CATEGORY: SAILING

Of all the islands we visited in all our years of sailing, Prevost Island was my favorite.  It is in the Canadian Gulf Islands just north of the San Juan group in the United States.

It is ridiculous to say that one has a favorite island, when every island in the paradise of islands, in and north of Puget Sound, is like an exquisite jewel set in blue.  At some time in the primeval past, all the islands between Vancouver Island and the British Colombia mainland were raked from north to south by glaciers leaving long north-south bays and valleys.  Prevost Island was no exception.

Why was it special?  There were three things that caused me to fall in love with that particular island.  The first was that the whole island was seemingly uninhabited.  The second was that, although the other islands were forested, this one had a large swath of green meadow undulating through its long axis.  The third, and most important, was that it had a deserted homestead.  We pulled into one of the northern bays drawn through that expanse of bright green.  When we went ashore, we found the old homestead cabin, and beside it an orchard of gnarled fruit trees.  There were also the remains of a barn, and beyond it all, the green meadow we had seen from the water, stretching up the little valley with woods on both sides.  

I am a farmer at heart.  I wanted to move in right away.

I have often imagined myself as an early pioneer in the islands of the Pacific Northwest and marveled at the abundance that existed back then when people were living off the land and sea: rich soil, plenty of rain and sun, mild weather, game in the forests, fish in the sea, clams and oysters on the beach and, on the islands, no poisonous snakes, not even any poison oak or ivy.  I’m not saying these people had no hardships.  It was difficult to imagine, in our summer carefree existence looking at a picturesque old homestead, the loneliness and isolation of a dreary, wet winter all alone on an island.

But in the sun, with an old cabin in an idyllic setting calling to me, I’m always up for a good fairy tale.