July 19, 2019 – Yay, I didn’t wake up at 4 this morning. I woke up at 8 am after having gone to sleep at 9 pm. Guess I must have needed it. It was breezy and sunny and almost all of my tent was dry. My plan was to be on the water in time to hit Dodd Narrows at slack. While I made my tea and oatmeal I double checked the currents today for Dodd Narrows. I’m not sure what I was looking at before, but slack today was at 11 am. There was no way I could paddle to it by then. I checked out places to camp closer to the entrance on this side, thinking I could paddle there today and then catch the early am slack tomorrow morning, going directly on to Wallace Island from there and staying on schedule. No va.
My next thought was YES! I get to stay on this beautiful island which actually has areas I can explore and couldn’t yesterday? I can dry out what pieces of gear haven’t finished drying out from last night’s deluge? I can forage some more and maybe even attempt to catch something to eat from the ocean? I can publish my blog from yesterday? I couldn’t think of any negative consequences to spending an extra day here, but I could think of one great big positive one – going through Dodd Narrows at slack.
This day has been exactly how I originally pictured most of my days on this trip. After breakfast I washed everything up and left it to dry in the sun. Then I edited and published yesterday’s blog post. I found a tent site right above the main camp site so I moved my tent closer to the kitchen area, which I can do here because there are no bears. While I was moving my tent I heard growling and grunting just off shore. I grabbed my binoculars and realized I have about 50 neighbors on the rocks next door. Harbor seals of all shapes, sizes, and patterns. It is cool how different their faces are when they are all dried out.
After that I took a hike around the perimeter of the island. The interior is too full of brush to get into so I got to do some scrambling in and out of rocks. I can honestly say that I fully explored Southey Island.
Spent an hour fishing. Just that. No catching. Made instant mashed potatoes and gravy for supper. Just before my ground crew and I parted, Uncle Sidney took me to the store and I purchased some whipping cream for my tea. I put it in two plastic squeeze bottles thinking that would last the longest because I wouldn’t be opening them and putting any objects in – I’d just be squeezing the cream out until it was empty. What I didn’t account for was, after four or five days of being jossled in and out of dry bags and in and out of the kayak hatches, I had butter. Having been drinking my tea with butter as of late, that wasn’t necessarily a problem. So today I scraped the butter out of the container with something still in it, wrung it out by hand, rinsed it, and it was excellent real butter for my mashed potatoes. I’m not sure how many people would know to do that.
Early to bed as I need to be on the water early tomorrow to get through the narrows at slack. The sun is still up, it is warm and windless, and I can hear the water gently brushing the shoreline as the tide finishes this flood cycle. I will launch just after the next flood cycle is finished. The cycle repeats and repeats. What a perfect day.
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