I’ve sailed around Discovery Island many times, but had never landed on it. It’s not the place for a deep keel boat.
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Discovery is an uninhabited native reserve off Oak Bay municipality in Victoria, BC. It is festooned with reefs and many
exposed and subsurface rocks, and subject to the strong currents of shallow Oak Bay, making it rather unnerving to
land on, even with an inflatable tender and a working outboard motor.
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I’ve brought the kids over for a picnic, and to make a little discovery of our own. This is 11 year old Niahm, a school friend
of my daughter Sarah, 10 years old and about to turn 11. Also with us is another school friend, Christina, also 10. It’s a
warm August day, 2009. Here, Niahm is trying to climb the slippery, weed-covered rock face wearing just flip-flops
... Flying Wallenda style.
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We spend the afternoon hiking the shore, all of us eager to see what secrets hide around the next point. We spot fish
from the shore and collect the baby shore crabs. I’ve seen a lot of beaches, but I’ve never seen those little crabs so thick.
As your shadow moves over the shore, the entire bottom seems to seethe in panic.
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I’ve always felt, even as a child, that making landfall on an island was very special. I would feel like an explorer ... one of
a small club with the resources, will and time to check it out. I still wonder, in very remote locations, whether my eyes
are the first to see some detail of nature. The west coast of Vancouver Island, a remote fly- fishing river in the mountains
... if there were others, there weren’t many.
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Discovery Island is well named. It’s a place that’s just over there, easy to see, but hard to get too. And it makes for a real 
adventure. 
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Mark Heine