Vancouver to Miracle Beach Provincial Park, June 12th, 2015.

The weather radio is always saying gale force winds and small craft advisory. Fortunately the weather has often turned out to be a little better than predicted. The wind usually calms down at night and if I get up early the air stays calm for a while. But today was just as predicted from the start. I should have just stayed in my nice camp, gotten enough sleep and taken the day off. Instead I launched and then beat into 20+ knot winds, moving slower and slower. Also I moved from a low habitation area with places to camp into a high habitation area with houses all along the beach.

I started out hoping I could make it 20 miles to April Point on this day. After slowing down in the wind I downgraded that into hoping I could get 9 miles to Salmon Point Marina. After slowing almost to a stop in the wind I hoped to find a patch of trees without a house so I could just land. Finally the wind grew so strong it brought me to a stop with angry whitecaps lashing at my face. I had to give up and just land where I was. I only made it 6 miles.

The beach I found myself on was sandy and 400 yards wide at low tide. I walked ashore to scout around and found myself on Miracle Beach Provincial Park. It even allows camping, but the campsites are all very far from shore. My kayak was still a yellow speck in the distance, so I dragged it most of the way to shore and left it on the highest patch of sand I could find. I sat down between some logs mostly out of the wind where I could watch the boat and move it closer to shore when the tide came in. I took out a book to pass the time.

Jon and Carol live next door to Miracle Beach and were following the Race to Alaska. They looked at their computer and saw that one of the racers was in their neighborhood. They went down to the beach to see if they could watch me go by. They saw no boats in the water, but wait, there is a kayak on the beach. And a guy in a wetsuit. They came over and asked me if I was Team Mike's Kayak. Then they offered to help me any way they could. Carol stayed on the beach to watch my kayak so the tide would not take it away. Jon took me home to use their shower, laundry and while we waited for that he made me a big lunch. Jon was reserved at first, afraid of offending his guest with his opinions about the USA. But then it turned out that we agreed about almost everything! When we retuned to the beach I told Carol that Jon and I had already talked about politics, religion, healthcare, gun ownership, and she had missed it all! There would be nothing to talk about at dinner! (This did not, of course, turn out to be the case). Some other friends had stopped by to keep Carol company on the beach. They helped carry the kayak to shore then were invited to join us later for dinner. I spent some time catching up with emails on Jon's computer, was fed a wonderful dinner (Indian curried chicken), stayed up late with more conversation, and slept in their spare bedroom. In the morning Jon and Carol got up early to help me launch from Miracle Beach while the tide was still high enough to get over that wide sandy area. Jon and I are going to stay in touch and exchange recommended books.