Desolation Sound

We arrived in Lund about a week ago and have been exploring Desolation Sound and Cortes Island since then. Lund is a quaint little village on the Sunshine Coast and is the gateway and launching point for exploring Desolation Sound. It’s also the end of the road on the Sunshine Coast.

We arrived in Lund and quickly found Nancy’s Bakery for a snack. We ended up walking the 1 km Lund Loop, searching for a kids playground for Maddie. The only one in the area was in the yard of a preschool but we were told she could go in and play. Maddie spent all of her time in the sandbox making us ‘stir fry.’ We also found some Salmon Berries to pick and eat. Yum!

We enjoyed the bustle of Lund as everyone is going or returning from a trip so the atmosphere is really festive. There were landing craft boats taking people and their cars to islands not serviced by BC Ferries, people going on sea kayaking trips and boaters like us stopping for provisions. I had to mail a letter and found the Canada Post office just before it closed and the woman working there was so friendly!

We headed to Grace Harbour the next day under cloudy skies and rain showers. Grace Harbour is one of the popular places in Desolation Sound park. We did a short forest walk in Grace Harbour but it was very buggy and still spitting rain.

From there we went to Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island. We had a nice quiet anchorage and checked out the community of Squirrel Cove. We had fish tacos at the Flying Squirrel for lunch and looked in the Cortes Island Craft Co-op at all the locally made goods.

The next day was Canada Day and we decided to go to Refuge Cove as we heard they do fireworks at night. It was a great decision and we had an awesome day. Refuge Cove is on West Redonda Island and is only accessible by boat. It is a small community where everyone lives in a land co-op. About 20 people live there in the summer and 8 in the winter. There is a well stocked general store, a cafe/pub and an art gallery. We decided to tie up and enjoy the festivities.

Ellery and Maddie had met a cruising couple, Courtenay & Rich earlier in the day. We enjoyed chatting with them and decided to meet at the pub for beers at happy hour.

Maddie enjoyed an ice cream cone, we explored the village and then headed to the pub. We enjoyed discussing sailing and Desolation Sound with Courtenay & Rich over beers. Courtenay held Amelia a couple of times, which was a wee break for me. We showed them our boat afterwards and Maddie convinced Courtenay to read her a couple books.

We ran into a couple other people sailing with kids and even gave one woman and her daughter a tour of our boat to show her the lee cloths that act as a play pen for Amelia.

The day ended with spectacular fireworks that we could see right from our boat! Neither of the girls woke up so we had a few moments to ourselves to bask in the excellent day.

From Refuge Cove we headed back over to Cortes Island in search of beaches for Maddie to play on. We spent one night in Cortes Bay and then headed to Mansons Landing.

We anchored in a beautiful spot with a great view. From the public dock at Mansons Landing, it is a 20 min walk to Hague Lake, which has a lovely sand beach. We went to the beach twice and we all enjoyed a fresh water swim and a picnic. We also met and chatted with some locals and Maddie had some little kids to play with.

From the lake, it was a little further walk into the village to the grocery store and cafe. We really enjoyed the village and found everyone super friendly and welcoming. We carried the girls and all of our beach gear just so we could get a bit of fresh produce as we were running out. We felt like awesome, strong parents as we hauled the kids and everything 25 minutes walk back to the boat.

We met some American sailors at anchor in Mansons Landing and we ever got invited aboard their boat for some wine! What a treat. They had sailed in the South Pacific and had some great stories to tell. I just love meeting other cruisers!

From Mansons Landing, we motored a couple miles to Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island as we had heard about a pool and hot tub!

We anchored quickly and headed in to do laundry and use the pool. It felt so refreshing to have a swim and Maddie really enjoyed jumping into the pool. After the pool, we went to the restaurant for chowder and beer. Maddie was given some markers and a colouring book, while Amelia napped on me. It’s these moments when we really feel like we are winning as parents.

We also finally got out the fishing rod and have tried a little jigging but so far we haven’t caught anything.

We can’t believe how busy life is here on the boat. Although we get a little bit of time in the evenings now, we usually use it for passage planning. I have found a few stolen moments to read a book though, The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet. I am really enjoying it as she writes about a lot of the places we are sailing.

Since Amelia turned 6 months recently, we have been feeding her solids which is so messy! It is fun to see her enjoying food so much though.

We are so grateful to have this time out here with our girls, exploring the coast. The connectivity is very spotty but I will write more soon as we have more of Desolation Sound to see.