15 December 2006
A windy day
Monday 11 December
After we fed the animals this morning, Jacques drove us to East Point, the aptly named eastern point of the island. First we went to the windswept grassy headland, which had a plaque commemorating the sighting of Saturna by the Spanish captain of the Santa Saturnina in 1790 (or thereabouts). It was so windy today that at times we could hardly stand up, and the salt spray covered everything, especially the camera lens. Later, Jacques heard on the radio that the wind had been 100km/h when we were there. The sea as it crashed on the rocks was a beautiful pale jade green. There was a big flock of seabirds on the water, which must have been paddling hard to stay in the same position. We then walked along a short trail which formed a loop along low rocky cliffs. The sandstone rocks were worn into pools and hollows. Rowan watched a big incoming wave for too long and got soaked by the spray when it broke.
In the afternoon we performed our final farm chore of this trip, which was to take down a stretch of wooden fence which was part of a claiming pen and had been damaged in the snowstorm. (A claiming pen is where two or three ewes and their lambs are kept for a few days after lambing, partly so that the farmer can check that the lambs are getting enough milk.) Jacques said she had been planning to turn that pen into two pens for a while, so she thought this was a good opportunity to rearrange it. It was nearly dark by the time we finished.
When we went down to the farmhouse for dinner, Jacques said they had been watching the weather forecast and they thought we should get the morning ferry to Swartz Bay (Victoria) and change there for a ferry to Tsawwassen (Vancouver) instead of getting the direct afternoon ferry as we had planned. According to the weather forecast, a storm is headed for the area tomorrow afternoon that will make today’s winds seem like nothing.
After dinner we said goodbye to Jim, Lorraine and Tommy, as they aren’t going to be here tomorrow morning, then we packed most of our stuff and made and wrote Christmas cards to our previous hosts.
After we fed the animals this morning, Jacques drove us to East Point, the aptly named eastern point of the island. First we went to the windswept grassy headland, which had a plaque commemorating the sighting of Saturna by the Spanish captain of the Santa Saturnina in 1790 (or thereabouts). It was so windy today that at times we could hardly stand up, and the salt spray covered everything, especially the camera lens. Later, Jacques heard on the radio that the wind had been 100km/h when we were there. The sea as it crashed on the rocks was a beautiful pale jade green. There was a big flock of seabirds on the water, which must have been paddling hard to stay in the same position. We then walked along a short trail which formed a loop along low rocky cliffs. The sandstone rocks were worn into pools and hollows. Rowan watched a big incoming wave for too long and got soaked by the spray when it broke. In the afternoon we performed our final farm chore of this trip, which was to take down a stretch of wooden fence which was part of a claiming pen and had been damaged in the snowstorm. (A claiming pen is where two or three ewes and their lambs are kept for a few days after lambing, partly so that the farmer can check that the lambs are getting enough milk.) Jacques said she had been planning to turn that pen into two pens for a while, so she thought this was a good opportunity to rearrange it. It was nearly dark by the time we finished.
When we went down to the farmhouse for dinner, Jacques said they had been watching the weather forecast and they thought we should get the morning ferry to Swartz Bay (Victoria) and change there for a ferry to Tsawwassen (Vancouver) instead of getting the direct afternoon ferry as we had planned. According to the weather forecast, a storm is headed for the area tomorrow afternoon that will make today’s winds seem like nothing.
After dinner we said goodbye to Jim, Lorraine and Tommy, as they aren’t going to be here tomorrow morning, then we packed most of our stuff and made and wrote Christmas cards to our previous hosts.
