On several occasions our fabulous readers have written to us mentioning how lovely and romantic and relaxing and soothing it must be to fall asleep on a boat. You know, the idyllic settings, life spent gently swaying to the breezes, catching some zzz's to the lull of the waves. You know, all that Stuff?
Umm, indeed, ya.... Most nights it is. Calm. Peaceful. Swaying with the gentle roll of the water. Listening to the sounds of the waves gently cresting on the sandy beaches.
But.... (And boy-oh-boy does there always have to be a "...
but"??)
But first, we went for an afternoon kayak-about,
and felt a noticeable difference in the motion of the ocean. The North Swells were back, and as we bravely ventured out of the bay, we started to rise and fall with the large incoming swells,
at one point, the Capt'N completely disappeared from view. Shocking !
Enough of that stuff, we turned and headed back in as our objective was to explore Hawksnest Bay and its beaches, while also keeping our eyes open for the National Park Payment Box.
St. John is mostly a non-anchoring area, the mooring balls are $15/night, with payments based on the honour system, and payment boxes placed in various designated areas. Hawksnest was one of these areas,
...but..., as hard as we looked we couldn't find any deposit boxes at all.
Speaking of beaches (and Hawksnest Bay),
we recently discovered that the alien beach scene near the end of the movie
Contact, where Jodie Foster plays the part of a scientist that has discovered extra-terrestrial life, was filmed on this very beach. Tres cool.
But back to our story (no aliens or reversing ocean currents needed, please!), we followed the marked channel in as we headed towards the beach,
where the surf pushed Doug onto the beach in a submerged type of yikes moment. Easy, peasy,
BUT, getting off the beach proved to be quite the adventure, an exact science of timing and sheer luck !!
What follows is the photo-essay (thanks Doug!) of it all. Bring the kayak out,
hold on tight, get in, and wait and watch... (see how much
fun this all is?)
Time it just right,
and then paddle hard, Doug, harder !
And he safely makes it out of the incoming surf.
Phew !
It was a wee bit of an adventure climbing out of our kayaks and getting back onboard
Banyan, as she
gently and peacefully swayed a good three feet side to side.
Once the kayaks stowed on her bow,
we then headed over to
Nahanni River for a final get together before the parting of ways.
By then the rocking and rolling had us jerking from side to side in almost uncomfortable proportions. Some drinks got spilled, the prepping of nachos didn't go as smoothly as it normally does, some brightly coloured peppers landed on the floor instead of on the nachos, and all cause of the motion of the ocean! Le Sigh. It definitely minded us to remember the famous boat related idiom of "one hand for yourself and one hand for boat".
One last meal together playing one last game (or two!) of Wizard!
And what followed was NOT a relaxing night. We rocked and rolled. From side to side. In an almost sea-sick type of way. All night long. We might've been in idyllic settings but there was nothing calm about it. Or peaceful. Or romantic.
It was so bad that we even debated the suitability of dropping our lines in the pitch black of night and changing bays, if only we could've anchored! Picking up mooring ball lines at 3 a.m. might've proved to be problematic.
We were getting out of here first light, not
buts about it!