Watercolour Waves in Port Renfrew
June 1st marks the end of our annual winter moorage in Victoria BC- and the beginning of our summer cruising! With Island Prism provisioned with food and watercolour art supplies, we untie the mooring lines ready to spend a few month sailing, sketching and enjoying some of the wonderful inspiration that the seas around Vancouver Island have to offer.
Our first port of call was the end of the road. Port Renfrew looks out into the Juan de Fuca Strait, and marks the point where we truly feel like we’re on the West Coast. Waves roll in from the Pacific, creating dramatic beaches and a very rocky anchorage! We usually bypass this nook, but the new Pacific Gateway Marina has a beautiful breakwater and so for the first time we called in. We spent a calm night anchored in its shelter, then moved into the sanctuary of the marina itself when a blow was forecast.
Botany Bay and Botanical Beach have been on my ‘must visit’ list for a long time. I was delighted to find that they were both within hiking distance of the marina, so I donned my boots, packed up my sketching supplies and headed off. It soon became apparent I was on the West Coast, as Steller’s blue jays called to me from the Douglas firs and banana slugs made their way amongst the large and glossy leaves of the skunk cabbage (they really do look like bananas, at all stages from yellow to mottled brown- though I’m lead to believe the flavour is quite different)!
I followed the road until I found a trail labelled ‘Mill Bay’. It was just me on the path, so I sang as I walked to let the local bears know I was there. Of course, it’s possible that my singing also scared off other hikers. The bay was a sweep of fine pebbles, strewn with driftwood and fringed with rainforest. I found a log to perch on and drew as the weather swirled out in the bay, ranging from misty to sun-kissed and back again. Subdued natural colours were the order of the day for the first moody drawing, and it briefly tried to rain. By the second sketch, I was joined by a ray or two of sunshine, which let me catch the spring greens of the trees and the orangey tones of the rocked which grew along the shore.
My walk back up to the road was similarly devoid of large hairy creatures. I trekked onwards to the entry point to Botanical Beach and Botany Bay, which lived up to their names. Botany Bay was full of tide pools that teemed with life. Sculpins, bright orange nudibranchs and tough-looking chitons made their homes amongst a rainbow of seaweed and eel grass. I meandered through sections of bare rock, avoiding squashing any unsuspecting rock pool residents, and perched on a comfy rock to create a quick sketch of one of the pools. I didn’t want to fill a pot with water so used my water brush. It made layering tricky- I soon gave up on achieving an ‘under-the-water’ effect with it- but I did manage to recreate some of the vibrant colours I was seeing.
Beyond the tide pools, the surf thundered in. I didn’t want to venture too close, but did try drawing the waves from a safe spot on Botanical Beach. The furious white foam required minimal painting! Botanical Beach also featured thriving tide pools, along with fascinating ponds carved out of the soft rock. These had smooth curving sides like hand-tossed pots, and turned blue when the sky cleared.
I’d filled up quite a few pages of my sketchbook by the time I needed to head home, and could have filled more- I’m pretty sure I could spend a week here drawing and painting! It was time to meet Jim for dinner though, so I climbed back up the hill and enjoyed watching eagles and buzzards riding the late afternoon thermals on my walk back to the marina.