Gorge Harbor - Cortes Island

Flora and Fauna in a Manson tidepool

Ian with Moon Snail at Manson's Landing

Tide pool channels at Manson's Landing

The Government Warf at Whale Town

The library (blue building) at Whale Town

The little church a the walk to Whale Town

Ian at the docks at Gorge Harbor Marina

The Gorge entrance at Gorge Harbor

Gorge Harbor

We had intended to head to Campbell River to re-provision the boat with water, food and do the long overdue laundry, but none of the marinas had room. We quickly starting looking at the alternatives near by and settled on Gorge Harbor on Cortes Island. This bay is known for a lot of traffic and is tucked away in a totally enclosed bay.  The entrance is a narrow channel through steep cliffs. We called into the Gorge Harbor Marina to check to see if they had room at their docks and were told come on ahead. We got into the harbor and made a perfect docking at the marina. The docks and resort had been very recently redone (this spring) and it was a great place. The food at the store was pricey, but all organic and worth stopping over for. We passed on the pool and hot tub but enjoyed the free jazz and people watching. A few very large yachts were moored at the docks that dwarfed the Patriot and were certainly the definition of doing the Yachting Scene.

Jeff managed to have an adventure while helping a sailboat turn around on the dock.  They needed a strong push on the bow with a boat hook to turn the boat around to set up for heading out.  It was a nice boat and had a classic old brass boat hook without a rubber pad on the end.  He gave a hard strong push on the cleat (so he wouldn’t mar any finish) and unsurprisingly the hook slipped off the cleat and an embarrassed Jeff ended up in the harbor – the first time he had fallen off a dock in his life!  The floats were brand new with very high bull rails and the heavy steel emergency ladders were neatly stacked by the main ramp waiting to be bolted on.  After a futile attempt to mantle up the high rail, he was about to swim for shore when a neighboring boat set up a ladder so he could climb out.  The episode goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.  Sorry – no photos.  I was laughing too hard.

The harbor offered a lot of points of interest, so we decided to stay over but anchor out in the harbor (the cheapskates that we are). We started the day with a 3 mile r.t. walk to Whale Town. It consisted of a Government Warf, a general store, post office and the tiniest library I had ever seen. We made stop at a small café on the way back, bought some less than wonderful muffins and headed back to the boat to settle in for the evening.

After a sleepless night we still made the most of the day. We headed out in the tender to Manson’s Landing (about 3 miles over water). Manson’s Landing has a government dock and a public shellfish gathering area. We made it at low tide and wandered across the tideflats, gathered some clams and did a lot of poking in the channels. There was lots of intertidal life to see with sponges, various species of algae (seaweed), several sea star species and such. We enjoyed the beach combing and then headed back to the boat. The rest of the day was naps, kayaking, a bit of walking and reading.