Eucott Bay Hot Springs

September 12th (Thursday)
Today was a relaxing day. After sleeping in and enjoying our morning tea we headed ashore to the hot springs. Because it was raining it was hard to know what to wear. I ended up going ashore in my bathing suit, shorts and a hoodie, and my pvc raingear and gumboots. We took a towel and stuff ashore with us in a waterproof bag. At the edge of the pool we decided that one of our waterproof bags would be for dry stuff, like the clothes that we had worn, and the other bag would be for semi-wet stuff that we didn't want to get fully wet, like our raingear. 

Once ready, we stepped onto the rung of the ladder and slowly lowered ourselves into the pool until we were standing, stomach-deep in clear, fresh, hot spring water. Slowly sinking deeper and deeper, until we were up to our necks, we let out a sigh of pleasure. 

The pool is constructed with the frame being giant boulders that have tumbled down from the cliffs above. They lay leaning against each other, propped up against one another, forming the outline of a pool that has been built with cement filled in with local rocks and gravel.

At the back of the pool the forest grows upward along the rocky cliffs that deposited the boulders, and some of the hot water from the spring has been plumbed to the pool. There is a plug at the end of the pipe that one can pull out or push in to control the flow of the water, and therefore, the temperature of the pool. The straight hot flowing water would be too hot to enjoy.
Looking out from the pool the rocky edge drops down to the ground and the grassy shoreline. The straight hot water from the spring flows out to the right in a constant stream into the sea. 

View from the hot springs.

Someone has brought a bathtub and placed it on the top of a very flat rock. It has been plumbed with its own pipe feeding it hot water, and there is even a post with a hook for your towel, although with how much rain we are getting your towel would be wetter than you by time you got out. 

Looking out, Kiki is tied up on shore, our home is floating peacefully in the middle of the bay, and behind her is the most spectacular backdrop of mountains, rocky cliffs, and waterfalls. 

Shear granite rock faces tower thousands of feet into the air with water streaming down them in every crevice or gulley. We enjoyed our peaceful surroundings admiring the view. Standing in the hot water while having cool raindrops fall on your upper body is a lovely feeling, and we did not rush to get out. 

Eventually we got out and headed home for some lunch. We were now so thoroughly warmed through to the core that we felt quite comfortable in just shorts and t-shirts. We cooked up two loaves of fresh bread, that we had put on yesterday, and enjoyed our lunch.
In the afternoon we went out to check our traps. We had set one prawn and one crab trap yesterday and were curious to see whether we would have any luck here. Unfortunately we only got one edible thing out of both traps, and that was one single prawn. In our crab trap we had a very large spiny starfish, one smaller one, a hairy hermit crab, a Longhorned Decorator Crab, and what we think was a Feather Star. It was our first Feather Star, and very neat although it seemed very fragile. 

Feather Starfish.

The Longhorned Decorator Crab became the first crab, out of the hundreds of crabs that I have handled over the past months, to bite me. They are a spindly, fragile-looking crab that moves, in general, quite slowly, and we have never even had one try to bite us before. This one was doing a very good job of holding onto the trap with all of the jointed segments in its legs, so Jason and I were both working to get it out, as two hands just weren't enough. We were being very gentle so as not to hurt it, and I failed to pay enough attention to its pinchers, and it bent one of them down underneath itself and pinched. Luckily they are not nearly as strong as a Dungeness crab or in particular, a rock crab, so although it did hurt, it took me more by surprise. Finally we were able to get the crab out of the trap, and to get my finger out of its pinchers, and let it go.
We went ashore in the early evening for another dip in the hot spring. The rain had stopped and the clouds were breaking, catching the last colour from the setting sun. The wet rock faces were shimmering in the light; it was a beautiful evening!

Eucott Bay anchorage.