Wednesday, June 18 – Goodbye, Lagoon Cove; Hello, Alert Bay and Port McNeill

There’s lots of socializing on the dock at Lagoon Cove before the general exodus of boats following the fair weather report. We pick up our crab trap, which reveals several small female crabs, no keepers, and a supergiant starfish who obviously ate all the bait. We cast envious looks at the marina’s morning prawn catch, wishing we could stay for another afternoon happy hour. We buy a shirt, a cookbook, and a new salmon lure, pay our moorage (.75/ft., the going rate) and depart for a smooth passage across Johnstone Strait to Vancouver Island.

En route to Port McNeill, we visit Alert Bay, a charming native town on Cormorant Island. Across the street from the dock, we find a cemetery studded with totem poles looking out to the Strait.

We walk a mile in sunshine from the municipal dock to the U’mista Museum. The museum holds a fabulous display of artifacts, mainly ceremonial masks which were seized by the government during a period in the early 1900’s when potlatches were outlawed in an attempt to “civilize” the Indians. In more recent years, the carvings have been returned from museums around the world and are housed in a lovely building in this remote little village.

We see no other tourists in town today, although some of the Alaska cruise ships do make a stop here. We buy ice cream cones ($1.50) and walk back to our boats, browsing through the shops and taking advantage of photo ops along the way.

As we depart the Alert Bay Municipal Dock and take the short trip across to Port McNeill (50-36 127-05), we look forward to dinner out and a last shot at civilization before we get into the real boonies. It will be about two weeks before we see the next main town, Prince Rupert (54-15 130-11).