Notes of Grace | Summer 2023

By: Bonice Anderson
During our summer trips, crew members take turns blogging about their adventures while they're at sea. The following is an excerpt from the Pacific Grace's blog, written during Trip 3.

Location: anchored on the Northwest side of Quadra Island

We rowed dories ashore this morning to explore the intertidal zone of a shell-covered beach at low tide. It was full of life. Our extraordinary watch leaders Gillian and Nicolas helped find and explain so many creatures. They have taught us every day of the abundant, nearly invisible to most of us, ocean and insect life all around us; it is fascinating, and their knowledge seems never ending. Their studies have taught us how much we miss and how interesting and vast our insect and ocean worlds are. They are consistently finding ‘specimens’ to look at and inquire about. We have an aquarium to place these specimens into, so we can see them up close and ask even more questions. Nic and Gillian’s passion and patience to teach what they love and know, and share is such a gift and a resource to everyone on board. THANK YOU. In Unwin Lake and in the water at Savary Island, Nic always had a group surrounding him as he explained what he pulled out of the water...we learned quickly to look for ourselves and ask what we’d found, what it ate, how it lived, moved, protected itself, reproduced itself etc. Nic and Gillian have revealed the miraculous-ness to us of our natural world. I have heard there are microscopes on board...

After Tenedos Bay we sailed with the continuing southeast wind to Teakerne Arm, with an ice cream bar pick-up along the way in Refuge Cove. Underway, sailing, Nic, and Gillian knowingly and gracefully fell overboard into a quiet sea over the stern so we could practice the mandatory Man Overboard drill with the crew and trainees. Everyone reacted perfectly and the couple was rescued in the zodiac within minutes. We anchored close to the waterfall, in our preferred spot and had an evening swim before going below to sing. Monday morning, we climbed the trail to Cassel Lake and had a delicious swim followed by trips for whoever wanted to the foot of the waterfall, where the river from the lake plunges down the cliff into the ocean. It is very impressive to be close to it and sit in the pools at the bottom of the Falls. Everyone is now fresh water rinsed, our hair is fluffier, and we smell better. We raised anchor after a late ‘deck lunch,’ motoring up Lewis Channel and Calm Channel to the rapids at Hole-in-the-Wall, between the islands of Sonora and Maurelle. We had time before slack and so Skipper and a few trainees set up 2 downriggers off the stern...hopes of a salmon supper. Several friends of SALTS living in the neighborhood came by in their power boats to say hello and a group of Dall’s Porpoises played around our ship as we trolled slowly back and forth.

Hole-in-the-Wall is a beautiful pass, with white cliffs, deep water, and fast-moving current at the western end when it is not slack. We travelled down Okisollo Channel, past pretty Chonat Bay, to Kanish Bay, and through the narrow opening into Small Inlet. The wind picked up strength and sweaters were pulled on. This morning, as I said earlier, we rowed the dories to the beach, checking for specimens along the shore with Gill and Nic, then hiked through a lovely, canopied forest and up a hill to Newton Lake. The lake is a deep royal blue colour and slightly cooler than the previous lakes. It was another beautiful swim.


We raised anchor just before high water and headed slightly further north toward the southern end of Johnstone Strait, in the Chained Islands. Here our weather can change to cooler and wetter. For now, we are waiting out the wind that is supposed to blow tonight and hoping to head north in lighter winds tomorrow morning. We have so enjoyed the lake and ocean swimming up till now and there is word that the swing will be set up later for a dip in the ocean. We are all well; the community has changed immeasurably in closeness. The Grace is a wonderful place to be.

Until next time, Bonice


Continue reading our Summer 2023 newsletter