Bull Harbour

By Aaron

We left Port Hardy on an ebb tide heading to Bull Harbour.  We had considered a stop at a place called God’s  Pocket on Hurst Island and even diverted to take a look.  In the end we decided not to stay, or even land the dinghy.  Perhaps we were just a little afraid.  In John Chappell’s “Cruising Beyond Desolation Sound” published in 1979, it states on page 76,

 “A trail leads to the south side of Hurst Island, passing by a small meadow and an abandoned cabin, but one is advised against hiking to the east side of the island.  Former residents have sighted a “hairy man” and strong evidence points to the existence of a Sasquatch family on the island, perhaps centered at Meeson Cone above Harlequin Bay.  Indian residents of nearby Balaklava Island have had similar experiences and now refuse to go ashore at either place.”

So (safety first) we continued on to Bull Harbour.

We arrived in the afternoon and settled in with a handful of other boats waiting for a weather window to head out to the west coast of Vancouver Island.

We hiked over to the other side of the island and got our first full view of the ocean since leaving Seattle. 

As usual, we had the beach to ourselves.

There were neat rock outcroppings with some fantastic tide pools.

We tried the timer on the camera…

And Nicole showed some hustle on the second attempt.

There are lots of sea caves on the way into the harbor and we took the dinghy around looking into them.  We didn’t actually go inside though.  Everything I know about caves I learned from Lord of the Rings so I’m under the impression that nothing good could be going on in there.

There were also an assortment of sea stacks.  I was so distracted by the beauty of the area and piloting the dinghy amongst the rocks that I missed the chance to point out to Nicole how the sea stacks and caves might fit together. 

After a few days we got a favorable forecast to head around Cape Scott.  Our trip up the Inside Passage was fantastic, but we’re looking forward to getting out on the Pacific and really putting Bella Star to work.