You can probably deduce that we made it! And I quit titling the posts by leg. I’d explain why but I see your eyes are glazing over already.
We were underway by 6 am. As we left Desolation Sound, we sat up on the flybridge and drank in the scenery and some coffee. The scenery is stunning, the coffee -freshly ground kirkland espresso beans aeropressed.
We timed all three rapids perfectly and we had a great passage. Around Gillard Passage there were so many eagles! Dan and Valerie on Urban Cowboy saw at least 50.
Then, joy! We ran into easily a hundred Pacific white-sided dolphins. They were the playful kind. They love swimming with sailboats, so our friends were treated to a swim along. They swam under our bow and with us for a bit, but of course they disappeared when I got the camera out. Hopefully they share their footage and I will share it with you.
The current was ripping in this channel. At one point we were actually going backwards, so Jim had to bump up the RPM. This flotilla is forcing us to be brave (which is something we need) cause we would have read about the current at Blind Channel Resort and said, um. no thank you. And it was an idyllic stay. Although all boats arrived at the same time, we took turns docking. Three folks met us on the dock and helped us tie up. We had the easier of the two slips, we were being forced against the dock. Whew. Let’s hope that we get off just as easily in the morning!
We are in the same slip as Somerled. They are leaving half an hour before the rest of the crowd, so we will only bang up our boat if things run amuck when we depart.
The group is finally all together. Boat number 8 is a 52 foot Sabre. They are from Portland and Old Salts. He did the Columbia Bar sailboat race 37 times! Tom and Barbara. Super nice couple!
The group took a little hike to an enormous cedar tree. The tree pictured above was a warm up, it was not a cedar tree. Mike described the hike as easy and flat. So, I wore my crocs. Mistake! Any hike from here on out gets my hiking sandals or hiking shoes! We had a couple of steep trails with mud and I went down twice! Don’t worry, nothing hurt but my pride 🙂
We went up to the resort restaurant for dinner. We had salad (which was absolutely superb), lingcod, risotto cakes, green beans, and tres leche for dessert.
We were pretty tired from getting up at 4:30 am, so we watched a little TV and turned in.
Today we are going through Greene Point and Whirlpool rapids, they do not have to be timed. The current will be with us. We have 14 miles through Johnstone Strait – we are expecting it to be a rough one. Only 2 hours and then we duck back out.
Well, we leave in half an hour, so better get cracking.
Talk Soon.