Apparently, the when the tide goes out at Spanish Banks, it goes way out. On previous beach visits, I was impressed with how far from shore people would be while still only being knee or waist deep in the water. But apparently, the extensive shallows which hedge the deep channel plied by barges withdraw completely at low tide. The soft mud bottom they expose is punctuated by little apart from swamped wisps of seaweed and various buoys on limp lengths of chain. It was a fairly long walk out to the receded shoreline —and quite wild to walk so far out into what is normally the waterway.
A further curious reality: as I sat talking with friends on the beach for a few hours, the tide sneaked back in gradually and I didn't notice until it was back where it belongs... but then as I was watching I saw something moving and paused mid-sentence to ask someone to verify what I thought I saw, and indeed: it was a seal. Okay, so first, there was a seal hanging out in water that wasn't there a couple hours prior, and second, the seal was in maximum waist deep water. This was all very surprising to me, and slightly unnerving. As if the whole low tide thing wasn't interesting enough. Apparently, summer has all kinds of things still up its sleeve. (I know summer shouldn't wear sleeves, but this is Vancouver.)
