When you think of luxury our minds naturally turn to land and such things as fancy resorts or high end hotels or suspended water bungalows you don’t often think of marinas or anchorages. Today changed our minds about all of it. Dent Island Marina was the fanciest marina we’ve been to in our 7 years of full time cruising. To get there we needed to time dead slack for Dent rapids which Jeff did perfectly. Upon arrival three dockhands are waiting to catch all of our lines and tie us up and welcome us. Three young smiling boys just beginning their season. Did I mention we were there for opening weekend? The Dent Island Lodge is only open from Mid June - September and then it sits empty. People have the option of arriving via boat (like we did), sea plane or helicopter. All which we observed shortly after our arrival. After, we got a very warm and lengthy welcome again by the front desk asking about my meal preferences for our upcoming dinner reservation and taking the time to get to know somethings about us like where we were from and what our cruising plans have and will be we then we made our way to the patio for lunch. It was a gorgeous sunny day (one of the few thus far in the season) and even though the restaurant was technically closing they said they could absolutely give us a table and it was their pleasure. The view was spectacular and the people felt familiar all of us part of a group visiting at the same time. It was really hard not to order a bottle of wine to celebrate our arrival at such a special place that we have wanted to visit for years but we didn’t want to be too tired for our dinner reservation that evening. The food like everything else at the resort was excellent and after we walked around the pretty grounds looking at the garden and all the foliage. We observed the rapids that run along side the property and saw all the facilities including the gym, sauna and jacuzzi. The resort sits all alone on the island so it’s quite, peaceful and meditational.
From 5-6 is happy hour at the lodge and guest are encouraged to come up and gather in the bar or the gorgeous library where a variety of free canapés are offered while you wait for your dinner reservation. Deciding that we needed an activity for tomorrow we by passed this activity and went straight to dinner at 7. We were given a corner table with a stunning view of the rapids and privacy that only that table offered in the restaurant. Perfect for me. The chef made me chickpea croquettes and vegetables and Jeff ordered Dungeness crab and hushpuppies and with some wine to match the evening felt magical and that we weren’t really there on our boat.
After full bellies and a good nights sleep we woke up to our second day on Dent Island. After breakfast we took the hike called the Tugboat Trail which was kinda hard and somewhat steep and at some point we got a little turned around and just like that two trail dogs showed up and showed us the way. It was so weird out of nowhere they appeared and we kept waiting for their owners to show up but they never did and for 20 minutes they stuck with us almost like guide dogs showing us the way. As the trail became more obvious and that we were making our way back they dashed off and we never saw them again. Back at the boat it was lunchtime and then after we made our way to the jacuzzi for a nice soak after our big hike. Despite the other boaters and lodge guests we managed to have it to ourselves which was great. We sat in the bubbles looking at the tress and listening to the rapids and felt really relaxed.
Tonight was happy hour and free canapés our final activity/experience at the lodge before heading out in the morning. We arrived around 5 and ordered drinks and sat on the couch in the library looking out at the water and the marina and then sometime after a large wooden board about four feet long came out full of canapés. There were things like tapanad, crackers, cheeses, popcorn, olives and much more but I can’t remember what else. We sipped our drinks and snacked enjoying our final evening at Dent. The nice lady from the front desk who we had been seeing a lot of around the property came over to chat and told us she was glad we came and to have a nice trip. She also told us that she lives on the property year around and that in the winter when nobody is around she likes to sit where we were sitting on the couch and stare at the water just like we were doing. What a very special place.
