Portland Island to Pirates Cove, June 8th 2015

The ocean tide was flooding in the morning and afternoon, and I figured I could use this. Get up at 3:00 AM, ride the flood north in the morning, siesta, then ride north again to Pirate's Cove on De Courcy Island. That was the plan. The reality is that the tide floods in between all the islands and turns and goes many different directions. I was helped by the tide occasionally, but most of the time it seemed to be against me. This was especially true along the long length of Salt Spring Island. At 10:00 AM this finally relaxed into slack but then started "ebbing" in the same direction (against me). At noon it was really ripping south so I took a 2 hour siesta. I think the tide did start moving north, but then a northwest wind came up and made the last 3 hours of my day difficult. 10 hours of paddling, as difficult as the first day!

In the middle of the day I was hopping between islands when I heard the HONK HONK of a ferry leaving a dock. This would become a pattern: It seemed that EVERY TIME I started a long crossing a ferry would appear and cross near me. Worse yet, I knew that this Sidney ferry wove a zig-zag path between the islands. It managed to miss me so I crossed behind it. A bulbous thingy I had been watching turned and came between the islands: an incoming ferry on the same route. They passed close to each other and I was still in the channel for the second one. I had to hustle to get out of the way again.

When I landed at Pirate's Cove there were 6 kayaks on the beach already! I asked and was relieved to hear there were still campsites left. This was a group of friends out of Gabriola Island who kayak out regularly to camp, enjoy each other's company and cooking. They invited me to dinner and left me with a huge amount of leftovers that lasted me for breakfast and lunch the next day.