Whaling Station Bay, Hornby Island was an active whaling station in the late 1800’s. Now the bay is lined with homes/cottages. When you come out of Helliwell Park the bay is right there except you can’t see it for the trees. You can park on one of the little finger roads that goes into the bay. The first photo: the water could be lapping up against the rocks in the foreground or the tide could be out as it was in these photos. The large sandy beach when the tide is out gives lots of room for children to play or adults to soak up the sun but it isn’t without its inconveniences: the person with the zodiac having to drive a car out to retrieve his dinghy; the person that went fishing and anchored the boat offshore only to find the boat grounded when the tide went out – very inconvenient if you intended to go fishing again at that time.
You have to keep your eyes on the tide tables or suffer the consequences. A couple of scenarios: 1. you are anchored out in your boat and take the dinghy to shore for a hike. When you come back from the hike the 100 lb dinghy with it’s 50 lb motor are now 300 meters away from the water. That leaves you the option of lugging it the 300 meters or waiting most of the day for the tide to come in again. 2. Similar for kayaking or the reverse: the kayak is now floating 200 meters off shore. I’ve done these things in the past but now I just observe (and take photos) of other people doing them.
WR Foster 