Shoal Bay to Lagoon Cove

It was 5:00 am when we left Shoal Bay. There was a bit of excitement from the participants as they tried to wake the guys in “the bar”. Eventually, the newest arrival to the boat was roused but had to skipper the boat in pajamas and slippers. Things did not start well for the guys, because just after they pulled away from the dock, their dinghy broke free and was floating along behind them. They were alerted by radio and were able to round it back up.

We left Shoal Bay early to hit Greene Point Rapids at slack tide and later, Johnstone Straight - known for it’s blowing winds that tend to develop later in the day. Again, thanks to good planning on the part of the skippers, the trip was uneventful.

Some of the participants saw bear along the water as we were cruising, but we didn’t see any from Sanctuary. We did see a few bald eagles on the way.

The weather changed this morning, and the day was very misty and cool. The mist was beautiful as it hung over the tops of some mountains and wound around others.

We arrived at Lagoon Cove Marina around noon and were met by Bill, the very warm and charming owner of the marina. He absolutely fits the image of a remote island marina owner, right down to his salt-crusted captains hat.
In the afternoon, Chef led a cooking class on sushi preparation. She got very competitive when she learned that the participants from Japan were going to be bringing sushi to the potluck later in the night. Chef cracked me up, pretending to take to competition so seriously; as though she was going to be on an episode of the Iron Chef. After her class had been taught, and the sushi presented side-by-side at the potluck, Chef was deemed (by the two of us who cared) as the winner. Our ruling was confirmed when Nori, who had prepared the sushi, approached Chef and said “your sushi is so pretty. It looks much better than mine.” That was enough to make Chef walk a little straighter for the rest of the day.

The potluck was great. Bill, from the marina caught buckets full of prawns for the feast and he had 35 crabs delivered by a local. Each guest outdid the next with oyster stew, spinach salads, chocolate brownies and lots and lots of sushi of course.

After dinner, Bill shared tale tales of a waterskiing bear and bear who bit into his gas line. He had the group in stitches, but the night was cool, and the mosquitoes started coming out, these factors along with the early start caused our participants to head in to bed around 8:00 pm.

Chef had experienced her first case of seasickness that day, so we headed out for a walk on terra firma and the boat’s dog, Cinnamon, joined us. It felt good to walk around and enjoy the quiet area.

Chef was exhausted that night. She’d been going since 5:00 am and the cooking classes really take a lot of energy. I’d been able to sneak away for a nap while she led the class but by the time the class ended, I could tell she was exhausted. So by 9:00 we headed down to the hole. We put on our pjs and watched a DVD of Grey’s Anatomy – it was the perfect little slumber party.

Our slumber party got me thinking about friendships and how they form. I find that as I get older, I don’t make fast, deep friends like I did when I was in high school and college. But in the week since we’ve been sharing a cabin I feel like I’ve formed a friendship with Chef that will last a lifetime. There really must be something to all those friendships formed at camp and in dorms. Something about living in close proximity and sharing an important life event creates immediate and lasting bonds. Chef and I have decided this trip really is very similar to camp (at least for us) with “the girls” down in crew quarters, and “the boys” over at “the bar” and our camp director on the lookout to see that we don’t mingle too much.