Sunday, August 26, 2018

The Canadian Hot Springs Tour (Day 2)

1000 position 53-26 129-32W. At anchor in Gardner Canal

One of our cruising guides described Europa Point as the "...Site of a lovely hot springs. It is possible to soak and cast a line into the water at the same time."

That sounded simple enough. We powered Thankful twenty three miles up Devastation Channel and Gardner Canal to Europa Point but there were no obvious signs of a hot spring.

No problem. We powered slowly along the coast for a quarter mile on each side of the point. I was on the flying bridge searching with binoculars. Nothing.

Next, we anchored Thankful in the cove closest to Europa Point and Matt and I went ashore in the dinghy to hike around and look for the hot spring. Vicki stayed aboard Thankful and was entertained by a humpback whale that was hanging out right next to the boat. We dinghied further down the coast and went ashore again. Still nothing.

Ok, what's the big idea? We went back to Thankful and went in to "Da Vinci Code" mode (we watched the movie the other night during entertainment hour). Feeling like Tom Hanks working to decode the secret of holy grail, we dug into our cruising guides to figure this out.

The guide that directed us to the hot springs was published in 2001. Our 2018 cruising guide (different author) makes no mention of the hot spring. The current Canadian chart clearly identified Europa Point, but our third cruising guide, which includes charts, identifies the same point as "Low Point". No Europa Point is shown on that chart, but Europa Lake and Europa Creek are shown on the other side of the waterway. Hmmm. Perhaps Europa Point is the unnamed point across Gardner Canal and the current navigation chart is wrong?

We powered across and surveyed a mile of the coast on that side from Thankful. Still nothing. We gave up and anchored for the night at the mouth of the stream that Europa Lake and Creek feed.

We are sure that if we'd had internet access "the Google" would have solved the mystery for us, but we don't have that convienience out here in the wilderness. However, we could ask a friend. Matt used his satellite email system to ask pal Doug Peterson in Gig Harbor to do a little research for us. Doug replied promptly. The Google told him there is a hot spring at an abandoned logging camp we passed on the way in, a mile down the coast from the alleged Europa Point. We are headed there this morning, determined to solve the mystery.

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