Author Archives: Karin Cope

About Karin Cope

Karin Cope lives on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. She is a poet, sailor, photographer, scholar, rural activist, blogger and an Associate Professor at NSCAD University. Her publications include Passionate Collaborations: Learning to Live with Gertrude Stein, a poetry collection entitled What we're doing to stay afloat, and, since 2009, a photo/poetry blog entitled Visible Poetry: Aesthetic Acts in Progress. Over the course of the last decade, with her partner and collaborator Marike Finlay, Cope has sailed to and conducted fieldwork in a number of remote or marginal coastal communities in British Columbia and Mexico. Their joint writings range from activist journalism and travel and policy documents, to an illustrated popular material history of the Lunenburg Foundry entitled Casting a Legend, as well as their ongoing west coast travel blog, West By East.

North of 50

20 June 2012 Isabel Bay, Lancelot Inlet, Malaspina Inlet, Desolation Sound Desolation Sound! The Sound was named by Captain Vancouver in a fit of melancholy and longing for the flatter green fields of his home; unlike his younger crew who … Continue reading

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Texada Island—“Sheet Harbour West”

18-19 June 2012 As we were reaching up the Malaspina Strait, we debated about where we should make a reprovisioning stop before we arrived in Desolation Sound.  A resort marina near Grief Point was pricey and commuting to Powell River … Continue reading

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“I’ve lost my rudder in the chuck!” (More Coast Guard Tales)

16 June 2012 What do you do when you hear someone cry out over the radio, “I’ve lost my rudder in the chuck?” If you’re the Comox Coast Guard Station, you reply immediately: “Station who reported losing its rudder in … Continue reading

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To the Trapper’s Cabin (Accidental Geocachers)

15 June 2012 As soon as we docked at Princess Louisa, everyone asked, “are you going to the trapper’s cabin?”  We had no idea what they were talking about—the trapper’s cabin?  Apparently some distance upward was a cabin, a ruin … Continue reading

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Eyes Rubbed Raw by Beauty

13-16 June 2012 Wednesday-Saturday Princess Louisa Inlet What a place! We smelled cool fresh water as soon as we turned the corner into the foot of the inlet, though we’d already begun to hear the rush of the falls even … Continue reading

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Sailing up Jervis Inlet II (Literary Interlude)

No matter where we went or what we felt or observed, no matter how new to us our experiences were, no matter how solitary the voyage seemed, we were never alone. Wherever we arrived hosts of others had already or … Continue reading

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Sailing up Jervis Inlet I

13 June 2012 The cruising guides warn sailors to be prepared for a long motor up Jervis Inlet, a 46 mile fjord, if they’re headed to Princess Louisa Inlet and Chatterbox Falls. If you’re lucky, they say, you might have … Continue reading

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Downpour

12 June 2012 Tuesday Pender Harbour Rain drums steadily on the deck and hatches and streams of water roll off the canvas. It is a day of cedar-tinged twilight until evening, which brings descending fog and still more rain. They … Continue reading

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Closely Watched Birds

11 June 2012  Buccaneer Bay Mallard pair; Canada goose

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Northwest Buccaneer

10 June 2012 We pick up a mooring buoy at N 49° 29.534’ W 123° 59.029’ in Buccaneer Bay, North and South Thormanby Islands You think that Buccaneer Bay will be about pirates and adventure. That such a place will … Continue reading

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