Sept 7-9: Maple Bay, Vancouver Island, BC

Sept 07:

Maple Bay, Vancouver Island, BC (long:48º 47' 724" / lat: 123º 36' 085")

Departed Genoa Bay 10:00, traveled 9.1 miles and arrived Maple Bay Marina 11:25.  Yet another well maintained, wonderfully staffed marina gem on Vancouver Island, it had all the amenities we look for; a good restaurant (the seafood chowder was outstanding), convenient shower and laundry facilities (discovered a book I had been looking for in the laundry room book exchange), and transportation to our sightseeing destination.

Maple Bay is the closest tie up to Duncan, the City of Totems, which we explored the next day.  In the late 1980s, 80 First Nation carvings were gathered together and erected throughout this charming community.

 Far left: "Eagle Holding Human Above Eagle Sitting on Human" carved by Harvey Alphonse.

Center: "Eagle Above Bear Holding a Fish" carved by Cicero August.

 Far Right: "Frog Above Kwa-Gulth Bear Holding a Kwa-Gulth Seal" carved by Richard Hunt.

By following the yellow footprints on the sidewalk, we had the opportunity to marvel at these works of art, including Richard Hunt's "Cederman", the world's largest in diameter totem pole.  It stands 24' high and has a 7' diameter at the top.

"Cederman" and Capt Rich

My thanks to the City of Duncan and Richard Hunt for permission to use all the totem images included in this log entry.

 Details: "Cederman", carved by Richard Hunt

 After lunch at the Arbutus Café, we had just enough time to walk to the "all the stores you need in one place" strip mall and complete our shopping before getting caught in a torrential downpour waiting for our ride back to the marina.  Important Lesson:  No matter what the weather is when you leave the boat, always bring your raincoat!

More pouring rain the next day canceled our departure, so since the usual in-port tasks - stowing supplied, laundry, cleaning, hot showers, catching up on email and phone calls were finished, I had an unexpected shore-powered opportunity to review my latest images and catch up on just "vegging out" while waiting for the weather to break. 

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