the Gulf Islands
Montague Harbour Marine Park, Galiano Island
Wednesday, October 20, 2010TheCambrians
With our late arrival Tuesday, we decided to stay an extra night in the marina and went about the usual suspects of chores on Wednesday –laundry, groceries, cleaning the decks, etc. – before dropping our lines this afternoon.
Our original plan was to cross the border tomorrow, but plans were meant to be broken. The weather is still too beautiful to consider packing it in for the season so, rather than do the logical thing and pick an anchorage closer to Friday Harbor where we'll check-in, we left the marina around noon and motored north to Montague Harbour Marine Park on Galiano Island.
Montague Harbour's claim to fame is that it's British Columbia's first marine park established over fifty years ago in 1959. It's a large bay with more than thirty mooring cans, a dock and a campsite in the northern end. There's also a small tidal lagoon and a peninsula with several excellent examples of middens – white beaches of crushed shell, evidence of a large settlement of Coast Salish natives dating back 6000 years. In the summer, it's one of the most popular cruising destinations in the area. In the fall, it's practically empty with today being no different – there are only four boats here, including us.
The barometer's falling and another system is due to move in tomorrow afternoon. Rather than motor south to a less-protected anchorage, we'll stay here through the weekend giving Sally and I plenty of time to explore the trails and beaches before we start making our way south again and closer to the US border – a thought neither one of us relishes. With the end of the cruising season fast approaching, we're just not ready to tie up for the winter.
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