We slept in till past eight and then I got up and updated yesterday’s blog entry. That took two cups of coffee and the last of the sugar.

That done I passed it to Miss Editor-Pants and walked up to settle our tab. A dollar a foot with no extras: $33. Our cheapest night yet that we weren’t on the hook.

Back at the boat I hauled SD up on the dock and drained him of yesterday’s rain. Then I put out our gloves to try and dry them. Apparently these efforts offended the weather gods and a little while later we had our biggest downpour of the trip. I rescued the gloves but SD’s full of water again. Stupid dinghy.

Leslie finished with her revisions — took two passes this time — and I posted ’em up. Dave popped by to ask if we wanted to hang together today and maybe get a sail in the end. We also chatted about the possibility of meeting up if I can convince the Doctor she needs more boat therapy. That would be grand.

Next in the agenda is getting home. Ferries, flights and parents aren’t jiving and we might have to spend Sunday night in Comox and catch the 3 o’clock out on Monday. We are going to head for better wifi now and see what we can see. We will definitely be home for Canada Day though.

We chatted with the lady at the store/office. She and her husband run Morgans Landing Wilderness Retreat with rooms to let, cabins, moorage and more. She’s also been a fishing guide for more than 30 years. It sounds like a grand place for a retreat or vacation.

Back at the boat I started redoing the lines in prep for casting off and digging out the rain gear. It was still raining intermittently and we were head into the wind (15-20 knots) all day. Corus and Mariners Compass cast off 10 minutes early. It seems to be a boating thing but it’s driving Ms-I-am-always-5-minutes-late crazy. Still she’s humors me by hopping to it when I say we are going now. R Shack Island backed out our their slip at virtually the same time and we were off.

I had a chance to ask Dave about the name of his boat the other night. Margaret had previously mentioned she grew up on a small island called Shack Island so I got that part. But for the life of me I couldn’t figure out the “R” Anyone? Guesses? It’s pretty obvious?

Well they were originally going to call it Shack Island, but it seems a couple of kids had snuck over one night and started a fire burning the old house to the ground, pretty much destroying the place. So in memory of the old place they named their new boat ‘our Shack Island’… R Shack Island… Great name. Dave said locals always smile when they see the boat.

The Yuculta Rapids were pretty tame. A few eddies and swirls but really a non-event. I will have to come back to some of these rapids when they are running to see what the big deal is.

After that the skies slowly cleared and the winds slowly built. After an hour we were pounding in into 2’ chop and 20-22 knot winds. So I abandoned Leslie and went and had a warm shower. As long as we don’t mind the lack of headway it’s another grand, grand day. I expect after another couple of hours we will get bored with it.

Leslie is enjoying herself at the helm and seems reluctant to relinquish it. I tried some psychology, noting that with her new fancy-ass high-tech, lime green hoodie on and her blue jacket and life vest that she looked like a frog in a blue suit. I quickly amended that to fashionable frog in a blue suit to help avoid any repercussions other than her abandoning her post during this fashion emergency. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Sigh. I guess I’m a passenger for a while.

It’s a real Osprey day today. We saw five or six circling over Big Bay and a few more as we travel down Lewis Channel. I love these birds and have been lucky enough to see them fish but unfortunately today no one spotted a fish while we were watching.

I got the wheel back and the winds built a bit and the waves built even more. Soon we were banging away in 4-5 seas and giggling every time we got a face full of spray. The sun is still out and the wind is warm so it’s fun for now.

Ocean Grace is now settled in Lund and reporting no space at the docks but some room at the breakwater. I want to reserve our decision until at least Corus assesses the sea past Savoury Island. I’d rather not have to get up a 5 to make Westview Sunday morning. I’m more inclined to fight it out, but I’ll rely on R Shack to keep me from doing something stupid. It’s going to be 7pm at least before we have to decide. In the meantime you can still hear the occasional “Wheeee” and “Wooo!” from our cockpit.

And so it went. Wind straight on the bow. Waves. Dancing. I like to sing and Leslie (as well as pretty much every co-worker I’ve ever had) had long had a habit of turning on music to avoid listening to me mangle keys, notes, rhythms and lyrics. So I dance to her tunes… Huh. I guess that says something about our relationship.

Anyway we were making as little as 2.9 knots COG at one point and it was getting tedious. Still fun though, but slow enough you were getting envious of them powerboats and getting a tad frustrated as the ETA kept slipping. I wanted so bad to raise the sails.

We started to pick up a bit of current in the last hour and zoomed into port at 6 or 6.1 knots. Dave had called ahead and there was space at dock 8. Stern in, starboard tie. As far as we knew, everyone else was in already.

A trawler was coming up on our rear and we started to get worried he would snag our spot as he was just barely going to beat us in. He didn’t. Take our spot that is.

Dave went in first as we needed to be out first in the am to fuel up. I gave him a couple of minutes and then headed around the breakwater dead slow. We waved to Corus as we motored by and Dave came on the radio to tell me we’d have to raft. I slid past the day marker that hid a rock and gently reversed down the finger. Laurence and Howard from Corus were also there to lend a hand and very quickly were were secured to R Shack Island’s port side.

C’est finis.

[flexiblemap src=”http://macblaze.ca/kmz/Day22.kml”]
9h39m 43.7nm

We tidied up and put Shearwater to bed for the last time. It was about 10 after nine and it had been close to 9 and a half hours on the water. Long day.

Dave and I had a beer and then Margaret and Leslie joined us and we chatted until hunger and fatigue drive us back to our own boat. Long day.

We abandoned the pancake plan in favour of the backup Chef Boyardee and relaxed a few moments before hitting the sack. Long day.

So that’s it. 21 days on a boat. I’m thrilled and it’s hard to wipe the smile from my face. I am so glad we did this trip; it was good for us on so many levels. I’m just hoping we aren’t done yet. But we will see…