The Straits Provide
When you live 50 feet from the high tide your life is inevitably tied to the sea.
In our case the Straits of Georgia (now The Salish Sea) captured our view from the first light that came into my bedroom window to the twinkling lights of cruise liners late in the evening. The Straits were a part of all our senses, the taste of ‘sea lettuce’ still dripping with salt water, the murmur of gravel sliding on the shale as the waves retreated, the smell of salt air, sometimes pungent when the wind blew from the northeast past Elk Falls pulp mill 20 miles to the north.
The Straits were very cold as the Kuro Siwo, aka Japanese Current, circled the Island from far out in the Pacific. Long time locals often wondered why we wore life jackets, the cold setting in hypothermia minutes after you fell overboard. The Straits were unforgiving that way. I remember one family finding out the hard way when they decided to take a trip in their new boat a few days after Xmas. No one knows for sure what happened, their bodies were found sometime later, all tied together in a line. If was sobering to say the least.
In the Summer, a combination of low tides and hot sun would warm the shale, allowing brief dips in the afternoon, but for the most part we settled for sailing rafts in front of the house or bullheading from the shore. A few locals seemed immune to the cold, Ray Redford for example who could be seen on his daily swim from his house north of our place to the K444 and back, a distance of at least 3 miles!
As cold and serious as it was the Straits were a great provider. Schools of Coho, Pinks and Spring Salmon abounded, with Herring ‘boils’ large enough to be visible for miles. Campbell River came by its’ title of ‘Salmon Capital of The World’ honestly, with Spring Salmon exceeding 50 lbs on a regular basis! Famous people flocked from all over the world to try their luck in ‘The Tyee Club’ with its’ strict rules requiring the boat be rowed and Salmon caught on a rod!
For us, the bounty was more to our size, Dungeness crabs raked from the pits around the K444, Oysters cleaned off the rocks in front of the house by the 5 gallon pail, surf casting, the largest fish caught by my brother Dick a 12 lbs Coho. And on those days when we had a ‘minus tide’ and the deep sea sand appeared at the foot of the shale we would race with buckets and spades to capture elusive Geoduck Clams before they were able to burrow deep into the sand!
Crab boils on the beach, Oysters on the half shell on the barbecue, baked Salmon with lemon and dill, The Straits were good to us, a boon to a large family on a very limited budget! And the beginning of my life long love of seafood – and cooking!