Kwatsi Bay

Anca had several suggestions for interesting things to do in the area on our layover day. First we dropped the dinghy and went off on a 20-mile journey to explore Bond Sound, adjacent to Kwatsi Bay. It’s another “bowl” with deep water and high cliffs or hillsides all around. Below, looking back at Kwatsi Bay Marina from the dinghy.

Tribune Channel, the main route connecting Kwatsi Bay and Bond Sound was already slightly rough for dinghy travel, though the “afternoon wind” hadn’t yet come up. We moved along fast to get back before things got uncomfortable.

The mix of steep, forested hillsides (previously clear-cut, however) with near-vertical cliffs, like so much of this area, was stunning. Waters remained in excess of 150 feet deep even 100 feet off-shore.

This is Bond Sound, taken from the entry at Tribune Channel. The Sound is about 3 miles long.

It was mid-tide when we were there, so trees came to an abrupt halt at the high-water level, seen in the bottom right-hand corner below.

After returning to Kwatsi Bay, we rowed the dinghy a short distance from the Marina to a trail-head leading to a waterfall. Given the unusually dry conditions this summer, very few waterfalls are running anymore, and this one is much smaller than normal, we’re told. This photo is deceptive, as it’s an almost-vertical waterfall, but looks more like an almost-horizontal stream in this perspective.

The forested trail to the waterfall contained lots of funguses growing on trees.

Late in the afternoon on a warm day, we were surprised to observe so many water droplets on the underside of this fungus.

As usual, we’re told, the day at Kwatsi Bay ended with 20 or so folks attending Happy Hour. Like last night, the food contributions were quite good, especially amazing considering how hard fresh produce is to come by in this area. We met an interesting couple from Ontario, Canada (Toronto area) who completed a circumnavigation of the world in a 53-foo Oystert sailboat, starting and ending in England and taking 5 years. They offered their opinion that the cruising territory of the Pacific Northwest (U.S. and Canada) is more beautiful than any they saw elsewhere in the world. Are we lucky, or what?