached Lund on time at 5pm.