It's All About the Water

June 9, 2019 – I went to sleep early last night with the plan to get up at 3 am and be on the water by 5:30 am, high tide. I awoke on my own at 3 am and could hear the waves breaking on the shore of my little protected beach half a mile inside the bay, which meant the water outside the bay must really be rocking and rolling, so I went back to sleep. I slept soundly enough to have some vivid dreams and awoke again at 8 am, basically a total of 13 hours of sleep. I guess I really was exhausted yesterday.

While making tea and breakfast I listened to the weather forecast for Dixon Entrance and its surrounding areas for the next three days: Gale warning in effect, SE winds 20-30 mph, gusts at 30-40 mph, seas building to 11′, with rain and a small craft advisory. This left me with some choices:

1) Pack up and paddle and tough it out. I’m well rested and more rough seas will give more opportunity to make me ready for potential the open sea conditions I might encounter in a couple of months. The British Canoeing 4* remit callls for conditions less than this forecast. When I did the 4* training, we did have a couple of days with conditions similar to what will be here for at least the next three days, plus I have the past three days’ experience. While it may be listed first, this wouldn’t be my last choice.

2) Make myself at home here for the next three days, possibly more. I have enough supplies, plus a couple of good books, a fresh water ?source, more fresh dear and lion tracks this morning next to said fresh water source. This would be my second choice.

3) Find out if there is a water taxi service that will come pick up me and my stuff and take me to Prince Rupert. It’s protected from the weather there, so I could get a room, get everything washed, repaired, and resupplied, then continue on to Grenville Channel as soon as all that is done. While this sounds nice, it means I miss my first opportunity for an open sea crossing at Dixon Entrance. I guess that’s early June for you in SE Alaska.

I decided to enlist the help of Constance back in Portland with better internet access than I to see if #3 is even an option. She put some calls in and found one that goes between Metlakatla and Prince Rupert but is closed on Sundays. It is likely I will be held up another two or three days here at Foggy Bay.