Lagoon Cove to Kwatsi

Rain and clouds obscured the top 2/3 of the mountains as we made the 21 mile run to Kwatsi.  Naknek had left Lagoon ahead of us and was on the dock to take our lines and help us tie up.  Pegasus and Raven had come in earlier.  Halcyon would arrive shortly.  We soon met the residents of this remote homestead.  Max, Anka and their children, Russell and Marieke came out to welcome us.  In earlier encounters with both Raven and Pegasus, the crews had strongly recommended a stop at Kwatsi.  Now, we learned why. 

The whole family was charming.  That is why people return again and again.  Bill at Lagoon Cove had offered steamed prawns as an inducement to remain on his docks.  The Kwatsi family offer charm.  They have muscled a satisfactory lifestyle from this remote wilderness.  Early on, they towed huge cedar logs, into the bay, for the floating foundation of their first home and to build the floating docks.  Electrical power is generated by the waterfall behind the house thanks to Max’s ingenuity.  A special home brew antenna built by the physicists/captain of Pegasus bounces the signal, of a cell phone, off a bare spot on the mountain behind the house.  Thus empowered the signal crosses the Broughtons and Queen Charlotte Strait to a tower in Port Hardy forty miles to the west.  In a small motorboat, one of the parents run the children to school in Echo Bay - 15 miles away.  Both Max and Anka, when first married, lived and taught school in the two room school house in Echo Bay - One room to live in and another for classes.  Their quiet competence is exemplified by Anka; who, among other duties, now tends the large diesel generator which powers the school.  She looks more like a fashion model than one capable of such rugged duties.  Take a look at her photo.  Don’t you agree?

The charm of the hosts is only one reason to visit Kwatsi.  Chief among other attractions are the boating people you get to know.  There are the mountains and the water and the wildlife.  When Anka learned that we wanted to visit a nearby waterfall, she offered her aluminum skiff and sent Russell to get the bear spray and asked him to guide us.  She then baled the thing out and brought it around for our use.