Tribune Bay

I departed Comox this morning at 8am, with a nice ebb current giving me a push to Tribune Bay. I came down Baynes Sound, which was pretty well protected from the northwesterly winds. I stopped briefly at the Denman Island public dock next to the cable ferry. After leaving the Comox area, with the winds blowing around 20 kts, I did have a foot in chop of following seas, until I got behind Deman Island. From there on it was fairly smooth, until turning at Chrome Island and crossing Lambert Channel. Now anchored in Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. The land at the north end of the bay is fairly low lying, so a lot of wind still channels through. But without much fetch, it’s mostly just a ripple of chop on the water. Saw a couple of interesting sites along my path today. Google Union Bay, BC, ship breaking. Here is just a quick blurb: “In July 2025, the B.C. provincial government canceled the ocean-access lease for Deep Water Recovery, effectively halting its controversial ship-breaking operations in Union Bay, BC. The shutdown followed years of environmental concerns, provincial pollution abatement orders, and vocal opposition from local First Nations and grassroots advocacy groups.” Next to that is Coal Hill. Again you can google that in Union Bay, but another quick blurb: “The neighbouring property is an expansive coal waste pile that has been leaching toxic metals (including arsenic, mercury, and copper) into the marine ecosystem of Baynes Sound for decades. The operators of Deep Water Recovery utilized the proximity of this historic coal waste as a defense in their legal battles, claiming that testing failed to distinguish between their current ship-dismantling runoff and the legacy coal pollution.” Just before the Denman Island ferry terminal, I passed a fish farm. Haven’t seen any of those in a while, but there are several along Bayne Sound. And then a few miles past the Denman Island ferry terminal, was a sailboat that looks like it was purposely grounded at low tide. Can’t find anything googling that…
The Denman Island public dock is just past the ferry terminal. Before passing between the terminals on Denman Island and Buckley Bay, you have to monitor lights on the shore. If red, you cannot cross the ferry’s path, as the cable makes it unsafe. When the ferry is at one of its terminals, not moving, the light is green signifying safe to cross the cable. The community above the ferry terminal and public dock was small, but had a couple gift shops, a small grocery store, and a museum. The museum would have been closed, however two gentlemen had earlier set up an appointment to meet one of the museum volunteers to open it, and I arrived right as the gentlemen were leaving. The volunteer stayed a little longer allowing me to walk through. Mostly old items from the area donated by residents. One section was delegated to the 60’s and 70’s. Like Sointula, where I visited earlier, there were draft dodgers that also settled on Denman Island. I was not aware, that, according to the volunteer, many also came to the Gulf Islands to settle. Denman Island is not part of the Gulf Islands, but not too far north. Growing up I heard about draft dodgers escaping to Canada, but never thought about where to in Canada, or what happened once they got there. Many of them settled here and blended in with the communities. Also, many came to “live off the land”, not just from the US, but from other areas as well. We know about immigration in the USA, but immigrants came to Canada as well. The best part of the short stop at Denman Island, was the ice cream stand at the ferry terminal! I think I’m getting an ice cream high having access to it the last two days.
Tribune Bay is reported as being pretty popular. And that it is. When I got here at 1:30, there were already three sailboats and a trawler. Since then three more sail boats and another trawler have arrived. There are beautiful white sand beaches here. I would have liked to kayaked in to walk along the beach, or the trail out to a point, but with the wind, will just enjoy the view from C-Traveler. And yes, I am getting tired of this wind!Leggi altro