Sidney Bay

July 15, 2014 by seabreeze223 2 Comments

Blog Post July 11
Recap of the last few days… After we left Cordero Lodge we traveled a huge distance (OK – a little one) of about 12 miles to Sidney Bay in Loughborough Inlet. Dane Campbell and Helen Piddington live in Sydney Bay and lived there for years, raising their family, living very cleverly and successfully in a remote area that is not always a forgiving place to live. They are talented individually and I probably don’t know the half of it. Helen is a published author of two books of living up here. The Inlet is her first book and is all about their life here. I need to read it every few years to not only refresh myself on their story but it seems like every year I learn more about them and the book makes even more sense. Helen’s second book is called Rumble Seat and it is the her story of growing up in Victoria, B.C. Helen is an extremely accomplished artist and did all the illustrations in her first book.

Dane is a very clever man who knows how to do pretty much anything with next to nothing. He has his own small saw mill that Garry has to see every time we come here. He can build, repair, create, log, prawn, crab….. you name it.

Both are generous people. This year as we were leaving he ran out to our boat in his boat with a gift of fresh prawns for a snack later. They felt bad because prawning had been so bad. Even in front of his bay where we are usually successful we snared not a single prawn.

We stay on a floating dock across the bay from where Dane and Helen live. They collect moorage from boaters that stay there. It is a great secure place when the winds are blowing like they have been. Sometimes we are the only boats there and other times we meet new boating friends.

As usual we were here on Helen’s birthday. It just happens to be the timing of our trip each year. I know she is in her early 80’s but I can’t remember the exact age. She and Dane look great each year – this year I think even better than last time.