August 9-10 - Tate Cove, Aristazabal Island

Rick & Jeanne House and Boat

View from our boats to the Pacific

Sandy Beach on our beachcombing expedition

A reminder on a dreary winter day of our adventure

Fisherman's plant - False Arelia? NOT

Some of the glass balls that Rick & Jeanne have found

Sunset at Tate Cove

Large Sandpiper on the Beach

Good Bye Sun for a few days

We left Surf Inlet at the crack of 8:00 and puttered over the 10 miles to a little nook on the outside of Aristazabal. Mike and I stopped to fish where we saw all of the fishing camp boats, without much success. When we arrived in our anchorage, we were surprised to see that the fish camp and a small float home were also in the bay. In the afternoon, we started to go gunkholing and ran into a fellow coming back from shore to his floathome. He invited us over to visit his home and meet his wife. Rick and Jeanne have been living on their hand built floathome for the last three years in this very isolated place, except for May - September when the Fish Camp comes in. They are the ultimate beach combers, having made their house 80% out of wood and stuff that they have found on the beach. They have found in the neighborhood of 1000 glass balls and some pretty neat miscellaneous stuff. Twice a year, they hop in their sailboat and take the long trip into Kitimat to pick up supplies. I admire them their tenacity to live in this isolated area, recycling what storms bring up on the beaches around them. We had a nice pot luck dinner with Rick and Jeanne and decided to spend an extra night here to go beach combing ourselves with the hopes of finding even one glass ball.
The next morning, we loaded up the dinghies with dogs and stuff and headed over to the Anderson Islets about 3 miles out. Being neophytes at this beach combing business, we did all right! Mike found a bamboo walking stick, and one glass ball. Penny found a sea lion skull, back bone and flipper and a skull of a dolphin. Betty found a wooden fishing float and pretty shells.