Wallace Island

We have a circle of friends for whom Conover Cove on Wallace Island is synonymous with Christmas. Owners of wooden boats, they have all cruised there every year on December 26th (after the obligations of being available to
land-based family and friends have passed), and stayed sometimes until after the New Year. If circumstances permit, perhaps this year we'll be able to join them. But for now, I'll have to be content with summer memories of Wallace Island...

Princess Inlet, a little further north along the Island from Conover Cove, is just as tricky to get into - a reef across the entrance tests the mettle of the true cruiser, but with good sense and attention, it's do-able. Once inside the
inlet, if it's your lucky day, you can claim one of the two mooring buoys. Otherwise, you'll have to stern-tie to shore, as there is very little swinging room in Princess Inlet.

The day we arrived, we were indeed lucky enough to claim a mooring buoy, and then discovered that our next-door neighbours from back on the docks, were tied to the other one. This presented quite a dilemma for my husband, who usually prefers, in an anchorage, to paddle around the shoreline in the dinghy, or just sit on the deck with his feet up. Usually, that is, unless you happen to be neighbours with folks who have a satellite dish on their boat!

It was a Saturday afternoon, and somewhere on the planet, a golf tournament was underway. The temptation was too great for this tee-time fan I'm married to, and off he rowed to the neighbouring buoy. So there we were, sitting on a buoy in one of the most beautiful marine parks on this coast, and my husband was gone to watch golf. (If HE were writing this memoir of Wallace Island, this would be the end of the story!)

For me, on the other hand, what to do but pour another iced tea, and put my feet up on the deck to enjoy these wonderful surroundings?

Immediately, I became aware that I had company.... there was a family of ducks hungrily nibbling on the sea growth under the dinghy, floating peacefully behind our boat. That was entertainment in itself, but it was not the only theatrical event to take place that sunny summer afternoon - soon those ducks were surrounded by dozens of huge, shimmering-metallic-blue dragonflies, dancing in the skies above us. Never, in all the anchorages we've visited over the years, have I seen a similar display, and it was becoming dusk before I could take my eyes off these amazing creatures.

As far as I was concerned, the drama of the ducks and the dragonflies was FAR more interesting than the golf tournament taking place on the next buoy!