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Shadow Passages (Part II)
by Captain Joseph Bettis
Editor's note:  Captain Bettis and Shadow have cruised our northern waters for many years. We'll present his 2002 cruising log in three installments, providing a good diversion from the weather as well as some inspiration while we all begin planning for our own 2003 adventures.

July 21 - Several of you have asked who the crew is.
Sandra Stone is responsible for the website, and you can expect a considerable decline in its frequency of updates and quality after she leaves on August 13 to return to her home in Cincinnati. This is Sandra's second trip to the Northwest and her first time in British Columbia. She was so excited about the whales the other day that she forgot to take pictures.

Pete Schroeder joined us last week and left on the 20th. Pete was Springer's veterinarian in Puget Sound and came up with her on the catamaran. He decided to stay with us on Shadow and supervised the Hoover and the deck washing, as well as the whale monitoring. We have missed him.

Just as we arrived, whales rounded the corner into Blackfish Sound,
and all eyes and ears were riveted to the task of identification.

July 26 - From Joe Cove we made our way to Echo Bay and docked at Windsong Barge. Christine, Cedar and Willow O'Donnell greeted us warmly. I've known them for many years and it was good to see them all happy and healthy. Happy hour at Windsong Barge is at 5 p.m. and we enjoyed the yarns and stories from both transients and locals. Billy Procter's museum was a treat, as was his conversation at happy hour. We had a short visit with Alex Morton, and we tried to make phone calls from Echo Bay Resort.



A couple of days later we headed for Simoon Sound, but found it pretty full of boats at anchor, so we headed for Wahnaka Bay where we found anchorage in 100 feet. In the morning we listened to howling that at first sounded like wolves, but then we weren't sure. Cougars? Raccoons?

Thinking every day we were going to sail off the edge of the world,
we made a long and difficult trip to Kingcome Inlet.

Yesterday we made our way to Kwatsi Cove where Max, Anca, Marika and Russel live and maintain a small dock. What charming and delightful people! The dock was full-eight or 10 boats-and it was not hard to understand why people come here. Located in one of the most beautiful spots in the entire area, Anca and Max have carved out a home here-it's just about as remote as it gets. But the warmth shared last night at the dock potluck was contagious. Sandra brought a slide show of the reintroduction of Springer, and it was a hit.

We decided to spend another night here, visit the waterfalls, and enjoy the company. Tomorrow we will head back to Alert Bay or Port McNeill to restock or provisions and upload these pages.

August 1 - After the hectic days of the reintroduction of Springer, the last week has seemed quiet-a more normal routine. We returned to Alert Bay, Sandra posted the web pages, and we did some shopping.

Parts for the watermaker have arrived-finally-in Telegraph Cove, so we stopped there for the night, rafted next to Gikumi (a beautiful old, wood whale-watch boat). After a presentation on killer whales by the Straitwatch staff, Scott, Markila and the others came down to Shadow for wine and conversation.

The next morning we went back to Dong Chong Bay and tied again next to the net pens. The crab pot provided six beautiful crabs, which we ate for the next several days, and the walkway around the net pens provided a convenient space for various boat chores.

On July 30, we walked through the beautiful woods of Hanson Island to Orcalab for a visit with Paul and Helena. Just as we arrived, whales rounded the corner into Blackfish Sound, and all eyes and ears were riveted to the task of identification. Later, we had coffee and a visit before returning to Shadow.

The wind had picked up a bit and swells were washing into the bay, making our berth uncomfortable. But I thought there was a good probability that the weather would lay down around dusk as the tide turned. Meanwhile, I skiffed ashore for a visit with David Garrett, who lives in a camp on Hanson. David is the author of Shaped Cedars and Cedar Shaping, the definite volume of culturally modified trees. These ancient cedars bear the scars of bark harvesting by Native peoples and provide empirical evidence of continuous occupation, thereby strengthening Native land claims.
By six o'clock it had become evident that the wind was not going to slacken and we made hasty preparations to depart. The net pens and Shadow were definitely not on the same wave frequency and as they came down, she went up, making things increasing uncomfortable. Once free of the pens and underway, Shadow was much happier, as was her crew, and we crossed Blackfish Sound to find a quiet anchorage behind Mound Island.

The next morning we made our way back to Kwatsi Bay, which, so far, appears to be our favorite place. After two nights at the dock, we anchored last night in the bay.

August 7 - Yesterday was another extraordinary day. Twenty-five years ago, when I first moved to the Northwest, I was captivated by the book I Heard the Owl Call My Name. The book was set in the Native village of Kingcome, and I wanted to visit there. I bought my first boat then, a 27-foot named Elsa, and I began a grand adventure. Thinking every day we were going to sail off the edge of the world, we made a long and difficult trip to Kingcome Inlet. After reaching the head of the inlet, we found that the river trip was more dangerous than we had expected and that access to the Native community more complex. So a day later we left, and never visited the village.

Now I had learned that such a visit might be possible. A recently published book by Judith Williams, Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time, described some of the recent developments at Gwa'yi, the traditional name of the village, and Max and Anca at Kwatsi Bay told us that Lorne Brown at Shawl Bay might be able to arrange a visit for us.

So on August 5, when we arrived in Shawl Bay, we found Lorne was wonderfully friendly and helpful, and after a couple of phone calls told us that Dave Dawson would meet us at the government dock at the head of Kingcome Inlet the next day at noon.

At noon on the 6th, Clyde Dawson, Dave's son, arrived in his skiff and we made the delicate three-mile trip upriver to the village. The river has many channels and constantly shifting sandbars and floating stumps. Without local knowledge, it would be a dangerous undertaking. But, perhaps more importantly, people in the village are warm and hospitable when visitors are expected, but without advance notice, they might feel, with justification, intruded upon.

But with Clyde's inviting personality, we felt very comfortable and at home and he opened up for us a unique way of life.

Gwa'yi is the only Native village on the West Coast that has been continuously occupied since before contact. Native people were forced from all other traditional sites and relocated to towns and designated "reserves."

The history of the area is rich. In 1998, the artist Marianne Nicolson painted a new pictograph near pictographs from earlier days. As Clyde took us to visit his parents, Ruth and Dave Dawson, to the old Anglican church and to the new school and health center, we felt the time-warp of blending of past and present.

Nowhere was this more graphic than in the visit to the old "big house," where Ryan, a young man about 18 years old was practicing traditional songs to the beat of the drum log, and then to the new big house that is currently under construction. Finally, we met with Willie Hawkins who is one of the carvers fashioning the uprights and beams for the new big house. On the beach, several other carvers were shaping the huge logs that would form the beams.

As we returned to the government dock, young people from the village were making their way downstream to meet Bill McKay on Naiad Explorer, who was to take them to Alert Bay for a major gathering of canoes from throughout the coastal region.

Before he left, Dave Dawson left us a fresh sockeye and three beautiful crabs.