Island Time

This is the slow time of the year, the lull between winter and spring. Slowing down for an American is not an easy thing to do… but we are learning. Our first experiences with this slower pace came while we were sailing in northern waters ten years ago. We called it “Island Time.” It was February and we were moored in Gorge Harbor on Cortez Island. Then as now, I wrote daily in a journal, trying to capture the moment.

IF IT’S MONDAY
IT MUST BE MAIL DAY

Situated on the northern end of the Strait of Georgia, Cortes Island is a remote, densely forested and sparsely populated island. About 800 inhabitants live on the south end, the north end consists of Crown land and Klahoose First Nation tribal land. While residents of Quadra Island are only a ten-minute ferry ride from Campbell River (Vancouver Island), the nearest city of any size, residents of Cortes must add to that a 45-minute ferry ride to Quadra and a 10-mile drive across the island to catch the ferry at Quathiaski Cove. Fishing, oyster farming, logging and alternative-lifestyles typify this island where time is measured by days, not hours and minutes.

“Tell us a little about the character of Quadra and Cortes Islands and how they differ,” Bob asked Nancy the Realtor.

She laughed. “Let me sum it up with what Campbell River merchants say... when the Quadra/Cortes ferry arrives, you can always distinguish Quadra residents from Cortes residents by this... people from Quadra ask what time it is; people from Cortes ask what day it is.”

I nodded, thinking I knew what she meant. That was before I had been to Cortes. Now that I have been here on Cortes Island for a week, I can say I REALLY know what she meant. If you forget what day it is on Cortes and show up at the tiny grey-shingled Whaletown post office on Tuesday, you will find it closed... it is only open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Of course, you also need to know the time because post office hours are 8:30 to 9 in the morning and 1 to 4 in the afternoon. To old timers, mail day is still called “boat day” because of the connection to the days when the Union Steamships made weekly mail runs to these islands. Ferry service did not arrive on Cortes Island until the late 1960’s. If you don’t have a car and need to hitch a ride, the locals say to do it on Mail Day, when there is more traffic on the road.

Dr. Phil Foster is the island’s only physician... office visits are by appointment on - you guessed it - Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the Community Hall. However, he does make house calls.

Time is illusory here and we find new ways of marking it. When we were moored near the ferry landing at Heriot Bay (Quadra Island), we became very familiar with the ferry schedule, and the gentle rocking of the boat in the ferry’s wash became our clock. Here at Gorge Harbor, our alarm clock has become the BCtel (British Columbia Telephone) Beaver floatplane arriving at the dock with a work crew at 8 every morning.

Little by little our own pace slows – matching our time with ‘island time’ and getting to know the folks who have chosen to live here. (February 1998)

Sailing and living in the Discovery Islands of British Columbia, introduced us to a different way of living. Author Henry Miller once said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Our 1998 winter passage led us to rediscover our place in nature, changing forever our view of the world and how we want to be in that world. Our needs were few and easily satisfied, helping us to realize that we are truly rich in all that matters. Those lessons paved the way for living off the grid in the north.

... P. L. Morningstar
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