Sea folk on wheels.

The second half of September we took O2 for a sail through the bohemian spirited Southern Gulf Islands to the Butchart gardens near Victoria. Summer was still in full swing under a brilliant blue sky. Locals and BC radio claim the seasons are shifting: it should have started pouring down by now. Which it kept doing in BC’s spring and early summer to the great annoyance of all. We wouldn’t know about that, since we were then still frolicking under the Honolulu sun. We haven’t seen rain in ages now. Not that we are complaining. Unlike the salmon who are desperately waiting for the rain to give them the final push upstream to their spawning and dying fields.

Now, after having sailed over 7000 nautical miles this season, starting in November 2021 in Bandeiras Bay Mexico and ending in BC, O2 lies safely docked in her winter berth in Mill Bay Marina on Vancouver Island. Every evening seals come noisily swimming in. With snorts and splashes and a lot of fuss, they settle on the pontoons and even on the boats for the night. As one of our boat neighbors sadly sighed:
“It may be an exciting idea to have wildlife right on your doorstep, but they do make a mess.”
Although we are still enthusiastic about the spectacle, we did barricade our transom steps (= steps on the back of a boat) with big fenders. Seals may have sad puppy eyes, they are smelly. 

Unlike the seals we are not allowed to permanently sleep onboard in Mill Bay Marina. We have a quota of 30 nights during O2’s 6 months of hibernation. Which granted us the perfect excuse to take another kind of trip on the wild side. A one-hour bus drive took us to downtown Victoria where Eric formally handed over the keys to his RV. They will remain in our eager hands for the next 30 days. 

Most of the time, our epic road trip through BC and The Rockies feels like the perfect anti-dote against our growing eco anxiety. Magnificence is still out there, and wapiti still celebrate their rutting season with mucho gusto. The wapiti, aka elk , don’t seem to have a worry in the world. During the day, they wander through the woods in slow motion, munching and ruminating the grass. But in the evening and during the night they go berserk. In Jasper National Park, the high-pitched cries of the bugling males pierced the night with the sound of crazy screeching witches on their broom way to the Halloween party.

At the Athabasca Glacier, the eco gloom seeped back into my brain faster than the ice was melting. Driving past whole swaths of wildfire and mountain pine beetle devastation didn’t do any good either.

But oh boy, when nature was calling the shots, it was pure bliss. And pristine beauty.

We have now reached Radium Hot Springs in Kootenay where we are parked in a resort like RV campground with excellent WIFI. So in the evening we huddle under the covers and watch the Norwegian Netflix series “Occupied”. The plot combines environmental issues with World War III threats and we wish it didn’t feel so real. But we masochistically can’t stop watching it.