Hot Springs Cove

By Aaron

Want to hop in a stinky spa that smells like rotten eggs with a bunch of strangers?  It’s nicer than it sounds.  We spent 4 days at Hot Springs Cove enjoying some good weather and the company of SV Estrellita.

Nicole on whale patrol during the run offshore to Clayoquot Sound

One of the neat things about Hot Springs Cove is the twisting up and down 1.3 mile boardwalk that takes you out to the springs.  Over the years visiting boats have established a tradition of  carving their boat names into the planks that make up the boardwalk. 

The Royal Victoria Yacht Club went all out

It was a lot of fun to hike out to the springs and find the boards for boats we know.

The crew of Estrellita had brought their own board to put down, and did a fine job indeed.

Carol and Livia on their way to the boardwalk.  How convenient for them that Nicole just had a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies come out of the oven

This was good for us, since they had to pull up a board to put theirs down.  They brought us the board they pulled up so that we could do our carving from the comfort of the cockpit.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t injured during the carving process

Wasn’t easy to get the board up since they using something along the lines of railroad spikes to nail them down

Tada!  Our second contribution to “cruiser graffiti” (the first being Wallace Island)

As to the hot springs themselves, we didn’t get many pictures.  If only we had a waterproof camera!  We went out there on our first night and hung out until about 1am with Estrellita and some other boaters.  The water was hot, the stars were out, and I didn’t have to go to work the next day so it was pretty sweet.  We did take a few pictures on subsequent hikes up the boardwalk.

You smell the springs before you see ‘em

 One of the spots where the piping hot water comes out of the ground.  Straight from Hell.

If you’d like to visit the hot springs, there’s certainly simpler ways to do it than selling everything you own and taking off on a sailboat.  There are many charter companies, boat tours, and float planes that drop off visitors by the dozens throughout the day.  The young, bold pilots are not shy about taxiing, landing, and taking off around and through the anchored boats.  The prop wash made for a nice breeze on a couple of the warmer days we had. 

  Float plane making its way between us and Estrellita

Another quiet day at anchor

We had a fantastic 4 days here. But  I needed a haircut really bad so we left for Tofino.  We met up with Estrellita again where we splurged on burgers and beers.  This would be the last time we’d see them for awhile since they left from Tofino and arrived in San Francisco 6 days later.  But we’re starting our own latitude reduction program in a couple weeks and will catch up eventually. 

Next time we see these yahoos it’ll be about 35 degrees warmer outside