A Perfect Day for a Walk by the Water by Bill Arnott
Down to the sea in shoes: Bill Arnott delights yet again
“Sunset horizon Softly sparkles as journeys Return to the sea” —Bill Arnott
In the latest of his popular travelogues, Bill Arnott takes the plunge into exploring the waters of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. And that’s no metaphor. In A Perfect Day for a Walk by the Water, our intrepid guide does literally take plunges.
Bill’s diving adventures, like his landlubbing ones, are a delightful mix of information, whimsy, and poignancy. Scuba diving off Lighthouse Park in West Vancouver, Bill enjoys the sensation of being weightless, though remembering to keep to the 18-metre-deep limit allowed by his diving certification ticket. And, shades of Esther Williams!, he not only executes impressive somersaults but swims alongside a cute buddy. In Bill’s case, a Lingcod who enjoys stirring up seabed gravel with its pectoral fins.
Life may be better where it’s wetter, as the song goes, but getting there isn’t easy. Bill relates how a fellow student in his scuba-diving class flunked practice test 101. Fully suited and submerged in the class swimming pool, each student had to detach their oxygen supply and mask. Then, staying under, reassemble and reattach them.
Alas, the first student to try failed. In panic, he shot to the surface. As Bill amusingly recounts, though not without sympathy, this student emboldened the others to succeed at their attempts.
Among the photos in Walk by the Water is an underwater shot of Bill and his classmates in scuba gear. Note that Bill is too nice a guy to do what other, lesser types might (ahem, guilty!), and have an arrow pointing to the hapless classmate.
Let’s now emulate that classmate and return to the surface. Walking by various waters, Bill shares his trademark intriguing insights. From Spanish Banks on Vancouver’s West Side, looking across Burrard Inlet, he discerns the low lump of Passage Island between Bowen Island and West Vancouver. The Salish call this island Smelhmelhélch, meaning “forever enveloped in waves.” Bill muses that much of Vancouver’s coastline is not water or land, but a combination. The idea of a mystical blend exerts a tidal pull on Bill’s imagination. He’d like to find such a spot and for a while, like Captain Nemo, escape into it from our too-often destructive world.
Still on Spanish Banks, he muses about Captain George Vancouver’s 1792 meeting with fellow explorers Cayetano Valdés y Flores Bazán and Dionisio Alcalá Galiano. The two Spanish captains invited Vancouver for dinner aboard their ship Mexicana. Bill imagines Vancouver’s consternation on realizing they’d beat him to mapping the region. Too polite to fume in front of them, the Englishman, so fancies our whimsical guide, contented himself with a sigh so heavy it turned the silver medal on his jacket to bronze.
Walk by the Water brims with such vivid musings. At the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology, Bill stops by a photo of Chief Joe Capilano (1854-1910), leader of the Squamish Nation and a passionate advocate for Canada’s recognition of Indigenous rights. To Bill, Chief Joe seems to be gazing not quite at the camera but just beyond.
For a time, Joe worked in Moodyville at a sawmill, long since vanished. Bill wonders if what Joe glimpsed just beyond the camera was the crest of a long, rolling wave, changing from something to nothing all too quickly, as time itself does.
In his engaging walks by water, Bill also takes in the North Shore’s Spirit Trail, False Creek and the Lions Gate Bridge, among other locales. Near the Vancouver Convention Centre, he shortcuts through some blackberry bushes—and emerges covered with scratches. With apologies to the late U.S. President and fellow sea lover John F. Kennedy, it’s obvious that Bill will pay any price, bear any burden, to report back to his readers.
About the Author
Bill Arnott is the bestselling, award-winning author of such chronicles as the Gone Viking travelogues, Season memoirs, and of course his beloved Walk adventures. A frequent presenter and contributor at universities, and to podcasts, magazines, TV and radio, Bill is a West Coaster living on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tslei-Waututh land.
About the Reviewer
Melanie Jackson is a Vancouver freelance writer/editor. She’s also the award-winning author of middle-grade/YA suspensers, including Orca Books’ Dinah Galloway Mystery Series, and several chillers set in amusement parks. Visit Melanie at The Writers’ Union of Canada site.
Book Details
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press, September 23, 2025
Language: English
Paperback: 280 pages
ISBN: 978-1834050201