North Beach in a Gale

November 27th (Wednesday) 

The Northeast winds howled throughout the night, but we managed to sleep quite well considering all of the noise. It was not a motivating morning to get up, as it was freezing outside with a negative temperature wind-chill, and only nine degrees inside. Once we were up, the fire brought the temperature back up, and we got ready to head out to the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day.
Our tender jumped around beside our boat in the chop as we were getting in, and the wind nipped at any exposed skin. Once we were up into the woods, on the trail to West Beach, we were completely sheltered from the wind, and stepping out from the trail onto the beach was a whole different world. The water was calm, only small swells rolled in, and the sunlight made the water look a gorgeous turquoise colour; it almost looked tropical, except for the dusting of snow on the sand. 

Any area of sand that had not been touched by the last high tide was frozen, and the tops of all of the logs were ice covered. We walked in the sun along West Beach, and then took the trail across to North Beach. We were curious to see what it would be like in the wind. There was a skiff of ice on the lake that we passed, and areas of the trail that were not covered by branches were covered in ice. 

As we neared North Beach, we could hear nothing but the noise of the wind roaring through the trees, it sounded like a giant waterfall.

Stepping out from the shelter of the forest we instantly got blasted by the force of the icy wind. The sea on this side of Calvert Island was a tossed-up frenzy of large rollers and white caps.

Gusts whipping across the water toward us picked up clouds of spray and carried it towards the shore. The gusts that came more along the shore brought with them a driving river of sand being blown across the beach. It was beautiful. We walked in the shade to the end of the beach where there was a patch of sunshine and some protection from the wind. Here we sat and watched the frenzy of spray, blowing foam, and whipping cats’ paws. 

Amongst all of this, two seagulls were feeding. They seemed to be picking up things, off of, or out of, the water, and they were swimming so close to shore that they were within the breaking distance of the waves. Just before a wave threatened to break over them they would push off and lift effortlessly up into the air on the wind. Here, they would float for a while before carefully timing their landing and feeding once again. 

While we were watching all of this, a raven flew over. He circled and landed not far from us. He then proceeded to side hop his way towards us, from rock to rock, stopping to cock his head at us from time to time. We talked to him as he approached, and he came to within six feet of us before hopping around us and down to the sand. He walked along looking for food, stopping and cocking his head before scraping his beak through the sand, and sometimes picking something up.
When the chill started to get to us we headed back along the beach and the trail back across to West Beach. Here we enjoyed the full protection from the wind, and the direct sunlight. Gusts of wind were coming over the land, over top of us, and landing on the water. We watched as cats’ paws landed and shot out in multiple directions, sometimes only one at a time, and at other times many gusts would hit different areas at the same time and create what looked like fireworks on the surface of the water.
Rob, who we had met as a park ranger several times in the summer, came along the beach with his dog, Reef. Rob and his wife are now working, for the winter, as the caretakers for the Hakai Institute, so he will be at Calvert Island all winter.  We talked a while, and then we all headed back as the sun got low in the sky. Because of the heavy frost, many of the remaining garden plants had taken a bad freeze, so Rob told us that we could pick a bunch before it all went bad. What a treat this was for us, not only were they fresh vegetables, but they were really fresh garden vegetables. It was like gold.
We had an epic dinner of a massive fresh salad, some steamed beet tops, and baked halibut. It was so delicious!
As we headed to bed the wind was still howling, but it seemed to be calming off and it was supposed to end overnight.