Again, the sea this morning was calm like a mountain lake. Not even a slight puff of wind, and the clouds were hanging low and covering the summits of the mountains.
I was concerned about leaving my kayak on the beach for the night and relying on only the good character of Canadians to keep it from growing legs and wandering around somewhere. Those thoughts gave me a strange dream. I dreamt that I was looking at my kayak floating away in the ocean, filled with water and rolled upside down so that only the stern was above the surface, like you would see the sliver of the roof of a car drowned in a flooded street. Somehow, I fetched the kayak out of the water with one hand, lifted it above my head, and poured all the water out in a long cascading waterfall into the sea. My sudden superhuman strength should have been a tell that I was dreaming, but at the time it felt completely normal. Perhaps the interpretation of the dream should be that for what is valuable to me I will not spare any no effort to save, and hence why I was worried about the kayak staying exposed during the night. If something had happened, I could not have done anything, no matter how much I’d want to.
As I paddled in the channels between the islands separating Vancouver Island from the Strait of Georgia (The name of the waterway changes north the San Juan Islands from Juan de Fuca to Georgia) I came across a sleeping seal in the middle of the channel. Its head was bobbing just above the water, and at first, I thought that it was a gray buoy, until I saw its little eyes closed. I wonder if seals dream or not. For humans, the sign of dreaming is the rapid movement of the eyes under the eyelids. For the seal I could not tell. If they dream, they must dream about catching fish.
I inched a little closer to him. “Good afternoon sleepy!” I said to him.
Immediately he woke up a little startled.. When he saw what I was he seemed more annoyed than threatened and dove off to find a more tranquil place.
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I’ve camped on the southern end of Valdez Island next to an abandoned barn. The grass was overgrown, and the barn roof had rotten away a long time ago. On the broad side of the barn someone had sprayed some graffiti that read, “Native American Land, No Trespassing.” I had no intention going any further than where I was now. Seems a bit strange to me that if this were private property, then why would no one be looking after it?
The real owner of the property was swimming in the water and he gave me a disgruntled look. Some fifteen feet from the water’s edge was a large California Sea Lion that kept poking his head above the water to observe me.
I looked directly at him and shouted “Yes, what’s up?” to which he dove into the water only to reappear a little farther down the shoreline.
He made a loud grunting sound from the water as if to say, “What are you doing on my beach?”
“The beach is big enough for the both of us. You won’t be seeing me once I’m in the tent. Chill out. And don’t make noise when I’m sleeping.”
Sea kayak Vancouver Island Circumnavigation
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