The island blocked the northwest swell and created a patch of calm flat water to paddle in for some distance. We chose a long diagonal crossing to slowly bring us back to the mainland 8 or 10 miles farther south. While we were out on the open sea we saw a pair of humpback whales swim close by in front of us. Making a long crossing like this had us miss a bit of coastline, but there was little to see there besides three islands farther down the coast. One of these would be our destination for the evening.
We made excellent time and an arrived at the first island, Tunnel Island, a little after lunch time. It is beautiful here with incredible tall sharp sea stacks around the island and tunnels or arches clear through the island to give it the name. The north side of the island looked calmer so we worked our way through some big rough bouncy water to get to a calm protected landing practically behind the island. Here we found the Raft River empties out directly behind the island and has carved the tunnels and arches on its way to the sea. As the tide rose we were able to slip our kayaks into the river and paddle up it a ways. Although the day was only half over we didn’t think we would find anyplace better to camp in the next few miles and decided to stay here.
As we approached Tunnel Island we had seen many cabins on the bluff and wanted to get inland and across the river where we would not be seen. The land on both sides of the river is part of the Quinault Indian Reservation and we were camping without permission. Roger Lamb found a large driftwood log on the bank of the river and we set up camp behind it. Then in the afternoon a family came down the beach on the other side of the river and set up their own camp. Were they from one of the cabins? Were they Quinault Indians? Or were they ninja campers like us? Like us they did not set their tent up until after dusk, so perhaps they could have been friends. But to avoid the risk of being expelled, we hid behind our log and imposed a somewhat uncomfortable afternoon on ourselves. We had almost half the day to burn up and could not explore the area. We spent the afternoon reading, writing in our journals and dozing in the sunny warm day that had developed.