A Return Visit to Calvert Island

As our days off approached once again, the forecast looked nice, and we decided to head down to Calvert Island to visit the beaches. The last time that we were at Calvert Island was in the beginning of December 2019 just before we headed to Ocean Falls for the first time. On that trip, Pruth Bay froze over and the icy north winds pummeled North Beach. We got fresh snow on the beaches and had a wonderful time. This trip, however, we were hoping for warmer weather, and with sunshine in the forecast it looked promising.

Before we headed out early in the morning we woke up to a rainbow in the marine cloud. It was a beautiful almost off-world sky. We headed out, and although we were hoping that the forecasted winds would make for good sailing, they remained calm all day.

We motored over smooth water and made our way down past familiar anchorages. Anchoring in Pruth Bay we remembered our excitement the first time that we anchored there and explored the island.

Since then we have been to Calvert Island five different times for a total combined time of over two months. It was lovely to see the beaches again. Calvert Island is the perfect combination of rugged Central Coast combined with the beautiful white sand beaches of southern places.

On a sunny summer’s day when the shallow water turns emerald green it would be easy to imagine that one was in a more southern latitude.

One morning we took advantage of the low tide to make our way along all of the beaches, all the way out to seventh beach.

Taking the beaches this far requires a low tide, but it has always been our favorite route.

Walking the shoreline of each beach we took the time to look at shells, tumbled pebbles, and ocean garbage.

Seventh beach was where we had made our slack-line setup in the sand back in 2019, but two winters later, it was not surprising that no sign remained.

We walked the beaches, enjoyed the trails, and felt like children again playing barefoot in the sand.

On the way home that evening we hiked to the lookout and enjoyed the stunning view and sunset.

Exploring the shoreline around Pruth Bay in our kayaks we discovered a new gem that we had never found the other times. It was the largest carpet of sea asparagus that we had ever found anywhere on the coast.

It was a massive blanket, a perfect carpet, a grazer’s paradise. We picked two large bags while we were there, ate a lot of it fresh, and brought a bunch home to eat and to share. It keeps amazingly well when picked fresh and is a delicious treat.

Kayaking into the protected cove across the land from Wolf Beach we took a trail that we had not taken before.

We enjoyed another beach day on Wolf Beach and found a sand toad while we were moving driftwood to build a shelter from the wind.

While relaxing on the beach we noticed a black shifting shape in the crashing waves close to shore. We wandered down to have a look and noticed that a single Pigeon Guillemot was diving in the area.

As we approached we were able to see the water bubbling as the Guillemot attacked from underneath. The dark shape was a school of little fish and the little Guillemot was taking full advantage of them being stuck in the shallows against the shore. We have often seen the Guillemots feeding as singles or in pairs in this way, but never in such shallow water in the surf. It was very neat to watch from shore and to be able to see everything through the clear water.

Although we had high hopes for summer weather on Calvert Island we were somewhat disappointed. It was typical for Calvert, foggy and cool for most of the day. Although it was sunny everywhere else, Calvert Island had its standard blanket of fog, but we were lucky that it was relatively high and not at ground level. We would watch and hope as the low clouds began to part, only to watch them close back up again with renewed strength. On our first day we were lucky and the sun broke through around noon, the next day the fog held until 4pm and on the third day the sun never had a chance. Through the day we could see the sun-line moving up and down Kwakshua Channel, but every time we got our hopes up that the sun would make it to Pruth Bay and onto the beaches we were quickly disappointed as the line retreated. Like I said, from our experience, it was typical summer weather on Calvert Island.

On Monday we raised anchor and headed back to Ocean Falls. We got lucky part way up Fisher Channel, as the wind picked up from behind us. We began to sail, wing on wing, down wind.

It was beautiful. It was so nice to be clipping along with only the sounds of the wind and the water against our hull. As the wind picked up we sped along much faster than we would have under power, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing, we were sailing, it was a beautiful day. At the entrance to Cousins Inlet the wind began to die and we thought we might have to start our engine to get all the way, but as often happens in Cousins Inlet the wind accelerated once again and we were able to fly right along and sail all the way up and around the corner into Ocean Falls. A local friend saw us come sailing in and said it looked like we were flying along. Knowing how hard the wind can blow in the marina as it banks off the side of the mountain, our friend came down and gave us a hand docking, and so we were back again at dock in Ocean Falls.