Monday - Tuesday, July 11-12, 2005: Kwatsi Bay to Echo Bay

We left Kwatsi Bay at around 9 am for the short trip to Echo Bay with a photo op at Lacey Falls. Yes, that is a beautiful waterfall in back of "Mystic Moon" with the colored rock . Echo Bay has great docks and is a well kept pretty marina with a large general store, good fishing and their breakwater is a part of the old Lake Washington floating bridge. The Richters have the resort for sale along with 25 acres and are anxious to retire. We felt their anxiety to move on -- the resort did not have the welcoming feel of the other resorts we’ve visited.

Across the bay is Windsong, a separate resort, with floating docks, an art gallery/gift shop and some float homes that looked as if they might fall into the bay. We drove our dinghy over to Pierre’s Bay where we were welcomed by owners Pierre and Tove who are a kick. They have a lovely floating resort in a beautiful bay where Pierre has built floating vacation homes for his friends and has room for many boats at his docks. He is famous for his pig roasts in the summer.

We also hiked to Billy Proctor’s museum at the end of Echo Bay. He is quite a famous personality in these parts and has had several books written about his life. Along the path we found the school house and community center both of which are still used by children on the island and others close by. Billy came out to talk to us as we toured his incredibly neat museum. Billy doesn’t throw anything away and his “junk” is an amazing history of the islands. His opium bottle collection was really fascinating as it told a story of the Chinese brought to these islands as cheap labor and the use of opium to keep them docile.

I will not soon forget the stories Billy told us of losing his father when he five years old. His father was the island postman and after one severe storm they found his boat but didn’t find his body until weeks later. His haunting tale of his unique friendship with a humpback whale that ended when a whaler came through one summer dragging the carcasses of his friend and several other whales. His life is chronicled in several books and it was fascinating to meet and talk to a living legend and a stout environmentalist.

We said good-bye to our friends John & Bonnie at Echo Bay and headed to Port McNeill to meet other Selenes for our rally around the west coast of Vancouver Island.