Refuge Cove and Teakerne Arm, Aug 31st- Sept 1st

We made a brief stop at Refuge Cove on Redondo Island. This is another interesting little boardwalk town and is a cruiser friendly hub for reprovisioning and transportation connections for Desolation Sound. The place was bustling with boats, seaplanes and water taxi's. There is no official "harbormaster" on duty here so everyone kind of fends for themselves - first come first serve. It's a little chaotic, but everyone helps each other out and it works. We were struggling to locate a spot big enough for our boat when a guy hopped off his boat and directed us to a spot on the inside of an inner float. Once we were secured, we headed up for some shopping and lunch before walking Mim down to the floatplane dock for her ride home.

Our time with Mim flew by all too quickly. Before we knew it one of the smallest float planes we have ever seen pulled up to the dock and the pilot hopped out and gave Mim the safety talk. Somehow Mim got him to disclose one of the stranger landings he had which involved the water turning from flat calm to boiling bubbles as a large pod of dolphins was feeding right where he planned on landing. After assuring her this wasn't a regular occurance, she got in and off they went. After over 3 weeks of having company aboard, the boat suddenly seemed a lot bigger & quieter. 

After making sure Mim was safely airborne, we motored over to the other side of the harbor to the "garbage barge". This is a homespun effort by a dedicated local to handle all the trash that cruising boats need to drop off. You pull up alongside, weigh your garbage, add it to the heap, and throw the necessary coinage on the float. We've been pretty good with our waste and only had one bag to add to the load. Our stop for the night was Teakerne Arm, which has a nice waterfall and swimming lake. This is also where we saw some pretty spectacular phosphorescence (bioluminescent plankton) when we were there ten years ago. Unfortunately, after a streak of great weather, the rain moved in, so we hunkered down on the boat for most of our stay there.

Cooking is a good rainy day activity. Salmon Cakes:

Breaded prawn appetizer:

We did manage to get ashore the next day for a quick hike up to the lake.

Captain Vancouver reportedly spent a lot of time here when surveying the area as it was a good anchorage with fresh water. We can see the appeal.

Old winch from the logging days:

We had the place to ourselves, and the water temp wasn't bad, but not really swimming weather so we just relaxed and enjoyed the solitude. On the last night we even got a nice sunset.