The wind casts it's vote.

Yesterday we had a glorious spring northwesterly, gusting down the strait and pummelling the west side of the island, a it does.  Over at Cape Roger Curtis, there is some construction going on of some MAMMOTH docks that no one on the island wants to see.  The northwesterlies, which at times gusted to 60km/h managed to rip out at least one of the moulds being used to pour the concrete to extend jetties out over 100 of rock, mussel beds and intertidal habitat.

Building these docks is so ill advised for so many reasons, not the least of which is that they are being built on exposed shoreline that gets hit by these winds on a regular basis.  They are not being built in sheltered bays or coves.    No one wants these docks except for the new owners on the Cape, and they want them so badly that they even went against the wishes of their friends on Council who tried to persuade them not to build the structures.  Somehow, DFO and the BC Government saw nothing wrong with the docks and they are going ahead.  I should run a pool on how long it will take for these docks to wash up on the beach.  I reckon we'll have a "detachment event" within five years.  Not to mention a complete change in the nature of the foreshore: that goes without saying.  

What is happening at the Cape, from these docks to the road building to the contemptuous privacy hedges on the "sea walk" (currently a "cedar walk") trail is breaking hearts.  Yes it is private property.  Yes the owners can do whatever they want within the terms of the their development permits.  Yes, the whole things has gone very badly over the past ten years.  Yes, it all just sucks.  You'd be hard pressed to find an islander anywhere who wou be able to express complete delight at the outcome.  And everyone has someone else to blame.

Me, I have no idea.  I'm so confused by what happened down there, and what continues to happen.  I don't know who is doing what, what is happening or who is letting it happen nor stopping it from happening.  Whatever.  It's largely over I think.

The one redeeming feature is that the Cape itself is a powerful place.  Even with all the building and blasting and moulding and logging and surveying.  You can go down there and stand on the shore and still FEEL it.  It will never be the same as it was 10 years ago, but no matter what happens there, it will be hard to rob it of it's pure power.  To experience that you can simply go down there and sit still and listen to the waves pounding the shore.  You might even hear the sounds of dock footing being pulled up by the one force that can arbitrarily decide what gets to stay - the wind and the sea.