It’s good that we were so relaxed from Dent because the next day took a lot of patients. Again we had to time Yucalpta rapids (our third time since being up in B.C. this summer) en route to Lund. Right outside if Squirrel Cove we saw a pod of whales which was a nice treat. Our destination in Lund was the hotel dock which said it took transients and seemed like the only marina in the area that did. The others were either private or for commercial fisherman only. The guidebooks said all the marinas there operate on a first come first serve basis and to just show up. Well that’s what we did. When we approached the hotel dock I tried radioing the harbormaster and got no answer so we proceeded to tie up. Not long after having my third line secured did a man come down and said to me, “do you have permission to be here?” I told him I tried calling on the radio and nobody answered so we just tied up. Then he said, “who told you, you could be here?” To which I said the guidebooks said you take transients and operate on a first come first serve basis. He was not happy and said those guidebooks never get updated and that is old not accurate information and that we had to leave this was a private dock. Super frustrated we scrambled to find another dock. I tried calling the other marina and finally on the third channel got a response to which we were told we could be given a slip which were all mandatory rafting or we could tie to the breakwater where we could be on our own. This was a no-brainer. Never unless in a partying weekend situation, would we ever want anyone to raft with us. We got tied up at the breakwater with some effort as both the breeze and some wake was pushing us off the dock and launched the dink in order to pay at the office on shore. Happy Father’s Day! After finding the dingy dock, paying the lady in the office we walked to the boardwalk cafe where I bought Jeff his father’s day lunch. We hit the bakery and got coffee and finished walking the boardwalk and then went back to the boat. What an odd stop.
We were more then ready to leave Lund wondering why it was a recommendation. Luckily our next stop was a marine park which I always love. The Canada parks system takes such nice care of their parks making sure the trails are maintained and good signage and just beautiful. Today was Sandy Spit Marine Park. En route we saw humpbacks again. So happy! We actually ended up anchoring in Henry Bay right next to Sandy which offered a little more protection from the wind. We launched the dink and being around low tide we were afforded the long walk all the way from Henry Island to Sandy Spit via a long drying spit that connects the two islands. The walk was like no other we have taken. It was full of shells, crabs and so much marine life that it felt like we shouldn’t be walking there. When we got to Sandy we saw two campers along the shore who didn’t seem too happy to see us. We found a trail on Sandy and looped back around to Henry Island with views all the way across both islands. It was stunning. After our 3 mile walk we were tired so we came back to the boat and relaxed and soaked in the anchorage.
Big winds were due in later today so we got an early morning start at 6:45a.m. for our 7.5 hour ride to Nanaimo. Most of the day we had 1-3 footers on the nose and the boat was really pitchy. Something we hadn’t experienced in awhile but would be good training for our upcoming coastal cruise south. After what felt like a long day finally around 2:30p.m. we were tied up at Mills Landing Marina in Nanaimo. After checking in we walked around a little for a leg stretch and I got a coffee then we came back to the boat and did a few chores. That night we walked to a good sushi restaurant where we both feasted and drank beer and saki. It was a nice capper to a long day. Back at the boat it was Deadliest Catch and bed. We were pooped.
Since this was our second time visiting Nanaimo we didn’t feel compelled to do all the touristy things that we covered the last time. Instead we headed into town to Melange, a restaurant we tried going to last time we were here but it was closed. It was a sunny cool day and we got to sit outside and watch the passers by as we ate our lunch. Jeff got his fish fix again and there was a nice vegan tapas menu for me. After lunch we hit a favorite home store of ours and then did some provisioning.
The next morning the wind was gusting but was supposed to lay down by the afternoon. We waited until almost noon before pulling out and getting a little diesel (for 8 dollars a gallon, yikes!) this also worked for our timing to hit Dodd Narrows at slack. We followed a tow and barge through without any issues. At 3p.m. we tied up at the docks at Ladysmith Marina with several other boats and walked the cute one street town. We found a bakery right as it was closing and I got a coffee and Jeff got a cinnamon roll and we sat outside enjoying the view of the town. Back at the boat we rested a bit before heading out again to The Fox and Hound, a cute British Pub for dinner. It was dark and full of wood and took us back to when we were in London. We had pints and pies for dinner. Great little town and perfect last stop before we make our way to the Gulf Islands.
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