Day 4 Nuchatlitz/Nootka Island Sea Kayak Trip

May 21st/07 Day 4: 4 NM [nautical miles]
Catala Island, Nuchatlitz

SYN: H 120 SW of QC aft moving across QCS Tues. mod str NW NC easing tonite
rising to str/gale W of Char Tues
Van I. str/gale NW easing tonite

W Van S gale warn
near S of Est 20 easing to lt O/N
NW 25-35 easing to 20 O/N
2-3 m easing to 1-2 m tonite
O/L mod NW easing to lt & shifting to mod SE

I have to remember to look up what Abednego, Shadrach, & Mechabin or something is. I think it's from the Bible. They were the names of the three cabins we stayed at at Esperanza. I think they're Bible names, and inside there were 4 Bibles. But somehow I think they're evil guys from the Bible. It'll be interesting to know.

We left Rosa Island by 10 this morning. Woke up to bright sunshine & a beautiful day. What a nice change, to wake up to sun. Had coffee & Bailey's again; that's not going to last very long.

We had a calm paddle up the coast of Rosa, & then a calm beginning of the crossing, but the wind picked up hard & it was a tough crossing. It took us about an hour & 20 min.'s to cross the 3 mile crossing. Which was good time in the 15 knot winds that we had.

Now we're on Catala Island, and it's sweet. We're facing the open Pacific, and we can see the western tip of Nootka Island, where we'll be going eventually. It's Sarah's night to cook dinner, & she's making lentil curry over a fire, because it's so nice out. It's been sunny all day, and warm. I wore a t-shirt and rad pants all day, and we put on a ton of sunscreen.

So the paddle here was hard. I've been going slower than Sarah a little bit. I do have the slower boat; it's wide & bargey. But still. Slower. I did something to my wrist on our long long day, & it's been hurting a lot, but I only just looked at it b/c I didn't think it was a big deal. It's actually really swollen. Sarah can see it too. Whatever. I can't do anything about it. So I struggled a bit but we got here. Those winds were big, & they've just been picking up & picking up, & now it's died down a bit, but still totally whitecapping out there.

This is a huge beach. We got here, got all the work done of unpacking & hauling the boats up, then we sat down & cracked a couple of beers. Glass bottle Sleeman's, super nice, & some barbecued peanuts & chocolate raisins.

We were just sitting there, Sarah looking through her binoculars, when all of a sudden -- oh my God! I couldn't believe it. I was up & running down the beach right away. A baby grey whale surfaced right in front of us, right at shore! It was so cool. We ran down the beach, following it. It was playing in the surf, on its side, so you kept seeing the dorsal fin & pectoral fin come up at the same time, & then it would go under for a while, & we could follow its white marks underwater & then it would come up again to blow. We felt so lucky, that a baby grey would come right up to our campsite & hang out. It left, but it came back again a few times over the day.

We were almost out of water. We have a 10 liter drom and four 1 L Nalgenes with us. We knew we had to find water soon. I hate rationing water. So we went down the beach, Sarah one way, me the other. I wasn't really beachcombing. Kind of, but I really had the water on my mind, so I was in the woods a lot too, looking for it.

Finally I asked Grandmother for help, native Grandmother, and very soon after I found a random path in the woods that led to a small stagnant pond of water. I was happy b/c no matter what, at least that meant we had water. We could treat it if we wanted to.

I came back out of the woods, marked the spot. Thought about how I'd like to have that kind of complete faith -- total faith in God that you're provided for & taken care of, & all wishes granted. Then I thought what kinds of things would I have faith in receiving. A glass ball? Then I thought that's pretty hard, fell. As I was getting up I looked over & there was a glass ball! A smallish green/blue Japanese glass fishing float. I was so stoked. Earlier Sarah found one.

When I got back to camp, Sarah was sitting beside a dark green glass float the size of a basketball! She found it, and another small one. We've had a lot of luck on this beach. She also found better water, so we walked over to the point campsite & further & got it.

Tomorrow we're going back into Nuchatlitz proper to explore all the little islands. I'm excited. We looked at the charts today & figure we can spend 2 more days in the Nuchatlitz & then start down the coast of Nootka, and that'll still give us plenty of time to be winded in. It's nice to feel we have enough time around here and enough to go down Nootka. I'm kind of surprised.

Now we're still by our little fire, and the baby grey whale's back, right in front of our camp. The wind's died, the moon's out, and so is the first star. Soon I'm off to my tent to read the next chapter in the White Slaves of Maquinna book. "Massacre". But first, to go stand in the surf in my gumboots, and share the water with the grey whale. Say goodnight.