1 minute read
IN POSITION
It was late May when Norm and I met at his home in Royston and drove to Port Hardy, where we had reservations on the 7am ferry. Sleeping in the back of my pickup, I awoke at 3am to the sound of Norm puking his guts out. We clearly weren’t taking the ferry that day.
For the next 24 hours Norm couldn’t even take a sip of water. What was it? Food poisoning? COVID? Flu? Should we turn back? Did it make sense to start such a journey depleted?
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Two days later, with Norm feeling somewhat better, we jumped on the 18hour ferry to Prince Rupert. To our amazement, relatively light winds were forecast in the coming week, following a passing frontal system, but it wasn’t enough to convince us. We pitched a tent that night in a dark corner of the BC Ferry parking lot, unsure whether we’d jump another ferry to Haida Gwaii the next morning, or load the boards and start paddling south instead.
By morning, the light NW winds forecast for later in the week had bumped up to 5-15kn, not something either of us felt comfortable with. But the frontal system was already clearing, and tomorrow, in its wake, west winds would be followed by a period of ‘light and variable.’ If we could launch in less than 24 hours, it might just work. We bought tickets and by 10:30 were aboard a ferry headed to Haida Gwaii.
As the ferry chugged on, we emailed every friend and contact we had on Haida Gwaii, but no one could drive us north. It seemed we might miss the chance. In desperation, we started canvassing fellow ferry passengers–and we found Harmonie Rose. This delightful free spirit insisted we tie our two 14’ paddleboards to the roof of her tiny KIA, then raced off the ferry the moment it landed and drove us north to Masset, where she deposited us in the hands of Thor. Head of beach rescue, Thor is one of very few with the skills to drive Haida Gwaii’s endless beaches. As the sun dropped behind low clouds and darkness descended, he dropped Norm and I at the remote Fife cabin. Hecate strait lay before us; grey and moody. The next morning at dawn, we would launch.
