Mayne and Saturna Islands

After last summer's great kayak trips (Indian Arm, Galiano), there was no question whether we should do a trip this year. Organization was a bit more challenging this year because we had a big group of people; after a few misstarts and cancelled bookings, we eventually settled on the July 14/15 weekend. Seven people ended up paddling: Me, Mike, Evan, Ian, Bob, Rory and Mark. We decided to make Mayne Island our starting point, and head out from there.

FRIDAY: We made our way to Mayne in two different groups. The first group (Rory, Bob, Mike, and Mark) left Vancouver around 9am on Friday on Rory's 20-ft sailboat, the Gale Force, intending to sail all the way to Mayne! The second group (Me, Evan and Ian) left on the 8pm Gulf Islands ferry from Tsawassen - we brought my van over with us because we needed some way to get around (the ferry terminal, campground, and kayak rental place were all on opposite sides of Mayne). I'm glad we did; we were thinking of just walking around Mayne but that would have been a long, tiring slog.

Upon arriving at Mayne, we were a little surprised to find that the sailboat crew hadn't arrived at our campsite for the night (Mayne Island Eco-Camping, in Miner's Bay). We tried phoning them, but nobody picked up. After we set up camp, we eventually heard from them - they were still a long way away, and using their engine since the wind had died. The winds weren't in their favour, and they had accidentally sailed to the north end of Galiano insead of Active Pass. Rory managed to get through Active Pass in complete darkness, and we guided him into the campsite's bay using our flashing LED headlamps. Camp was more or less set up so we all just went straight to sleep.

SATURDAY: Considering how late we got to bed on Friday, we all got up surprisingly readily on Saturday morning. Following a quick breakfast, camp got taken down, and we piled our (considerable amount of) gear into the van for the drive to the kayak rental place. We got there a bit after 10am, and after filling our water jugs (no fresh water available on the trip) and filling out all the waiver forms, we drove down to the beach (Bennett Bay) and were paddling by noon. It was a gorgeous sunny day, with almost no wind and very calm water. We had 3 double kayaks, and a single.

After leaving Bennett Bay, we entered the Belle Chain of Islets, which stretch along the north sides of Samuel and Saturna Islands. These were some very rocky, bare, tiny islands, that were usually covered with seals or bald eagles. There were a few larger islands too (such as Anniversary Island) with trees. We had a great view of Mt. Baker while paddling. We also saw an incredible tidal current going through the gap between Samuel and Saturna Island - it looked like the water was nearly a foot higher on the other side of the gap, and the current was just ripping through there!

Lunch was at a rocky beach we found on Saturna. From there it was neither a long nor difficult paddle to get to Cabbage Island, our campsite for Saturday night. We arrived around 4:30pm, so it was about 4.5 hours of paddling including lunch. We found a great, slightly seculded campsite on the NW corner of Cabbage Island and set up camp there. It was getting to be low tide, so we had to carry the kayaks a long way, and after that most of us were so warm that we went for a swim. The shallow water was extremely warm, and the deep water was freezing!

Dinner was simple (pasta) and filling. We made a small fire below the high tide line to try and cook some smokies, but much to our surprise a forestry helicopter landed within 5 minutes to tell us to put it out due to a campfire ban! They said that they were in the area doing a smoke patrol. With no campfire, we spent the rest of the night wandering around Cabbage Island.

SUNDAY: The next morning we were up early again. We had decided to take the long way back (all the way around Saturna), so we wanted to get a quick start. We managed to start paddling by 9:15am, which was pretty impressive. We left Cabbage Island and paddled through Tumbo Channel (between Tumbo and Saturna Islands), and for most of the channel the current was strongly with us so we just sat back and were pushed along! We quickly came to the East point of Saturna (and only 2km from the US Border!), and passed Lighthouse Park. At the point, the current was incredibly strong; I've never been in anything like it before. Those of us in doubles made it past the point, but Bob (in the single) got swept into an opposing current and was being pushed quickly away from us! He managed to stop at a tiny rocky island which had almost no current on the opposite side, and we came over to help him portage his boat over the island.

As we came around to the south side of Saturna, we found ourselves battling current again - not as strong as at the point, but strong enough that we made barely any headway despite paddling as hard as we could. People strolling on the shore were moving faster than we were, and if you stopped paddling to rest your arms you would quickly drift backwards and lose any progress you had made. It was very discouraging, and we made very slow progress all along that stretch and past Navarez Bay. Bob was understandably tired from paddling a single so we set up tow lines with 2 of the doubles. One cool event, though, was seeing Killer Whales - we saw lots of them off in the distance, coming up for air and then disappearing again. Apparently one surfaced extremely close to Mark and Rory's double . We stopped for lunch at Monarch Head at 12:45pm.

The paddle after lunch, continuing along Saturna's south side, was long and tiring. In some sections the current was with us, but in many we were fighting it and making slow progress. There were fewer houses on this side and it felt more remote. Thankfully it was cloudy but not rainy, so we didn't get too hot while paddling. We started getting views of Pender Island, and after we got around Elliot Bluff on Saturna's west side it felt like we weren't fighting the current as much. We left Saturna at this point and headed straight across the water for Lizard Island, which turned out to be a much quicker paddle than I expected. From here the current was strongly with us again, and we more or less floated past the right side of Curlew Island. Finally, it was a short and relaxing paddle back to Bennett Bay - and the sun was out too! It felt great to come to the beach and get out of the kayak (around 5:15pm) - we had been going for about 8 hours including breaks, quite a trek!

The kayak rental guys came and got the boats from the beach, we crammed all our gear into the van, and headed back to Miner's Bay. We had a delicious and filling dinner on the water-view deck of a restaraunt there, and then took off to Mayne Island Eco-Camping, where Rory's boat was moored. We also hopped into the hot tub at the campground because we didn't get a chance to use it on Friday night! Mike, Evan and Rory took the sailboat back (they went through Active pass on Sunday night and anchored at Galiano, then sailed the rest of the way on Monday), while Bob, Ian, Mark and I took the 8:40pm ferry.

Despite battling strong currents, a ticket for a campfire, and Bob needing a rescue, it was a great trip and I'm looking forward to doing another one next year! One last note: we saw some absolutely incredible sunsets during the weekend; I'll let you decide who won the sunset photo competition!