Davis - Complicated simplicity: island life in the Pacific Northwest

Praise for Complicated Simplicity

In Complicated Simplicity, Joy Davis has done for islands what Farley Mowat once did for wolves; she has provided a much deeper understanding and enlightenment of true island life, and the type of hardy, salty souls who choose off-grid islands as homes: where failure is knowledge, simplicity is best, and life is timed not so much by the clock but by the wind, the sun, and the tides. Highly recommended for anyone who has ever lived on an island, or dreamed of doing so.

GRANT LAWRENCE

author of Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound

Part memoirist and part guide, Joy Davis takes you along for a roller-coaster west-coast boat ride to all my favourite islands with all my favourite islanders as passengersfrom Joe Martin on Echachis to the Kellers on Readin all kinds of weather. If you lose everything else on the crossing, hang on to the book. Youll have everything you need to survive!

BRIONY PENN

author of A Year on the Wild Side: A West Coast Naturalists Almanac

Joy Davis provides wannabe islanders with a how-to guide for island living, describing the complex realities of island life on the Pacific coast. Raised on Bath Island, she explores the joys and the hardships that make island life rewarding for some and not for others.

PAT CARNEY

author of On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers and Trade Secrets

Capturing islandness is as elusive as catching a wave in a jar. But through her love of island places and her joy in island living, Joy Davis provides glimpses into how traits of islandnessingenuity, living within limits, resiliencehelp us survive and thrive together on island earth.

DR. LAURIE BRINKLOW

Island Studies, University of Prince Edward Island

Complicated Simplicity captures both the dream and the realities of island life. Interviews with islanders reveal the true skill sets, both emotional and physical, required to overcome challenges and experience the wonder and majesty of life surrounded by water.

SALLY-CHRISTINE RODGERS

author of Convergence: A Voyage Through French Polynesia

Its easy to get it wrong about islands. Complicated Simplicity, both the nonfiction endeavour and the phrase, gets it right. Joy Davis digs deeply into the elements that draw people to islands, the challenges they must overcome, and the compromises they must make to enjoy the often-sublime life available there. Complicated Simplicity is a journalistic inquiry, executed with integrity and sensitivity, that yields insight, wonder, and even joy.

TOM GROENING

editor of Island Journal and The Working Waterfront

Part memoir, part manual for slow(er) living, and part anthropological essay on the culture of small islands in the Pacific Northwest, Complicated Simplicity is bound to please armchair travellers, west coast historians, island studies scholars, and small islanders alike. Having read the book from Gabriola Island, Joy Daviss words resounded with familiarity, observational insight, and truthfulness. But be warned: read this book and youll fall in love with this place.

PHILLIP VANNINI

author of Ferry Tales and Off the Grid

Joy Davis is an old-growth islander who values practical advice and good stories. She brings both to this funny, smart, poignant guide, along with a caution that the experience of island living is something you carry with you the rest of your life.

DONNA LIVINGSTONE

president and CEO of the Glenbow Museum

Copyright 2019 Joy Davis

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, audio recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher or a licence from Access Copyright, Toronto, Canada.

Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd.

heritagehouse.ca

Cataloguing information available from Library and Archives Canada

978-1-77203-270-3 (pbk)

978-1-77203-271-0 (epub)

Edited by Sarah Weber

Proofread by Marial Shea

Book design and interior illustrations by Jacqui Thomas

Cover image: detail from painting Island Getaway by Greta Guzek

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyrighted material used in this book.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

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For Mom and Dad, and all the others who have loved the islands of the Pacific Northwest over millennia.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

I WAS TEN WHEN a small island changed my familys world. The log of our sailboat Whereaway captures Moms thoughts the day we first went ashore on Bath Island.

Sunday, July 8, 1962In Pirates Cove. Up around 0800 and had breakfast and usual clean up. Left at 1000 to go through Gabriola Pass at slack. Decided to go over and have a look at Bath and Saturnina Islands that Doc Nicholl has for sale. When we wrote, he said they were $15,000 each. Fun to look anyway!

Anchored in nice bay off Bath Island, open to the south, and fell in love as soon as we set foot ashore! Don found Doc Nicholl who just happened to be on the Island and he was soon learning all about it. The rest kept on exploring and the next thing we knew, Don informed us that we should buy it. We went all around it and were delighted with what we found. No anchorage unfortunately but Silva Bay is close enough. Looked at Saturnina too, but still like Bath. Mr. Nicholl said one island has water, but he would not tell us which.

Children had a fine swim off south end. I went back to Whereaway to fix lunch which we took to our island and had a picnic. Did some more looking and made up our minds to buy it. The price has dropped to $11,500! We sailed over [to Docs house on Breakwater Island] and told Doc our decision and he informed us we had picked the right one, the one with the water!! PS. Saw a school of blackfish.

One week later, Mom, Dad, Clair, and I made the four-hour passage from Vancouver to Silva Bay on the south end of Gabriola Island to explore our new island. Mom noted,

Up at seven, had breakfast and off to Bath Island by 0900. Well equipped this trip with long jeans and gumboots to ward off the prickles. Took another tour of the Island and liked it better than ever! Settled down to business and swamped a trail through the centre. The Island seems to have a valley down the middle, the ground is moist and the vegetation is densea thoroughly lovely place. Started to look for water and after one false start, found it! The Skipper dug down three feet through the darkest, richest loam imaginable and the water began to flow. Decided to call it a day at this point and use the natural facilitiesso we both had a bath! Back to the ship and returned highly jubilant to Silva Bay. Lit the barbeque and enjoyed our steak dinner. Off to bed for a well-earned sleep.