Asunto

Skedans

After leaving QCC at 5 am we had a wicked sail down to Skedans in 25 knots down wind. WEEEE! This time both kids were up before 7 but hey, you can’t win them all. We grabbed the mooring ball around 11 and caught our breath and had lunch before heading into the village site. The two women here welcomed us ashore and gave us a tour of the site. As with most of the villages here, most of the poles had been removed and put on display in museums around the world. As many are mortuary poles, the Haida Nation has been working to bring the remains of their ancestors back to the islands and placing them to rest in Old Massat. Skedans was once a thriving peace loving village. All that remains today is the outline of longhouse pit and a few poles, standing as best they can against the passing of time.

Touring the site. Photo credit – Fynn

You cannot stay overnight at the sites so had headed on our way to Anna Inlet, where we were shocked to find another sailing vessel tucked in here. Being so late in the season there are few other cruisers around. Ana Inlet has a little creek running in where we played in the dinghy and tried to catch a salmon by casting with Fynn’s little rod. It was amusing but unsuccessful.

Tucked into the lovely Ana Inlet

Posted on September 11, 2016

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Town Days are Crazy Days… in QCC

After our Big Road Trip we were hesitant to put any more miles on the car as we weren’t sure our bank account could handle it. So when we woke up at 8:20 we made the last minute decision to head to the cultural center for the 9am Gwaii Haanas orientation. Yep in 40 minutes we had to get two kids dressed, packed up, dinghy to the dock and into the car then drive the 10 minutes to the Centre. We were pretty pleased with ourselves when we made it with 5 minutes to spare. Slick. Fynn and Bowen and I meandered around the grounds while Kolby listened to the mandatory orientation and purchased our park pass. The building is lovely, designed to mimic traditional long housed and situated right on the beach. If we didn’t have the car we had planned on anchoring the the bay right out front and dinghying in, which would have worked out fine as well. We stopped by the Coop for some small town grocery shopping and then Kolby dropped me and the kids off at the docks to go return the car. So now I have a pile of stuff -groceries, toys, random clothing, carseat etc and one cranky baby, one wandering toddler and a dog. As I go about stuffing the miscellaneous stuff into grocery bags and organizing everything into a dock cart, Bowen kicks up his protest of being in the carseat up a level, so I put him in the Ergo. He appreciates this even less and screams louder. He wants his bed and he wants it NOW. I round up Fynn and Kyber and head to the top of the ramp. It is at this point that I realize the tide is out. Way out. There is no way I am getting that buggy down the ramp. As I start removing the bags a few helpful people materialize and in no time everything is loaded into the dinghy and we are zooming for Asunto. That is what I love about small towns, People genuinely care to help others still. Community not only exists but is cherished. It matters how you treat other around you as you may need their assistance in the future. Since we arrived in QCC we have already had many people go out of their way to help us; the lady running the marina helped us find a car rental and carseats, the lady running the car rental came to pick us up when she heard we had littles and hitchhiking to here wasn’t an option; and now help with my groceries. There is a lot of appeal in raising a family in a small town. With only about 2000 people living on the whole of Haida Gwaii, it just might be a little too small for me. But after spending a few days here in the sunshine it is incredibly tempting.