Joe Cove to Waddington Bay
/During our travels we weaved our way around many small islands and through little passages to get to the entrance to Waddington Bay. That reflects the character of the Broughton Archipelago. It’s peppered with innumerable islands, tree covered to the waterline, steep and falling right into the water. That makes for picturesque travels but not many spots to anchor.
So Waddington Bay is welcomed. It’s large, well protected and has many nooks and crannies to explore. We arrived shortly after noon expecting to see some boats already anchored. But we had the Bay to ourselves. So off we went in the dinghy to determine what areas would be best to explore in the kayaks at low tide.
It wasn’t till we had the kayaks in the water and were climbing in, that one sailboat made its way into Waddington Bay. It was indeed a great place to explore with the kayaks. Karen was able to find some starfish (now properly known as sea stars, since they are not technically fish). I spotted a crab at the waters edge, a rare sight. But the most exciting was a drying passage loaded with Geoducks. The bi-valves spout jets of water into the air making it seems like you’re at the grand fountain at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Before returning to Discovery, we paddled over to the sailboat to check it out. It was a classic hull but was painted a bright green with a yellow waterline stripe; unusual, but very attractive. We struck up a conversation with the crew, Stephen and Elsie Hulsizer. They left Philadelphia in the seventies and sailed to Seattle via Boston and have made Seattle their home ever since. It turns out that Elsie is the author of Voyages to Windward, a book about sailings on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The book, it turns out, was one I gave Karen for Christmas last year. We had a pleasant chat with Stephen and Elsie and their cat Jigger, before paddling back to Discovery to settle in for a quite night in Waddington Bay.