Oh have I know learned to listen. In a previous post, Hidden Robertson Lake Part I, I mentioned along the trail heading back to our tender we met some local Cortes hippies that gave us some island insight. At the time, as I listened I was nodding in agreement that the place sounded nice, but really, once we were on our way I thought ‘a lovely person’, but that was pretty much useless information.
…so you want to know what she shared? The women was welcoming us to the island and said how much they love swimming at Robertson Lake, and was asking if we were planning on going to the rave the following week. As tempting as it was to change our sailing schedule and attend a rave on Cortes Island, we thanked her for the information and said we wouldn’t be able to make it.
The woman was telling us that the rave is held in this beautiful bay a few down from Von Donop, where at night it’s beautiful, as she went on to tell us that there’s this bridge where the water twinkles like crazy. As I listened a few thoughts came to mind as she was telling me this, none of which was to find this bridge with twinkly water. Anyways, we go on our merry way and check off ‘meeting the true locals’ to our bucket list.
Two year later, it was another boating season in Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands. After a lovely night in Von Donop, we thought we’d do a super short trip the following day and try out one of the other anchorages heading counter clockwise around Cortes Island (or south/west). There were a couple of small little options for anchorages, but we decided to settle for the afternoon in Carrington Bay.
We anchored deep in the bay with an absolutely gorgeous view up to Read Island. After anchoring and settling in for happy hour, we pull out the charts and cruising books onboard to see what dinghy adventures (trouble really) we could get into. We’re looking at the charts and it hits us both at the same time, ‘that’s what the hippie was talking about!’. It really was too funny. Totally discounting her advice at the time, but actually, she had a point.
Carrington Bay has a lagoon! …so, that means there is a bridge going over the entry to the lagoon. If you’re not following me yet, this means when the tide changes, water enters or exits the lagoon, resulting in phosphorescence, the ’twinkles’. So, you know what this meant, yes, the tide change was going to be around 10pm that night and we were going to go ashore to check out the ’twinkles’.
I may be comfortable with hiking in broad daylight on Cortes Island, but going ashore in the dark knowing we were a little unclear on the wolf situation did add some excitement to the trip. It is always a little odd when there’s a hike in campground, and yet no campers anywhere, a little rare in the heart of summer.
I will say, in the dark judging the water depths to get out of your tender without filling your foul weather boots full of water is a little harder than it looks. Anyways, we made it to shore and walked up to the bridge. I will say watching the tide go out did bring gorgeous phosphorescence. It’s one thing to watch your outboard wash etc at night light up, but watching the water rush out of the lagoon with all the phosphorescence was absolutely stunning.
So lesson in cruising, never discount the information the local hippyie’s give you! You must listen to people. If you’re on the northern side of Cortes Island, Carrington Bay is a lovely anchorage and checking out the phosphorescence really is a lovely tourist stop. Cortes is a great island to explore, and be sure to check out the south entrance to Robertson Lake.
