CATEGORY: SAILING
PHOTO: THE GORGE INTO GORGE HARBOR     

Cortes Island is in Desolation Sound southwest of West Redonda Island.  Along its west coast is a place called Gorge Harbor.  The harbor is like a very large lake with islands in it — “an island in a lake on an island in a sound” — but it’s actually a salt water bay and is entered through a narrow gorge with high cliffs on each side.  

We had to wait for a slack or an in-going tide to go through.  When we were inside we didn’t see a single habitation, but way over at the far side there was one building with its own little dock which we could just make out as we entered.  As we got closer, we discovered it was a restaurant!

We had stopped at many restaurants in British Colombia including supposedly excellent ones in Victoria and Nanimo, but had always found the cuisine uniformly crummy.  It seemed to be a B.C. thing.  BC, in this case does not mean Before Christ, but the food had tasted like it.  However, we decided to try this remote little restaurant.  We were the only boat at the dock and, as we walked in, the only people in the restaurant.  The place was immaculate.  Everything sparkled: the windows, the floor, the walls.  The tables were covered with blue and white check table cloths.  There were white cloth napkins.  We were greeted by two couples with hair, hair, hair, over their shoulders, down their backs, albeit tied neatly back in pony tails.  The men had long beards.  We expected to find hair in our food, but there wasn’t any.

Whatever we had for lunch, it was a tie for the most delicious food I have ever eaten, and there was plenty of it.  We sat there, as in an idyll, savoring each mouthful, looking through the almost invisible windows at the bay with its muffin shaped islands, relishing the whole experience.

About a half mile outside the entrance to Gorge Harbor, there was a buoy with a large seal on it.  Bob said that as long as he could remember sailing in these waters that seal had always been on that buoy.  Now we knew why.  It was waiting to have dinner at the hippy restaurant.