Lagoon Cove to Sullivan Bay

Chef and I were pleased to be able to sleep until 8:00 am before we left Lagoon Cove. The cruise to Sullivan Bay was expected to last only four hours, with no special obstacles expected along the way. Since we had an easy day, the participants on our boat agreed to make a side trip to a deserted Indian village (I’m sorry, I don’t remember the name). It is the same village that was described in The Curve of Time, where the main character found jewelry that had once been warn by the Indian dead. The bodies had been “buried” in the trees, and as they decayed, the jewelry fell to earth.

Just as we arrived at the village, another group from the Tour was loading into their dinghy, headed back to their boat. They warned us to make a lot of noise during our walk, as they had come across very fresh (i.e. still warm) bear scat during their hike around the island. Well, I can tell you, that got our party pretty energized. We agreed to go ahead with our walk, but we first put the dog on a leash and then found an old coke can on the dock and stuck a few pebbles in it and shook it like we were mixing martinis the whole walk.

The village is quickly being reclaimed by nature, and won’t likely be there much longer. The path was nearly overgrown and we had to fight berry bushes throughout our walk. The old abandoned houses, coupled with the bear warning and the large number of bear droppings along the path had me on edge.

The village must have been beautiful in it’s day. There was this fantastic, huge table still standing that faced the most beautiful view of little islands. There was an old house that was still in pretty good shape and must have been lovely in the day. There was also an old, much larger building that had likely been a hospital or a school at one point.

Chef went forging and found some nettles. She got some burns on her hands, but managed to fill a bag full with nettles. I found an old lilac bush, and pulled off a few branches. Later, Chef used the nettles to make tea (she had a sore throat that morning and was sure it would help fix her up) and sushi. Both were great. When I got back to the boat, I got the lilac into water and the boat has been smelling wonderful for the last 24 hours.

Our walk didn’t very long, and we turned back and headed to the dinghy and then back to the boat. A short time later, we arrived in Sullivan Bay just as the rain really started pouring down. Grand Banks had generously gifted all of the participants and staff on the trip with great Gortex jackets, and they came in handy when we pulled up to the dock.

Sullivan Bay is a very special town. It’s actually a floating town of about 15 to 20 buildings – all floating and connected one to another with floating, wooden walkways. They have a very small, but pretty well stocked store. I guess that statement is relevant. A few days ago, we made a stop at Refuge Cove and hit the store (conveniently open from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm). There was not a vegetable or dairy product to be found. There were a few cases of some no-name beer, some chips, candy bars and fishing gear and that was about it. The Sullivan Bay store actually had a few bananas, some broccoli and cauliflower, along with some peanut butter and other such items and a pretty well stocked liquor store.

Chef and I hit the store and stocked up on booze and broccoli. Later, Chef turned the broccoli into soup and it was incredible. The lady of the boat approached a fisherman who had just arrived in Sullivan Bay and was cleaning some halibut. She managed to buy a good 10 lbs, that Chef later turned into an amazing meal.

We were scheduled to leave Sullivan Bay very early in the morning as we had a very long (eight hour) trip that would carry us through the open ocean. On the ocean, if the weather isn’t in your favor, you don’t go. In the evening, we’d heard that there was a possibility of bad weather. The skippers agreed to listen to the weather report at 4:00 am, then have a meeting and decide at that time if they would take the cruise or not.

Chef and I went to bed early in anticipation of waking to the engines at 4:30 am.